The project scope includes early works and concept and detailed design and involves construction support across geotechnical, environmental, civil, structural, and electrical disciplines.
SMEC was initially engaged during the early works to perform the geotechnical investigations, conceptual design and pile design works in June 2020. SMEC’s teams are highly experienced in delivering geotechnical investigations and pile design works for renewable energy projects, having delivered more than 80 such projects over the past three years.
“Once the New England Solar Farm is completed, SMEC will have been directly involved in the development, design and delivery of over 10 GW of utility-scale solar farms in Australia, a significant contribution to Australia’s renewable energy future. This has been made possible due to SMEC’s outstanding project team, led by Senior Project Manager Julie Tom,” says Alberto Costa, SMEC’s NSW Manager for Power and Energy.
“We are looking forward to working with SMEC in what is expected to be the biggest solar farm in Australia,” said Miquel Bordera, GLC’s Head of Engineering.
Spanish company Elecnor is a global leader in the renewable energy sector and has successfully delivered more than 370 MW of large-scale solar farms in Australia. The New England Solar Farm is being developed by leading renewable energy developer UPC\AC Renewables Australia across two solar fields near Uralla in the New England region of NSW.
The solar farm will be built in two stages, with the first 400MW (AC) stage and the 33/330 kilovolt (kV) substation being installed by GLC across the northern section of the site.
Once fully constructed, the project is expected to produce 1,800,000 megawatt hours (MWh) of clean, renewable electricity each year; enough to power more than 250,000 typical NSW homes.
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