ESCO Pacific has designed the Wyalong Solar Farm to power up to 37,500 homes and save up to 212,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions once fully operational
Image: ESCO Pacific has secured planning approval for Wyalong Solar Farm in early 2019. Photo: Courtesy of Jukka Niittymaa from Pixabay.
Australian utility scale solar project developer ESCO Pacific announced that it has secured an acceptance from the local grid operator Essential Energy to connect its Wyalong solar farm to the transmission network.
ESCO Pacific said that the 70MW solar farm, planned to be located at West Wyalong in New South Wales, has secured planning approval in early 2019 and would create more than 200 jobs in New South Wales.
The Wyalong Solar Farm has reached the final development milestone
With the acceptance of an Offer to Connect from Essential Energy, ESCO Pacific claims to have reached the final development milestone for the solar project.
NSW Planning and Public Spaces Minister Rob Stokes said, “the West Wyalong solar farm will add to the hub of solar energy projects in the Riverina region, bringing a fresh boost to the economy and diversifying industry for the region”.
Once fully operational, the Wyalong Solar Farm is expected to power up to 37,500 homes and save up to 212,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions.
ESCO Pacific said that the project will be commissioned leveraging its strong track record in delivering utility scale solar developments and is expected to bring its total Australian developments to 566MW shortly.
Furthermore, it is currently managing 353MW of Australian utility scale solar projects, and has a further pipeline of projects under development totalling in excess of 1GW.
The project is now committed with AEMO, and is expected to begin commissioning in mid-2020.
ESCO Pacific signed a seven-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with BlueScope Steel in July 2018, to supply 66% of the electricity generated from the 175MWp Finley solar farm.
Backed by Schneider Electric, BlueScope has conducted a competitive tendering process for a long term offtake contract, and has selected Finley solar farm based on ESCO’s experience in delivering large scale solar farms.
BlueScope is expected to realise significant reductions in its net energy costs by contracting directly with ESCO Pacific’s Finley solar farm, due to the low levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) of solar energy.