Tetris Energy to develop 4.8 MW Birdwood project in SA

Plans for the $10 million Birdwood Solar Farm were approved by the Adelaide Hills Council’s assessment panel on Wednesday evening.

The 4.9 MW solar farm will comprise an estimated 17,500 solar modules spread across 15.8 hectares of a 51ha site on the outskirts of Birdwood. The proposal also includes a 4 MWh battery storage facility but it is unlikely to be integrated from the outset.

It is expected the Birdwood Solar Farm will generate an estimated 12,500 MWh of clean electricity each year. The project will connect into nearby SA Power Networks transmission lines and feed into the grid.

Tetris Energy director Frank Boland said access to the network had been a key driver when selecting a site.

“There are plenty of places in Australia that have fantastic solar resource but there’s no power network to inject the electricity into,” he said.

“That is why we’ve chosen Birdwood as it has good solar resource and grid connection.”

Boland said construction of the project would take around four to six months to complete and will mirror a project recently delivered at Mannum, about 40km to the east.

Tetris Energy developed the 5 MW first stage of the-now 30 MW Mannum Solar Farm which has been operational since mid-2019. It is now working with Canadian Solar, which acquired the project at the commencement of construction, to develop the second stage of the 30 MW facility.

 The Birdwood project is among the latest for Tetris Energy which plans to build an 80 MW solar farm with a 20 MW battery storage system in Yass in south-eastern New South Wales.

Boland said land has been secured for the proposed state significant project adjacent to one of TransGrid’s largest substations.