Singapore-headquartered renewable energy producer Vena Energy has started constructing a 320MW solar PV expansion in Queensland’s Western Downs region in Australia.
The expansion will increase the generation capacity of the Wandoan South Project, a 1.1GW energy facility with 168MW of solar PV currently operational. Stage one of the site, Wandoan South Solar 1, includes around 250,000 solar PV modules spread across 500 hectares. It was completed in February 2024 in partnership with US technology giant Amazon.
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With construction having commenced on the Wandoan South Solar 2 project, Vena Energy anticipates that the site will be operational in mid-2027 and will generate around 700GWh of clean energy annually.
Owen Sela, head of Australia at Vena Energy, believes the broader Wandoan South Solar 2 project will be critical in Queensland’s decarbonisation journey.
“Wandoan South Solar 2 will play a crucial role in Queensland’s rapidly evolving energy landscape, adding significant renewable energy generation capacity that will help power the state’s future while supporting Australia’s commitment to net zero by 2050,” Owen said.
As previously noted, the Wandoan South Solar projects will be a part of the broader Wandoan South Project, which aims to combine several technologies to create a large-scale hybrid facility.
The site already has 168MW of solar PV operational alongside what it claims is Queensland’s first utility-scale battery energy storage system (BESS), the 100MW/150MWh Wandoan South BESS. As reported by our sister site Energy-Storage.news, the battery was brought online in August 2022.
Vena plans to increase the site’s solar PV component to 650MW, while the battery will be scaled accordingly to 450MW.
Vena inks long-term PPA with state-owned energy company
Once the Wandoan South Solar 2 project is complete, Queensland’s state-owned energy company CleanCo will offtake the energy generated via a long-term power purchase agreement (PPA), which has just been announced.
Vena said the PPA will enable CleanCo to supply renewable energy from Wandoan South Solar 2 to some of Queensland’s largest employers, supporting their decarbonisation goals and Queensland’s clean energy future.
Vena Energy currently has around 732MW of clean energy generation and 600MWh of BESS capacity in operation, construction or contracted stages in Australia. One of these includes the Tailem Bend 2 Hybrid Project in South Australia, which recently saw a 41.5MW BESS added to the already operational 87MW solar PV component of the plant.
Edify submits 90MWac solar-plus-storage site in New South Wales to Australia’s EPBC Act
In other news, Energy-Storage.news reported yesterday (29 April) that Australian renewable energy developer Edify Energy has submitted a 90MWac solar-plus-storage site in New South Wales to Australia’s Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act.
The proposed Brewongle Solar Farm would have a generation capacity of 90MWac alongside a co-located grid-scale 90MW/180MWh BESS. It would connect to the grid via a 132kV transmission line from Wallerawang to Panorama and is owned by Transgrid.
The solar PV power plant is being proposed southeast of Bathurst, in the Central Tablelands region of New South Wales. It would be located 200km west of the state capital, Sydney, beyond the Great Dividing Range.
It would also be located just outside of the southern edge of the 7.7GW Central-West Orana renewable energy zone (REZ), which is expected to begin construction in mid-2025.
Edify originally intended to build a 4-hour duration system (360MWh) for the Brewongle project, but this has since been scaled back. The BESS would either be located adjacent to the proposed substation being pursued as part of the development or dispersed in modular enclosures throughout the site. It would be a lithium-ion system.
According to documents submitted as part of the EPBC Act application, the project site would be around 299 hectares. The site would look to ensure agricultural practices, such as sheep grazing, can continue in what is known as agrivoltaics, or ‘agriPV’.
Agrivoltaics has been incorporated in several of Edify’s other Australian projects, notably the 80MW Peninsula Solar Farm and the 250MW Muskerry Solar Power Station in Victoria.
You can read the full article on the Brewongle solar-plus-storage site on Energy-Storage.news.
