Western Australia’s Exmouth to run on 80% renewable energy from solar PV and batteries

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Reddit
Email
Image: Horizon Power.

In Western Australia’s Gascoyne region, Exmouth will run on 80% solar PV-derived renewable energy via a 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA) between Pacific Energy and Horizon Power, the state’s energy provider.

The Shire of Exmouth is a local government area in Gascoyne with a population of around 3,000 people. The new hybrid system will see the development of a 9.6MW solar PV power plant, a 49.6MWh battery energy storage system (BESS), and a 7MW gas power station. This project will be distributed energy company Pacific Energy’s first off-grid power project, aiming to supply a substantial portion of a remote town’s annual power needs using solar PV and BESS.

This article requires Premium SubscriptionBasic (FREE) Subscription

Unlock unlimited access for 12 whole months of distinctive global analysis

Photovoltaics International is now included.

  • Regular insight and analysis of the industry’s biggest developments
  • In-depth interviews with the industry’s leading figures
  • Unlimited digital access to the PV Tech Power journal catalogue
  • Unlimited digital access to the Photovoltaics International journal catalogue
  • Access to more than 1,000 technical papers
  • Discounts on Solar Media’s portfolio of events, in-person and virtual

Or continue reading this article for free

In doing so, the remote town, located midway between the state capital Perth and Broome, will run on 80% renewable energy annually by offsetting gas reliance with solar PV energy generation and energy shifting storage.

Mike Hall, chief operating officer of Pacific Energy, said the deal was driven by the local population’s desire to run on clean energy to preserve the UNESCO World Heritage Site.

“It was incumbent on us to demonstrate exactly what an 80%-renewable solution would look like and how we could integrate various technologies into the existing infrastructure to give the town the reliable, decarbonised power system it needs,” Hall said.

Pacific Energy acquired Exmouth’s existing gas-fired power station in mid-September. Work will commence on integrating renewable energy in early 2025, and the new system is expected to be fully operational by the end of 2026.

Wind energy had been considered for the project, but because the region is situated within the cyclonic wind region, often seeing wind speeds above 100km/h, solar PV was the adopted approach for powering Exmouth.

This becomes the latest agreement Horizon Power has secured in recent months. It inked its first Indigenous Land Use Agreement (ILUA) with the Nyul Nyul people of Beagle Bay in Kimberley for a proposed solar PV development.

Under the agreement, Horizon Power will be able to access a four-hectare area of land to develop a “future energy system that will deliver increased renewable energy for the community”.

Although no project details were disclosed, the Western Australian government stated that it is in the planning stages and expects to “draw on the region’s significant solar resource”.

17 June 2025
Napa, USA
PV Tech has been running PV ModuleTech Conferences since 2017. PV ModuleTech USA, on 17-18 June 2025, will be our fourth PV ModulelTech conference dedicated to the U.S. utility scale solar sector. The event will gather the key stakeholders from solar developers, solar asset owners and investors, PV manufacturing, policy-making and and all interested downstream channels and third-party entities. The goal is simple: to map out the PV module supply channels to the U.S. out to 2026 and beyond.

Read Next

October 4, 2024
Xcel Energy has reached an agreement on its 2024 Resource Plan which it says will reduce its carbon emissions by 80%.
October 4, 2024
“The required investment and technical know-how [for establishing cell capacity] is significantly more complex and substantial [than modules]”, Colville said.
Premium
October 4, 2024
A prominent US renewable energy lawyer has told PV Tech Premium that a Chinese challenge to the Inflation Reduction Act through the World Trade Organization should not be a cause for alarm.
October 4, 2024
Australian utility Origin Energy announced its intention to withdraw from hydrogen and focus on renewable energy and energy storage, citing “uncertainty around the pace and timing of development of the hydrogen market".
October 3, 2024
The DOC's CVD ruling is a short-term win for certain manufacturers and a possible setback for many others in the US value chain.
October 3, 2024
The 360MW Mortlake solar-plus-storage project in Victoria, Australia, is the latest large-scale renewable energy project to be fast-tracked for development by the state government.

Subscribe to Newsletter

Upcoming Events

Solar Media Events
October 7, 2024
Huntington Place Detroit, MI
Solar Media Events
October 8, 2024
San Francisco Bay Area, USA
Solar Media Events
October 15, 2024
Santiago, Chile
Solar Media Events
October 22, 2024
New York, USA