EESA has been awarded the supply of DC string cables for New England Solar Farm which will be Australia’s largest hybrid solar and battery storage facility. The solar farm project will help reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 1.5 million tonnes of C02 each year – equivalent to the taking 330,000 cars off the road. EESA scope of work comprises of 3500KM of DC string cables with 20 different variant length.
Project Overview
The New England Solar Farm and battery project will be Australia’s largest hybrid solar and battery energy storage facility.
The 720 megawatt (MW) solar farm will be located across two solar fields near Uralla, NSW in the New England Renewable Energy Zone.
Rows of solar photovoltaic (PV) panels will be installed on a single axis tracking system that follows the path of the sun, while also allowing adequate space for sheep to continue grazing on the land in between and underneath the panels.
It will produce around 1,800,000 megawatt hours (MWh) of clean renewable electricity each year – enough to power more than 250,000 typical NSW homes. The solar farm project will help reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 1.5 million tonnes of C02 each year – equivalent to the taking 330,000 cars off the road.
A Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) capable of dispatching energy to the grid at times of high energy demand is also being constructed as part of the development.
The battery could be constructed in stages, up to a maximum size of 400MWh.
The New England Solar Farm and battery project is expected to create up to 700 jobs in construction and 15 ongoing jobs over its 25-to-30-year life. The first 400 MW stage of the solar farm is now underway, with the upgrade of roads connecting to the solar farm site road taking place before work can start on the solar farm site.
