Australian engineering firm UGL has received a contract to provide engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) services for the APA Group’s Sybella solar-plus-storage project in Queensland, Australia.
The project will pair a 72MW solar PV project with a 52MW/104MWh battery energy storage system (BESS), and will be the 16th solar farm and 12th BESS in UGL’s portfolio.
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Two years ago, UGL delivered early works and operations and maintenance services at the 700MW Cobbora solar-plus-storage project in New South Wales, where the development rights were owned by Pacific Partnerships; both UGL and Pacific Partnerships are subsidiaries of the CIMIC Group, an Australian construction, mining and infrastructure company.
“We are proud to continue supporting clients with the delivery of critical energy infrastructure that will help power Australia’s future,” said UGL managing director Sam Goldsmith, who said that the company has built a “strong relationship” with the APA Group through collaborations on the Dugald River solar farm and the Port Hedland BESS.
UGL advanced 2.1GWh of battery storage for Neoen in Queensland and Western Australia earlier this year. The EPC firm expects to start construction work at the Sybella project in late 2026 and expects to complete construction in mid-2028.
The Queensland government is aiming to add 4.4GW of new utility-scale solar and wind capacity by 2035, up from 3.2GW of operational utility-scale solar capacity as of last year. This year has seen a number of new developments in solar-plus-storage projects, in particular, with Windlab and Squadron Energy, Naturgy and Zero-E Australia advancing such projects over the summer.
This growth comes as Queensland joined the Northern Territory in refusing to back a national framework that would require new data centres to provide their own renewable energy. Singapore-based developer Zerra DC has submitted proposals to build a new data centre in the state that would be the largest in the country, with a forecast daily power demand over one-quarter of Queensland’s current daily electricity consumption.
