Nyngan Solar Plant

The Nyngan Solar Plant or Farm is one of the largest operating solar plants in Australia. At the time of construction, it was the largest solar plant in the southern hemisphere.[2] It is located 10 km west of Nyngan in western New South Wales. It is was built and is operated by AGL Energy.

Nyngan Solar Plant
Nyngan Solar Plant in 2019
CountryAustralia
LocationNyngan, New South Wales
Coordinates31.566°S 147.072°E / -31.566; 147.072
StatusOperational
Commission dateJuly 2015
Construction costA$440 million
Owner(s)Powering Australian Renewables Fund
Operator(s)AGL Energy
Solar farm
TypeFlat-panel PV
Collectors1,350,000[1]
Site area250 hectares (620 acres)[1]
Power generation
Nameplate capacity102 MW

It has over 1.3 million solar panels, generating 102 megawatts of power. It was opened on 18 April 2015, and became fully operational in July 2015.[3] The Nyngan Solar Plant is associated with the Broken Hill Solar Plant, a 53 megawatt farm located almost 600 km west, which became operational in December 2015,[3], making the total capacity of the combined plants 155 megawatts. The solar panels do not track the movement of the sun. They are arranged in rows facing north, tilted at 25 degrees.[4]

Financial impact

The plants were constructed with $166.7 million funding support from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) and $64.9 million from the NSW Government. There was some criticism of the use of Government funding.[5] Both plants were constructed by AGL in partnership with First Solar, Bogan Shire Council (Nyngan) and Broken Hill City Council, and local communities.[3] The total cost of the projects was $440 million.[1]

Annually, the two plants combined will produce approximately 360,000 MWh of renewable energy, powering more than 50,000 average Australian homes, AGL claims.

Powering Australian Renewables Fund

Ownership of the Nyngan and Broken Hill solar plants was transferred from AGL Energy to Powering Australian Renewables Fund (PARF), an infrastructure fund closely associated with but independent to AGL.[6]

Initial investment in PARF was $200M from AGL, and up to $800M from both QIC Global Infrastructure Fund and the Australian sovereign wealth fund, the Future Fund.[7]

References
  1. "Fact Sheet: Nyngan Solar Plant" (PDF). AGL Energy. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-22. Retrieved 2017-04-02.
  2. "Nyngan solar farm in western NSW opens". 18 April 2015. Retrieved 22 April 2017.
  3. "AGL Nyngan and Broken Hill solar plants officially opened". AGL Energy. 20 January 2016. Retrieved 2 April 2017.
  4. "Nyngan Solar Plant". AGL Energy. Retrieved 14 January 2020.
  5. "Australia's biggest Solar farm powersup but Solar's potential shines elsewhere - theaustralian". Retrieved 22 April 2017.
  6. "Powering Australian Renewables Fund FAQs - AGL". Retrieved 22 April 2017.
  7. "AGL signs up investors for renewables fund". 26 July 2016. Retrieved 22 April 2017.
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