Lightsource BP has secured a power purchase agreement (PPA) with electricity company Snowy Hydro to power 88 service stations in New South Wales, Australia with solar energy.
Lightsource will use electricity generated by its 107MWdc solar farm in West Wyalong, New South Wales, which is currently seeking construction financing.
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Snowy Hydro will purchase two thirds of the 238,000MWh of solar electricity the farm will generate through a 15-year PPA. The energy retailer will then supply BP’s service stations with 23,000MWh of renewable energy for 10 years to meet their power requirements as part of the deal. The project is scheduled to be completed in January 2023.
Paul Broad, Snowy Hydro’s CEO, said the deal will facilitate the deployment of renewable energy into the grid and provide “innovative solutions to help our customers meet their sustainability needs.”
It is not Lightsource BP’s first solar development in New South Wales. The renewables arm of oil and gas giant BP signed financing agreements to develop a 200MWp project near Wellington, the majority of which was contracted to Snowy Hydro through a 15-year PPA. Adam Pegg, country manager for Lightsource BP’s Australian business, said he was “delighted” to leverage the company’s existing relationship with Snowy Hydro to sign this second PPA in the region.
“Being able to facilitate powering BP’s service stations in New South Wales with renewable electricity from our West Wyalong solar farm is an achievement which demonstrates our commitment to provide sustainable and affordable energy to our communities,” he said.
The energy giant has also taken steps to significantly grow its footprint in Europe and the US over the past two years, adding 1.2GW to its Italian pipeline and more than 2GW in Spain since 2019. It also closed a US$380 million financing package for two Texan solar projects with a combined capacity of 316MW at the start of 2021, having just completed another Texan utility-scale PV plant, the 260MW Impact Solar project.
