Fotowatio Renewable Ventures (FRV) has closed financing for the Metz Solar Farm project in New South Wales.
Metz Solar Farm is a 115 MWac clean power station to be constructed at a site near Hillgrove, approximately 20 kilometres east of Armidale. Originally an Infinergy project, it was acquired by Clenergy and then changed hands again to FRV, which completed its acquisition last month.
The facility is forecast to generate 320 GWh of electricity each year, while avoiding 288,000 tonnes of CO2 equivalent annually.
Planning Approval was granted for Metz Solar Farm in July 2017 and AEMO and Transgrid grid-connection approval secured in July 2018. The project will generate electricity under a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with Snowy Hydro, which was signed in 2018.
Start of construction was originally slated to commence during this quarter; but large-scale solar project builds often don’t begin when originally intended due to the many regulatory and financial hurdles that must be cleared.
FRV says the financing is being provided by Westpac and NORD/LB in the form of a Green Loan that complies with the Loan Market Association Green Loan Principles and the Green Projects requirements.
“We are delighted to see Metz solar farm securing the funds to start construction and contribute to the ongoing energy transition in New South Wales,” said Managing Director of FRV in Australia, Carlo Frigerio.
FRV says it’s the second green loan for the company in Australia and among the first renewable energy project financing of this nature in this country. Mr. Frigerio said it had been an “extraordinary” year for FRV in Australia, with 3 financial close milestones achieved in under 12 months
When construction of Metz does kick off, it’s expected to provide jobs for up to 100 workers over the course of the 12-month construction phase, and ongoing benefits to the region.
FRV has ten PV projects at various stages in Australia:
- Metz – New South Wales (115MW – under development)
- Moree – New South Wales (56MW – operational)
- Goonumbla – New South Wales (69.75MW – operational)
- Sebastapol – New South Wales (90MW – under development)
- Chaff Mill – Mintaro, South Australia (115MW – under development)
- Winton – Victoria (106MW – under development)
- Royalla – ACT (24MW – operational)
- Clare – Queensland (125MW – operational)
- Lilyvale – Queensland (125MW – operational)
and..
Walla Walla Solar Farm Approved
In other recent news from FRV, the company announced in late November it had received development approval from the NSW Independent Planning Commission for its proposed 300 MW AC Walla Walla Solar Farm, which will be located between the townships of Walla Walla and Culcairn; approximately 40 kilometres from Albury.
The clean power station will consist of approximately 700,000 solar panels installed across a 605-hectare site that are expected to generate 740 gigawatt-hours annually.
250 construction jobs will be created during the construction period.
Bison Energy initiated the development process for the solar farm in early 2018 and FRV announced it would assume full ownership of and development rights for the Walla Walla project in August last year.
About Michael Bloch
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Nice to see projects starting to give their capacity in terms of AC capacity. As far as I can tell the Metz solar farm will have 143.5 megawatts of PV DC capacity which gives it 25% more DC capacity than AC. As the panels will be on single axis trackers it will help keep output up in the early morning & late afternoon when electricity prices are higher.