Utility giant Engie’s Australian division has started construction on its 250MW Goorambat East solar PV project in Victoria, Australia.
The project, which Engie claims is the largest under construction in the state, will be completed in 2026 and will begin providing renewable energy to the National Electricity Market (NEM) in 2027.
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The Goorambat East Solar Farm is located 500 metres east of Goorambat and 12km north of Benalla in Victoria. It lies between the regional centres of Shepparton and Wangaratta and will sit on around 630 hectares of land. Engie Australia reached financial close on the project in August 2024.
It will connect to the newly constructed Goorambat East Terminal Station, operated and maintained by AusNet in accordance with connection agreements made with the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO).
A groundbreaking ceremony was held at the project site. Victoria’s minister for climate action, energy, and resources, Lily D’Ambrosio, attended alongside Engie Australia executives.
Engie Australia’s managing director of renewables, Laura Caspari, said the project will contribute to Engie’s renewable energy ambitions in one of its “key foothold states”.
“Goorambat East is an optimal project with an excellent solar resource and access to existing transmission infrastructure – it also has a great network of near neighbours and community members that we’ve been working with. We look forward to being a part of this community and making meaningful contributions at every stage of this project,” Caspari said.
As part of the Goorambat East Solar Farm project, Engie has committed to providing the local community with A$75,000 (US$50,000) per year for the project’s lifetime, around 30 years, upon the solar farm’s operationalisation.
As reported by PV Tech last week, Engie’s North American arm said it had inked a power purchase agreement (PPA) with technology giant Google to deliver power from its Chillingham solar project in Bell County, Texas.
The project has a total operating capacity of 350GW, and the Google deal will see the technology giant acquire 90MW of this capacity. Engie is currently developing the project north of Austin and plans to commission the facility later this year.
