Financial milestone for Carnegie microgrid project

Solar panel array under blue sky (chinese solar)
Image: Shutterstock

Carnegie Clean Energy has received a $1.63 million grant milestone progress payment from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) for its Garden Island Microgrid Project in Western Australia.

Carnegie Clean Energy will build the 2MW solar and 0.5MWh battery storage system, which is expected to be the largest embedded, grid-connected solar and battery microgrid in Australia.

The WA Garden Island facility, in conjunction with the desalination plant already built by Carnegie on the island, will supply power and water to the HMAS Stirling naval base, which is the largest of its kind in Australia.

 “Carnegie has now received $2.3 million of a total $2.5 million funding package from ARENA to support the Garden Island Microgrid Project,” the company said in a statement.

“ARENA’s funding package for the project is comprised of $700,000 grant funding and $1.8 million of convertible note funding.

“Carnegie will now issue $1.6 million in convertible notes to ARENA. The ARENA convertible notes will prima facie be unsecured debt with 0 per cent interest over a six-year term and can be converted by ARENA to ordinary shares in Carnegie at a conversion price of $0.053 per share.

“The final $200,000 in convertible notes will be issued to ARENA upon commissioning.”

Construction of the frames and solar panels is now complete as is the installation of the battery energy storage system, inverters and transformers.

Work now moves to completion of cabling, testing and commissioning.

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