Yarranlea Solar Farm
The Yarranlea Solar Farm development will see the extensive generation of solar energy, to provide for the Toowoomba area. SMEC’s extensive service offering exceeded the client’s requests and produce high-quality solutions on the completion of the project.

The Yarranlea Solar Farm located approximately 50km west of Toowoomba, Queensland, is a 100-megawatt AC solar farm. The farm produces enough energy to power 32,000 homes and connects to the power grid using the existing Ergon Energy infrastructure, located adjacent to the site development. The solar farm is responsible for transmitting power into Toowoomba via the Middle Ridge Bulk Supply Substation.

Client

Risen Energy

Year

2017 – 2020

Location

Queensland, Australia

Expertise
Solar Energy Civil & Structural Engineering
100
MW
AC solar farm
32000
The farm will power 32,000 homes
30
years
The facility has an operating life of 30 years
6.4
GW
SMEC has been directly involved in the development of over 6.4GW worth of utility-scale solar farms in Australia

SMEC’s expertise enabled the delivery of key solutions

SMEC was engaged to develop Yarranlea solar farm in 2017 and completed the project and generator registration in early 2020. SMEC utilised its role and expertise to deliver key solutions that enabled the latest PV panel technology and plans for integrated battery storage to be applied, allowing for the solar farm to supply power to the grid during periods of peak demand.

Extensive service offering

SMEC successfully impacted the Yarranlea project through its extensive service offering provided to customers. SMEC was initially engaged to undertake the design of certain components on the solar farm including:

  • Civil design, roads, bulk earthworks, erosion and sediment control, and foundations for various pieces of equipment
  • Electrical design including DC and AC distribution, earthing, communications, and specification of specific items such as inverter stations, and combiner boxes.

 

Our extensive service offering, and the high quality of the work delivered by SMEC’s specialist team resulted in positive project outcomes and therefore the client’s request to dramatically expand the scope of work. The scope of work was expanded to include the following:

  • Pile design on behalf of the tracker manufacturer
  • Council approval of changes to the Development Approval
  • Scopes of works for construction contractors
  • Electrical and lighting design of O&M building
  • Pile refusal plan and pile remediation plan
  • Construction support
  • Earth grid testing
  • Protections settings
  • As-built drawings
  • Performance testing regime
  • Flood modelling

 

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