Fotowatio Renewable Ventures (FRV), part of Abdul Latif Jameel Energy and a leading global developer of renewable utility-scale projects, has successfully completed the construction of the Goonumbla 69.75 MW AC solar farm, in New South Wales, Australia.

In 2018, FRV signed a Power Purchase Agreement, or PPA, for the project with Snowy Hydro after being awarded the project in Snowy’ s Renewable Energy Procurement Program.  FRV secured financing for the project one year ago, provided by ING and DZ Bank with ING taking the majority stake in the financing package.

Located approximately 10 Km west of the town of Parkes and 280 Km North West of Sydney in New South Wales, the plant is now connected to the national grid and produce approximately 195,000 MWh of clean energy every year.  This power output is enough to supply energy to more than 45,000 Australian households and avoid the emission of around 140,000 tons of CO2 annually.  Goonumbla Solar Farm continues to contribute to the economic development of the area.  Its construction involved the creation of up to 250 jobs, 7 of which now remain with the plant becoming operational.

FRV has developed and secured PPAs for a total of seven solar projects in Australia, operating and committed with an accumulated investment of over US $700 million since 2012: Royalla (20 MW ac) in the Australian Capital Territory, Clare (100 MWac) and Lilyvale (100 MW ac) in Queensland, Moree (56 MW ac), Goonumbla (69.75 MWac) and Sebastopol (90 MWac) in New South Wales and Winton (85 MWac) in Victoria. 

Carlo Frigerio, Managing Director of FRV in Australia, said:

“We are glad to successfully deliver this project which is our first PPA with Snowy Hydro. It proves that a consolidated player like FRV is capable of delivering top quality solar farms notwithstanding the increased challenges in the Australian renewable energy market and generally in a moment of global turmoil”.

Fady Jameel, Deputy President and Vice Chairman of Abdul Latif Jameel, reiterated Abdul Latif Jameel Energy’s commitment in this sector with FRV:

“Together with FRV, Abdul Latif Jameel Energy is committed to developing the renewable energy sector and delivering clean energy solutions. We are proud to be part of Australia’s transition to sustainable energy. The completion of the Goonumbla Solar Farm shows the fantastic progress we are making in this vital sector.”

Paul Broad, Snowy Hydro CEO, further commented:

“We are delighted with the news that FRV has completed construction of its Goonumbla power station and will begin supplying renewable power. As part of the ongoing commitment of Snowy Hydro to supporting the growth of renewables in Australia, we have contracted over 1,000 MW of clean, green energy projects, Goonumbla being one of those transactions.  To complement the deployment of intermittent renewables technologies into the grid and to help firm them up, we are committed to the development of the 2,000 MW pumped storage hydro Snowy 2.0 project which is moving full steam ahead.  We look forward to working with FRV on further renewables projects and being able to take this renewable energy and sell it to commercial and industrial customers who are seeking cost effective, long term clean energy contracts.”