NEXTracker, a Flex company, has announced that 3 gigawatts (GW) of its award-winning smart solar trackers have been delivered or are under fulfillment in Australia as the utility, distributed generation (DG) and commercial and industrial (C&I) solar market continues to grow.
NEXTracker vice president Australia and Southeast Asia Pete Wheale said the company has built its Australian commercial program to provide its customers with exceptional service driven by its understanding of the country’s geotechnical an environmental conditions, energy policy and legal landscape.
“The Australian C&I distributed generation market is booming, and we are uniquely positioned to support the growing needs of our customers on large and small projects with advanced solar and storage technologies, further laying the foundation for our expansion in Southeast Asia,” Mr Wheale said.
Rystad Energy head of Australia and global renewables Gero Farruggio said NEXTracker was one of the first companies to be involved in the rise of Australia’s large-scale solar industry.
“By 2025, Australia is expected to rise to nearly 23 GW of solar capacity with most of it coming from distributed generation projects,” Mr Farruggio said.
“NEXTracker’s understanding of the local market and its portfolio of solar smart trackers makes it well-poised to be an integral part of this growth.”
Related article: Construction milestone at Bomen Solar Farm
NEXTracker’s technology was selected for the following projects because of its award-winning TrueCapture software control system, flexible independent row architecture and its optimized bifacial solar tracker:
- Located in Wagga Wagga, New South Wales, the Bomen Solar Farm is a 120 megawatt power plant, employing 250 workers, with construction provided by Beon Energy Solutions, owned by Spark Infrastructure. Selected for its bifacial-optimized solar tracker, NX Horizon, the project, once constructed, will provide enough power for the equivalent of 36,000 Australian homes.
- The SA Water Project: NEXTracker has contracted with Adelaide-based engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) firm, Enerven to supply trackers to five water pumping and treatment stations which amounts to 28 MW of South Australia’s largest portfolio of DG solar power plants. The projects are part of SA Water’s plan to achieve a zero cost energy future by building out 154 megawatts (MW) of solar on more than 70 sites to power its water facilities.
- Bungala Solar Plant Project: NEXTracker provided its smart solar tracking system to Enel Green Power for one of Australia’s largest solar power plants in South Australia. The Bungala Solar 1 and 2 power plants feature both NEXTracker’s NX Horizon smart solar trackers and the state-of-the-art TrueCapture control system. The plants will surpass 570 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of energy, generating enough electricity annually to meet the consumption needs of over 82,000 Australian households while offsetting more than 520,000 tons of carbon emissions.
Related article: Bungala Solar Farm achieves several clean energy firsts
