Glenrowan West Solar Farm Construction Reaches Final Phase

Victoria’s Glenrowan West Solar Farm has moved into the final phase of construction and is expected to commence commercial operation in March this year.

A 149-megawatt peak (MWp) DC clean power station, the solar farm is located just off the Hume Freeway between Benalla and Wangaratta and around 11km south-west of Glenrowan. The site was chosen due to its close proximity to a robust part of the grid transmission network with available capacity, flat cleared land and easy road access.

The facility covers 323 hectares and comprises 373,248 Jinko solar panels installed on single-axis trackers and 48 x 2.75MW SMA inverters.

Design of Glenrowan West Solar Farm commenced in late 2019 and construction kicked off in January last year, which coincided with the project being acquired by German Investment company Wirtgen Invest. WIRSOL Energy and WiNRG are delivering Project Management services and Signal Energy Australia is the lead in Engineering and Construction.

Substation energisation occurred in the third quarter of last year and the first electricity was exported to the grid in December. The power station is connected to the grid via a short 66 kV circuit to the AusNet Glenrowan Terminal Station and is the first renewable energy generator to connect to this station.

Initial testing procedures of the solar farm have also been successfully completed.

An update published on Tuesday states that works are being completed in blocks of inverters and modules, before being sequentially combined to generate at a series of larger hold point tests under the supervision of AusNet Services and the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO).

First Australian Investment

The solar farm, which is expected to operate for at least 30 years, is Wirtgen Invest’s first investment in Australia. The company also has a number of solar plants in its portfolio situated in Portugal and the Czech Republic, plus a couple of wind farms in Poland and Sweden.

“We intend to play a leading role in financing and developing innovation and growth in renewable energies,” says Wirtgen. “Our goal is to promote intelligent solutions that contribute to the responsible use of resources and offer economically sustainable operations while at the same time safeguarding the quality of life for future generations.”

Wirtgen states Glenrowan West Solar Farm will generate approximately 278,000 MWh annually, and avoid around 117,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions each year (although other documentation puts it at 110,000 tonnes p.a.). The company says close to 300 jobs have been created on-site during the solar farm’s construction phase, with a high proportion of local workers.