ACEN Corp. said Monday a Australian unit would start the construction of the 400-megawatt Stubbo solar project this year.
ACEN said in a disclosure to the stock exchange ACEN Australia made the final investment decision and executed critical contracts for the Stubbo solar project.
“ACEN Australia is pleased to kick off the construction of the Stubbo solar farm. This will be ACEN Australia’s second 400 MW [520 MWdc] solar farm following the construction of New England Solar, which is currently being commissioned,” ACEN Australia chief executive Anton Rohner said.
“We have been able to close and commit to a project on a merchant basis and, in the case of Stubbo, do this on our balance sheet. This announcement follows the success of securing Au$75 million of debt funding from the CEFC just last week, which increased ACEN Australia’s aggregate debt facilities to Au$D315 million of long-term, green loan agreements with Japanese lender MUFG, DBS Bank of Singapore and most recently the CEFC,” Rohner said.
This followed the signing of the connection agreement with Lumea and the execution of a photovoltaic module supply contract this week.
The parent company ACEN issued an Au$ 800-million commitment for the project in September.
The solar project is located within the Central-West Orana Renewable Energy Zone in the Mid-Western Regional Council region and will connect to the existing 330-kV network between Wollar and Wellington.
It will produce clean, renewable energy to power more than 185,000 average Australian homes.
The development approval also includes provisions for a 200-megawatt-hour battery energy storage system.
The NSW Government’s Department of Planning and Environment granted development consent to Stubbo solar in June 2021. It is expected to create up to 400 jobs during construction.
A notice to proceed for the road works to the site was issued last week as part of commencing construction.
A major step in moving to the committed stage came with the finalization and signing of the connection agreement with Lumea.
“The ability to get the connection agreement done illustrates the value of ACEN Australia’s strategy of connecting into secure and robust parts of the Transgrid Network,” Rohner said.
Lumea chief executive Richard Lowe said they were encouraged to see the industry’s commitment to delivering vital renewable projects.
“This is an important milestone in the transition to a cleaner grid and delivering cheaper energy to regional areas for the future,” Lowe said.
The latest project contributes to ACEN’s goal of 20 gigawatts of renewable energy by 2030.
ACEN Australia has more than 1.5 GW of projects under construction or at an advanced stage of development, including the New England Solar, New England Battery, Stubbo Solar and Valley of the Winds projects in the NSW New England and Central-West Orana Renewable Energy Zones and the Robbins Island and Jim’s Plain Wind project in North-West Tasmania.