Progress On Tasmania’s First Large Scale Solar Farm Projects

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Development applications for two proposed solar farms in Tasmania representing up to 17.5MW capacity combined have completed their public exhibition period.

The projects have been proposed by Epuron, which has several operational solar energy facilities on the mainland and more in the pipeline. We mentioned Epuron earlier this year in connection to a development application the company lodged for what would be Australia’s largest urban solar farm.

George Town Solar Farm

This proposed project, which would be Tasmania’s first large-scale solar farm, will be up to 5MW capacity and constructed, as the name suggests, near George Town (Australia’s third oldest settlement).

The clean power station will connect to the existing 22 kilovolt powerline running adjacent to the already cleared site previously utilised for grazing, and export to the George Town substation. The solar panels for this facility will be installed on trackers.

The public exhibition period for the George Town Solar Farm development application ended in early March and all going well, Epuron hopes to commence construction this year.

Wesley Vale Solar Farm

The proposed Wesley Vale Solar Farm (WVSF) project is a 12.5MW facility to be built on land previously used for grazing at Wesley Vale, near Devonport, which will connect to the nearby Wesley Vale substation

WVSF will generate approximately 25,600 MWh of clean electricity per year – enough to power 2,900 households – and will avoid 27,900 tonnes of green‐house gas emissions annually say Epuron.

The project will utilise either single‐axis horizontal tracking systems or fixed tilt mounting; or a combination of both. The facility may also include energy storage in the future.

The public exhibition period for the development application ended yesterday. Assuming it gets the green light, construction of WVSF is planned to also commence late this year and will be built in stages.

Wesley Vale Solar Farm will supply electricity to the National Electricity Market.

Basslink Out Of Action

On a related note, Basslink Pty Ltd recently announced when carrying out planned maintenance works for the Basslink Interconnector, which enables the trade of electricity between Tasmania and the National Electricity Market, a third-party contractor damaged “a piece of equipment” at a transition station in Victoria. Basslink says the electricity interconnector will be out of action until the 14th of this month.

Basslink is still duking it out with the Tasmanian Government over the 2015/16 outage that saw the interconnector out of service for more than six months, putting Tasmania’s energy security at risk. Last month, the Tasmanian Government informed Basslink that it considers it is entitled to damages as a result of the outage.

The 2015/16 outage was the trigger for creation of Tasmania’s Energy Security Taskforce. The Taskforce’s Final Report, published in August last year, acknowledged utility-scale solar power could play a role in contributing to energy security in the Apple Isle.

The Taskforce said that while Tasmania’s solar resources weren’t as bountiful as the mainland, large-scale solar should not be dismissed, and that wind power could be challenged over time as the cost of other technologies decline.