Development Plan For SA’s Pallamana Solar Farm Published

The development plan for a huge solar + energy storage project just outside Murray Bridge in South Australia has been released for public viewing.

The proposed Pallamana Solar Farm project will be a 176MW PV facility incorporating lithium-ion battery storage with an indicative capacity of 66 MW (140MWh).

Approximately 690,000 solar panels will be installed on single axis trackers across the site, which in total comprises approximately 780 hectares. The land for the clean power station, situated 4 kilometres north-west of the outskirts of Murray Bridge’s urban area and approximately 60km south-east of Adelaide,  has been secured by developer RES through an option to lease.

The land is currently used for crop production, which will cease for the life of the solar farm; however, sheep will continue to graze. After decommissioning, the site will be returned to its previous state.

“Pallamana is an ideal site for a solar energy project as it has excellent exposure to Australia’s world class solar resources and excellent access to the grid transmission system,” says RES.

An overhead transmission line will connect the power station to an existing substation located on a SA Water site on southern side of Monarto Road.

It’s expected Pallamana Solar Farm will generate approximately 420,000 MWh of electricity per annum, equivalent to the electricity needs of approximately 82,000 South Australian households, and avoid approximately 140,160 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions annually.

RES anticipates up to 200 people will be directly employed during the construction phase of the solar farm, which is expected to take twelve months. 2 – 4 full-time equivalent staff would be required for maintaining the facility during its 30-year operation.

In total, the project will involve approximately $200 million in investment during the construction phase.

The development application for Pallamana Solar Farm can be viewed here (PDF) – the notification period closes on November 30.

RES Australia Pty Ltd  was a founding signatory of the Clean Energy Council’s Best Practice Charter for Renewable Energy Developments, so its level of community engagement is expected to be high.

RES is no stranger to big renewable energy projects, with 13GW of utility-scale renewables represented in 250 projects in 12 countries. The company’s contracted energy storage portfolio is more than 240 MW, with over 200 MW in development. RES has been developing renewable energy projects in Australia since 2004, primarily wind power facilities.