It’s a solar Christmas gift But batteries not included – for now
A NEW solar farm which has officially started harvesting the sun’s rays in the Gulf is hoped to eventually protect the region’s communities from wet season blackouts.
The Normanton Solar Farm, based at Lilydale – about 5km south of the town – has started operating and is exporting alternative energy through the local substation.
It is the first large-scale solar energy project to become operational in northern Queensland.
The 10ha farm is expected to generate more than 9000MW hours each year – enough to provide a reliable and affordable energy source for the communities of Normanton and Karumba combined.
The $14 million project was developed in partnership between Scouller Energy Pty Ltd and Canadian Solar, with $8.3 million grant funding from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA).
Developer Doug Scouller said he was very proud of the commitment over five years by the team involved.
He, wife and project co-developer, Lyn Scouller – who married Doug last week – said the farm would provide real and measurable benefits to the local electricity network and customers.
Mrs Scouller said the ultimate goal was to reduce blackouts for local communities, which can be common occurrences during the wet season.
“The long term plan is, once we install batteries, we can completely island the solar farm to produce power for this region,” she said. “Then we won’t have the blackouts – but that’s down the track, there’s still a lot of work to do.”
She said they were planning to install batteries next year.
“(The farm) has been designed to retrofit the batteries,” she said.
“We’re just getting through all the paperwork right now.”
The Normanton Solar Farm has 1600 photovoltaic panels on fixed-tilt arrays, designed to gather a minimum of six hours of full sunshine a day in the northwest region.