Parkes Solar Farm

Project overview

Lead Organisation
Neoen
Location
Parkes, New South Wales
ARENA Program
Advancing Renewables Program
Start date
31 January 2017
End date
20 December 2021
Project Partners
None
This solar project was completed on 20 December 2021.

Summary

The Parkes Solar Farm Project will develop a 55MW (AC) solar photovoltaic (PV) farm.

How the project works

The Parkes Solar Farm project is one of 12 large-scale solar PV projects supported by ARENA to increase the nation’s experience in planning and building large scale solar PV and making it more competitive by increasing confidence and building supply chains. Once complete, the 12 projects are expected to triple the amount of electricity produced from big solar in Australia and unlock almost $1 billion of commercial investment in the technology.

Area of innovation

At the time of funding, the large-scale solar PV industry in Australia was in its infancy. The 12 new large- scale projects will change this by adding almost 500MW of new generation, powering 150,000 average Australian homes.

This project consists of:

Project Knowledge

Project reports

Contact

Name: Laszlo Csanyi, Construction Project Manager
Email: contact@parkessolarfarm.com.au

Last updated
27 July 2022

Learn more

Reports: The Generator Operations Series

In 2016, when the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) launched the $100 million Large-scale Solar funding round, renewable energy constituted a very small fraction of the energy mix.

Video: A Quiet Evolution – Parkes Solar Farm

The Parkes Solar Farm Project will develop a 55MW (AC) solar photovoltaic (PV) farm.

Image: Parkes Solar Farm

Sunset at the Parkes Solar Farm.

Benefit

By supporting Parkes Solar Farm and other large-scale solar projects, ARENA is making the benefits of solar available to more Australian energy consumers. It is anticipated that the Project will generate enough energy to power some 15,000 average Australian homes.

The cost trajectory of large-scale solar PV has seen the technology become competitive without additional support. The competitive round was critical in supporting this outcome by helping to close the cost gap that existed between large-scale solar PV and other commercially competitive forms of power generation, including wind energy.

ARENA will be sharing knowledge from the Large Scale Solar competitive round projects on a range of topics, from construction techniques, solar forecasting and capital costs, to Operations and Maintenance (O&M) practices and grid impacts.

Parkes Solar Farm website