John Laing

German-owned renewable energy developer Wirsol Energy has added another 313MW of solar to its Australian operation and maintenance portfolio, securing the contracts for three utility scale solar farms.

The much-delayed Sunraysia Solar Farm is seemingly a step closer to commencing production – more than 24 months behind schedule – with Australian engineering firm Decmil Group confirming the PV project has been given the green light following the successful completion of the required hold point testing.

Congestion due to the push and pull of demand and generation across inadequate transmission infrastructure continues to play havoc with marginal loss factors. Although NSW bears the brunt of AEMO’s draft calculations for the coming financial year, there are some bright spots in the NEM.

Sunraysia Solar Farm in southern New South Wales will be able to begin production from today after the Australian Energy Market Operator finally approved its registration. The solar farm near Balranald had been expected to begin production last year, but was delayed because of technical and transmission issues.

In its H1 2020 report, the UK-based infrastructure investor revealed it had suffered substantial losses, mainly due to performance issues on its renewable energy projects. Two of the company’s Australian solar farms were particularly badly hit by transmission and equipment issues.

Grupo Energia is the latest renewable energy company to set up shop in Australia and it has chosen Melbourne for its local headquarters.

UK-based infrastructure investor John Laing will make no further investments in standalone solar and wind, following the write-downs taken on its European and Australian projects.

Australian renewables developer Maoneng and Chinese module maker and EPC contractor Chint have mandated $200 million for an initial project as part of a series of utility-scale solar farms they aim to develop in Australia under a joint venture partnership.

The Australian Energy Market Commission’s proposed transmission access model has come under fierce criticism from the clean energy industry for being unnecessarily complex and likely to increase the cost of capital for future generation and storage investment.

John Laing Group has reported losses in Australia of some $121 million — said to be due to transmission factors on three of its renewable-energy projects — leading the company to write down the value of those projects and suspend new investment in Australian renewable generation.