MPower strikes panel, tracker supply deal with Trina Solar

Sydney-based MPower has signed a master supply agreement with Trina Solar for the supply of solar panels and trackers as part of plans to develop a portfolio of more than 30 circa 5 MW solar farms and battery energy storage assets across Australia’s eastern states.

MPower Chief Executive Officer Nathan Wise said the agreement with Trina covers the first five mid-scale solar farms which form part of the company’s planned wider rollout of grid-connected renewable energy assets with total capacity of more than 200 MW.

“With this partnership, MPower can accelerate the rollout of its build-own-operate strategy with best-in-class components and technology, and build additional traction in what is shaping up as a multi-billion dollar addressable market opportunity,” Wise said.

Under the agreement, Trina has agreed to supply an initial 39.5 MWp of solar modules and 31.2 MWp of TrinaTracker Vanguard 1P trackers before the end of 2024.

The modules are the large format Vertex N bifacial module with iTOPCon (NEG21C.20) and the Vertex bifacial module (DEG21C.20).

Andrew Gilhooly, Trina’s head of utility solutions and storage for Asia Pacific, said the MPower agreement is the first MSA in Australia to include both panels and trackers, and will give the developer greater certainty over product supply and pricing.

“The innovative contract structure under this arrangement enables MPower to navigate pricing uncertainty on modules and trackers with confidence over a prolonged implementation timescale, where individual project characteristics on the entire portfolio of sites may initially be unknown or uncertain,” he said.

“For the sub-5 MW segment in Australia this is important, as it enables them to scale quickly and successfully execute more projects within a more expedient timeframe.”

MPower has already started construction on a 5 MW solar farm in Narromine in central New South Wales, the first of the mid-scale projects the company intends to build across the grid.

Other projects in MPower’s development pipeline include a shovel-ready 5 MW solar project at Faraday in Victoria and a ready-to-build 5 MW solar farm with a 5 MW/10 MWh battery storage project at Kadina in South Australia.