Clenergy signs PPA with Snowy Hydro for 143.5MW solar farm

The farm is expected to have a generation capacity of 115MWAC and power 40,000 homes.

Shanghai-listed Clenergy (Xiamen) Technology Co. Ltd (Clenergy) signed of a power purchase agreement (PPA) with Snowy Hydro for the 143.5MW Metz Solar Farm in New South Wales.

According to an announcement, the solar farm will have a generation capacity of 115MWAC(143.5MWDC), and will use single-axis tracking, and solar panels that are expected to supply electricity to up to 40,000 Australian homes on average.

The Metz Solar Farm received Planning Approval in July 2017, and AEMO and Transgrid grid-connection approvals were secured in July 2018. Clenergy is in the final stages of awarding EPC and O&M contracts, and it is planned for construction to commence in early 2019, with commercial operation occurring in Q1 2020.

The solar farm is part of the projects that were a result of Snowy Hydro’s Renewable Energy Procurement Programme. It signed contracts for eight wind and solar projects with a total of 888MW, located across New South Wales and Victoria and expected to generate about 2.8TWh of energy annually.

Snowy Hydro CEO Paul Broad added, “Snowy Hydro selected those projects that offered competitive pricing and had credible pathways to commissioning in the next few years and enabled Snowy Hydro to construct an optimal portfolio of renewable offtakes.”