10MW solar farm to be built adjacent Gullen Range Wind Farm in Canberra

A 10 MW solar farm will be constructed adjacent the existing Gullen Range Wind Farm in Canberra. This will be the first of its kind project in Australia, where solar farm will be built alongside wind farms, and is expected to deliver reliable, cheaper renewable energy.

The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) is providing AUD$9.9m ($7.45m) financial support for New Gullen Range Wind Farm Pty Ltd (NGRWF) for the development and construction of AUD26m ($17.5m) project.

ARENA CEO Ivor Frischknecht said: “Co-location provides more continuous energy generation, as wind farms tend to generate more energy overnight whilst solar only generates during the day.

"Gullen Wind Farm generates more power in winter and the new solar farm will generate more in summer.”

 “Wind farm owners across Australia could benefit from adding solar plants to their existing sites. Developers can save money on grid connection, approvals and site development costs by co-locating wind and solar plants, whilst also reducing environmental impacts.

“NGRWF estimates that the potential co-location savings for the Gullen Range Solar Farm could be as high as A. $6m ($4.5m), representing a 20% drop in total project cost.

“There is huge potential to adopt this approach at other wind farms. An ARENA-supported study found there’s an estimated 1000 MW of potential opportunities to add solar PV alongside existing wind farms – enough to power 700,000 homes. We expect this to more than double by 2020 in line with Australia’s renewable energy target.”

Frischknecht said Gullen Range Solar Farm co-location is the economical way to construct large-scale solar and would be a key drive force for such projects in the future.

Frischknecht further added: “ARENA is focussed on bringing down the cost of renewable energy and encouraging more projects to enter the market.

“This is the first project of its type in Australia, so the lessons learned will be invaluable. It has the potential to provide a blueprint for future projects and cement industry confidence in the approach.

“It could also unlock new markets for medium-scale solar PV projects, because scale isn’t as important for competitiveness when plants are co-located.”

The project is slated to complete by July next year, with two years of knowledge sharing activities to follow.