Narrative
Full Description
Project narrative
On May 10, 2017, financial close was reached on the 20 MW White Rock Solar Farm Project. As part of the financing, the Sydney Branch of the Agricultural Bank of China (ABC) provided a $25 million AUD ($18.4 million USD) loan to White Rock Solar Farm Pty Ltd — a special purpose vehicle (SPV) and wholly owned subsidiary of Goldwind International Holdings (HK) Limited (Goldwind) — for the White Rock Solar Farm Project. In addition to the ABC loan, the $41.4 million AUD White Rock Solar Farm Project received a $5.4 million AUD ($4 million USD) grant from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) and $11 million AUD ($8.1 million USD) in equity from Goldwind. The purpose of this project was to construct the White Rock Solar Farm, a 20 MW AC solar photovoltaic (PV) power plant spread over 70 hectares in Glen Innes, adjacent to the northern end of White Rock Wind Farm, in the New England Tablelands, 18 kilometers west of the town of Glen Innes, New South Wales. The White Rock Solar Farm and the White Rock Wind Farm are part of a solar-wind hybrid renewable energy facility for the New England Tablelands, creating significant cost savings by using grid connection and access tracks associated with the wind farm. The solar farm had a designed annual generation capacity of 46,000 MW hours, enough to power 7,200 average New South Wales homes. The White Rock Solar Farm featured a fixed tracking system. There were 72,000 solar panels and 139 kilometers of string cable at the farm. The solar farm was capable of offsetting 36,900 tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually. The solar farm had an operating life of 30 years. The project was expected to employ up to 75 people on site at its construction peak and three people as on-going operational and maintenance staff. Goldwind Australia Pty Ltd awarded an engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contract for the solar farm to UGL Limited. UGL, in addition to EPC works at the farm, was responsible to integrate the farm into the substation and won an initial two-year operations and maintenance (O&M) contract to begin following the farm's completion. Trina Solar Australia supplied 350 W PV modules for the project. SMA Solar Technology provided its SMC 10000TL-10 inverters to the project. Development consent for the White Rock Solar Farm was granted on June 14, 2016. Construction was planned to begin in July 2017 and be completed in January 2018. Construction began on July 10, 2017. The solar farm began sending electricity to the main grid and entered commercial operations on or just before October 9, 2018. On March 31, 2021, CovaU Pty Limited (CovaU Energy), a wholly owned subsidiary of TPC Consolidated Limited, signed a first power purchase agreement (PPA) with White Rock Solar Farm Pty Ltd.