First Power From NSW’s New England Solar Project

The first trickle of power from the huge New England Solar project near Uralla into the grid should be followed by a mighty flow next year.

New England Solar is a 720MW (AC) solar farm being constructed in two stages, the first to be 400MW (AC). Approved by the NSW Government in 2020, the first stage has been in construction since March last year and is expected to be completed by the middle of 2023. A large-scale battery system (now) up to 1400MW / 2800MWh is also envisaged as a part of the overall project, with construction of the first stage commencing in May this year.

Involving more than 1.5 million solar panels, New England Solar is one of Australia’s largest PV projects to participate in the National Electricity Market (NEM). Once complete, it will generate equivalent to the annual electricity requirements of 250,000 NSW homes – that’s around 20% of all the state’s households.

Correction: I got the last set of numbers wrong. The 2021 Census tallied just over 3 million occupied private dwellings across NSW, so that would work out to around 8%.

The facility is expected to crank approximately 1,800,000 MWh a year; avoiding up to 1.5 million tonnes of CO2 annually.

The project site is situated about six kilometres northeast of Uralla and covers approximately 2,000 hectares. The project area incorporates various infrastructure, environmental buffer areas and new vegetation planting. Consisting mainly of cleared grazing land¹, the site has an existing 330 kV Transgrid line running through the middle of it.

In another important milestone for the project, ACEN Australia announced yesterday New England Solar has been granted formal registration to export power into the NEM by the Australian Energy Market Organisation (AEMO).

“Energy production from the New England Solar project is now underway after the project generated and delivered five megawatts (AC) of clean renewable energy into the NEM,” states the company².

Jobs Bonanza And Other Community Benefits

New England Solar is expected to create up to 700 jobs during construction and 15 ongoing jobs over its 25-to-30-year service life. Up to 400 workers have been on- site during peak construction activity of the first stage, with approximately 80% of the peak workforce personnel from within the New England region.

“It is an exciting time for our construction team and our contracting partners, who have worked very hard over the past two years to install, build, and connect the solar project,” said ACEN Australia CEO Anton Rohner. “They have safely completed their work in very challenging circumstances including extreme wet weather and rain events, the impact of COVID and supply chain interruptions.”

In addition to local economic stimulus from activities associated with the project, a Community Benefit Sharing Initiative has been established to share some of the revenue that will be generated by the clean power station with the wider community. It works out to around $180,000 a year once the New England Solar farm is fully operational, but has already received $150,000 that has helped support dozens of community projects to date.