Electrek Green Energy Brief: A daily technical, financial, and political review/analysis of important green energy news.
Today on EGEB: Swiss firm Partners Group invests A$ 720 million to create the Grassroots Renewable Energy Platform, a series of large-scale projects to power Australia with renewable energy. Elgin Energy received Scotland’s green light to start the largest solar farm the country ever had. India’s ministry of new and renewable energy drafted the rules to auction 2.5GW in new solar-wind hybrid projects.
Australia is going greener with the Grassroots Renewable Energy Platform, 1.3GW of new wind power, solar power and battery storage assets coming in the next four years. Partners Group is teaming up with local developer CWP Renewables to build new projects and link them with their previous combined effort: Sapphire Wind Farm, a 250MW project built in New South Wales. Next in line is:
The second project under the Grassroots platform will be Crudine Ridge Wind Farm, a 135MW construction-ready wind farm near Mudgee in New South Wales that will provide a further 400 GW hours of annual power output to the grid, which will be enough to serve 55,000 homes. Though the construction of the wind farm will only be completed by September 2019, half of its energy has already been sold to Powershop, an Australian electricity provider that provides 100 per cent green energy to its retail customers. In addition to Crudine Ridge Wind Farm, there are a number of other pipeline projects for Grassroots, which comprise a combination of wind, solar and battery storage assets.
Partners Group added around 2GW of additional renewable energy production in the Asia-Pacific region these last few years, including Ararat Wind Farm (240MW) in Australia.
Scotland’s devolved government authorizes Elgin Energy to build the largest solar farm north of Solway Firth. Milltown Airfield, a decommissioned RAF base, will be the site of a new 50 MW solar farm after serving these last decades as a storing site and sheep-grazing ground.
“Upon completion, the solar farm will supply 50 MW of clean and affordable electricity powering up to 15,000 Scottish homes or 19,000 electric vehicles annually. Elgin Energy already has an extensive portfolio of projects across Scotland and the UK. The company previously developed the current largest operational solar farm in Scotland – Errol, a 13 MW solar farm in Perth – completed in 2016.”
Scotland carried out in 2015 its objective of producing 50% of their gross electrical consumption through renewable means. They hope to achieve 100% by 2020.
India to launch bids for 2.5GW of new solar-hybrid projects. India’s ministry of new and renewable energy published the details of the contest they’ve set up so new solar-wind hybrid farms are built while offering the cheapest tariffs possible.
“Developers would be able to bid for a total capacity of between 200MW and 500MW with individual projects of at least 50MW, according to rules drafted by the ministry of new and renewable energy (MNRE). Capacity would be allocated based on the lowest tariff offered until the full 2.5GW is assigned – a so-called reverse auction.”
Successful bidders will win a 25-year power purchase agreement with the Solar Energy Corporation to supply it with green energy.
Featured image is from the Department of Energy SunShot program. Ground Mount in Hawaii on a cloudy day. Photo by Elie Rothschild.
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