New England Solar

Elecnor Australia Pty Ltd were awarded the EPC contract, for Stage One of New England Solar, by Acen Australia.

ACEN Australia are constructing stage one of a 720 megawatt (MW) solar farm across two separate solar fields near Uralla in the New England region of NSW. 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.

Once fully constructed, the solar farm will produce around 1,800,000 megawatt hours of electricity each year – enough to power more than 250,000 typical NSW homes. It will help reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 1.5million tonnes of C02 each year - equivalent to the taking 330,000 cars off the road.

New England Solar will be built on a site that spans approximately 2000 hectares of mostly cleared grazing land across two solar fields. An area comprising 4,200 ha was originally identified for investigation by ACEN and has been significantly reduced following environmental studies and consultation with local residents.

The area identified for New England Solar’s southern array was removed from the existing development application to allow the rest of the project to progress while further discussions with neighbouring land owners take place.

The site is also traversed by an existing 330 kV power line owned and operated by NSW electricity transmission provider TransGrid. This means the solar farm can be efficiently connected to the electricity grid in NSW.

For further information on New England Solar, please click here to be taken directly to the ACEN Australia website.