Carnegie gets green light for WA solar plant

Sun shining on solar panels (gallium)

Carnegie Clean Energy has been given the go-ahead to develop its 10MW solar power station in Western Australia.

The Mid-West/Wheatbelt Joint Development Assessment Panel (JDAP) approved the development application for the plant, to be located in Northam, last week.

The single axis tracking design will consist of approximately 34,000 solar panels and will produce approximately 24,000MWh of electricity per annum and deliver this clean energy into the Western Australian grid, the company said on Monday.

Carnegie managing director and chief executive officer Dr Michael Ottaviano said the project would also be “battery storage ready” and is the next step in the evolution of Carnegie Clean Energy.

“The Tier 1 capabilities of the EMC Lendlease joint venture, combined with the design, development and financing capabilities of Carnegie, provide us with a clear point of difference in the rapidly emerging utility solar market in Australia,” he said.

“The ability to add utility scale battery storage is a new product offering we will integrate into our own solar farms and also to other developers of utility scale solar farms as the technology costs continue to decline in the coming years.”

The JDAP is one of a number of final approvals required for the project, and Carnegie is now awaiting the release of meeting minutes with final approval coditions.

Construction for the project is expected to start in mid-2017 with project commissioning expected by the end of 2017.

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