The 212MW Lincoln Gap Wind Farm in South Australia is one step closer to construction, with ERM Power signing deals to buy the renewable energy it will generate.
ERM announced it had signed two Large-scale Generation Certificate offtake agreements with Nexif Energy this week.
Managing director and CEO Jon Stretch said it was gratifying to support a project that had been a long time in development and which delivered new renewable sources of energy in Australia.
“We’re helping deliver new wind and solar energy into the system like this Nexif Energy wind project due to commence construction west of Port Augusta this year,” he said.
“ERM Power delivers 20 per cent of the energy fuelling business, government and industrials in Australia, which has enabled us to underpin the construction of new renewable infrastructure.”
The agreement with Nexif will see ERM Power purchase LGCs produced by the Lincoln Gap Wind Farm in coming years.
This is one of the two renewables projects flagged by ERM Power in its half-year financial results in February.
Additionally, in March, ERM Power announced it had signed a power and LGC offtake agreement with Edify Energy to underpin construction of the 58MW large-scale Hamilton Solar Farm in regional Queensland.
ERM Power will purchase all of the energy and LGCs produced by the Hamilton Solar Farm.
Mr Stretch said today’s announcement further reinforced the company’s commitment to supporting the growth of renewable sources of energy in Australia.
“Reducing emissions from the electricity sector is an important part of a long-term plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” he said.
“The need for an orderly transition to low emissions electricity generation is obvious.
“There is a huge opportunity and responsibility to get the transition from fossil fuels to renewables right, given the significant impact on the energy market, economy, jobs and our environment.”
Nexif Energy acquired the Lincoln Gap and Glen Innes wind farms in January.
Both projects have reached an advanced stage of development and Nexif intends to commence construction in the first quarter in 2017.