Global giant GE’s energy financing arm has taken a 50 per cent stake in a $50 million solar farm in the Mid West, the first project of its kind in Australia to get financial approval.
In a deal closed last week, GE Energy Financial Services will partner State-owned utility Verve Energy in establishing the solar farm to partially power WA’s second desalination plant.
The Water Corporation has committed to purchase 100 per cent of the new installation’s output for the Southern Seawater desalination plant being built near Binningup in the South West.
The State Government is providing $20 million for the solar project, of which $10 million is coming from the Royalties for Regions program.
The project is GE Energy Financial Services’ first renewable energy investment in Australia.
“It has all the criteria we look for: good local partner, good technology provider, sound fundamentals,” the company’s Australian business leader, Jason Willoughby, said.
The Greenough River solar farm will be installed on 80ha of cleared land 50km south-east of Geraldton, and have an output of 10 megawatts, or 20 gigawatt/hours per annum.
US-based manufacturer First Solar will build, operate and maintain the plant using more than 150,000 photovoltaic modules.
It is the first utility-scale solar project in the country, 10 times bigger than any other installation nationwide. It is expected to be operational by the middle of next year.
“This is the only one that ticks all the key boxes for a project to be viable,” Rob Bartrop, First Solar’s Australian business development and sales manager, said.
“It has a PPA (power purchase agreement) in place, it has a proven technology with a proven company delivering it. And importantly has the ownership in place, in this case with Verve and GE,” Mr Bartrop said.
Tony Narvaez, Verve’s general manager, strategy and business development, said the project was a “toe in the water” for the utility.
“We would like to think that is going to kick off a pipeline of projects moving forward in solar PV,” Mr Narvaez said.
The desalination plant’s use of renewable energy was mandated by the State Government. It will also be supplied by the 55MW Mumbida wind farm, also in Greenough, an equal partnership between Verve and Macquarie Capital.
In that project, GE Energy and Leighton Contractors have formed a consortium to supply and install the turbines.
