PwC and Luminous Energy have welcomed the start of connection works by Powerlink Queensland for the 162MWac Columboola Solar Farm located north-west of Brisbane.
The project will connect to the National Electricity Market via Powerlink’s existing Columboola substation, located approximately 1.3 kilometres south of the project site.
Electricity transmission from the Columboola Solar Farm to the substation will be via a new 132kV overhead transmission line connecting to a dedicated generator substation at the project site.
The project is located close to major load centres in South Queensland and the Queensland–New South Wales interconnector. It is expected to benefit from proximate load – supporting the project’s marginal loss factor or MLF – and robust network infrastructure, mitigating against thermal and voltage constraints.
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The project is 100 per cent owned by the Luminous and is the UK company’s first large-scale renewable energy development in Australia. It will also be its largest globally.
PwC is facilitating a sale and equity raising for the project on behalf of Luminous, and has shortlisted select parties to complete the transaction. The project is anticipated to start exporting energy to the National Electricity Market in the first quarter of 2021.
PwC has provided an integrated service offering to Luminous, including financial, commercial, legal, tax, accounting, modelling and transaction advisory support.