ACEN Corp. announced last Monday that it has formally launched its New England solar power project in Australia.
The first phase of ACEN Australia Pty. Ltd.’s New England solar project was officially opened by the Hon. Chris Bowen MP, Federal Minister for Climate Change, marking a milestone in the project’s 6-year journey to generate clean renewable energy into the National Electricity Market (NEM) of the world’s sixth-largest country.
The estimated 936 megawatt (MW) project is being developed in two stages, and was approved by the New South Wales Government in 2020. The first 521 MW stage of the project has been in construction since March 2021. It is one of Australia’s largest solar projects to be participating in the NEM, with Stage 1 requiring the installation of close to a million solar panels.
New England Solar was granted formal registration to send power into the NEM by the Australian Energy Market Organization (AEMO) in December 2022, and since that time, has been generating renewable energy.
“Stage 1 of the project is expected to be generating at full nameplate capacity of 521 MWdc in the coming months,” said ACEN.
“The event is an important milestone for the energy transformation underway across NSW and Australia. I truly believe that the work ACEN Australia is doing to accelerate Australia’s transition to a renewable energy future is here and now – and it starts with New England Solar.
We decided to build New England Solar on a fully merchant basis to ensure it is online in time to help replace closing coal fired power stations in NSW. We wanted to get things built, to decarbonize Australia,” said ACEN Australia CEO Anton Rohner.
