Energy

Carnegie Clean Energy wins bright solar farm opportunity in NSW

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By Filip Karinja - 
Carnegie Clean Energy ASX CCE solar farm Newcastle New South Wales
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Renewable energy momentum continues to build at Carnegie Clean Energy (ASX: CCE) as it announces its third major commercially-generative deal in the space of two weeks.

Earlier today, Carnegie revealed that through one of its subsidiaries (Energy Made Clean), it had won a $7 million contract to design, construct, operate and maintain a 5-megawatt solar photovoltaic (PV) solar farm in Newcastle, New South Wales (NSW).

Carnegie claims to be “the only company in the world to offer a combination of wave, solar, wind, battery storage and desalination via microgrids,” and considers these renewable energy sources as the ideal type for off-grid communities in remote locations.

Within Australia, Carnegie delivers its solar energy and battery storage projects via a joint-venture deal between Energy Made Clean and multinational property and infrastructure company Lendlease (ASX: LLC).

Carnegie won the contract after a nationwide tender process was conducted by the City of Newcastle, to be located on a capped former landfill site at the Summerhill Waste Management Centre (SWMC) as part of the council’s plan to cut its emissions by 30% by 2020.

The Newcastle Summerhill Solar Project

The SWMC is part of Newcastle Council’s pledge to achieve 30% renewable energy generation to offset electricity consumption within the Newcastle local government area by 2020.

The proposed site is located in Wallsend, NSW with Newcastle City Council owning and operating the SWMC.

The area designated for the solar farm facility is currently a building and construction waste landfill site which will be repurposed to install battery storage systems “that could provide electric fleet charging and demand response capabilities,” according to Carnegie.

Past agreements and future power

Today’s announcement means Carnegie adds yet another commercially viable project to its books, now exceeding $30 million in the last two months.

This early commercial momentum is expected to translate into substantive returns when its range of renewables projects are finally completed with renewable energy being sold into state power grids.

To make its latest Newcastle deal possible, Carnegie harnessed its subsidiary Energy Made Clean.

Energy Made Clean signed a key 50/50 joint-venture agreement with Lendlease in December 2016, which by extension allowed Carnegie to increase its capacity to bid for and deliver a broader range of solar, Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) and microgrid opportunities within Australia, including increased access to the National Energy Market (NEM).

As Small Caps reported earlier this month, Carnegie won a tender to build a BESS facility in Kalbarri, Western Australia.

In addition Carnegie also won a tender process to negotiate a lease for 250 hectares within the Buffer Zone of the Mungari Strategic Industrial Area.

Lendlease’s Services business currently employs approximately 3,000 people and has a presence in all Australian states, thereby providing Carnegie with plentiful countrywide access to renewable energy contract opportunities.

“We are delighted to have won our first utility-scale solar farm project in NSW and our first to be connected in the National Electricity Market. This project brings the value of new contracted work for our joint venture to over $30 million over the past 2 months,” said Dr Michael Ottaviano, Managing Director of Carnegie Clean Energy.

Carnegie says that solar farm plan design will commence immediately with commissioning expected at the end of Q3 2018. The solar farm is expected to be installed as “a ground mounted fixed tilt system and utilising an optimised piling system to suit the site topology” which Carnegie sees as being critical to facilitating future inter-compatibility with battery energy storage systems.