Limondale Site Journal

Construction of Australias biggest PV power plant

Belectric is building a new solar photovoltaic plant at Limondale with a installed capacity of 349 megawatts. This large-scale plant will be located in Australia at Balranald, New South Wales. The solar farm will be made up of approximately 872,000 panels and cover an area of 900 hectares which is equivalent in size to around 415 football fields. Full commercial operation is expected mid of 2020.

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349000

kWp installed capacity

872000

modules

9000000

square meter

Limondale Project

2020
26/04/2020

Piling works are completed

  • All 58,000 piles have been installed on site
  • The final inverter station has been landed – there are a total of 57 stations positioned throughout the site
  • The site workforce is being reduced as construction is nearing completion
27/03/2020

Limondale 2 achieves full output of 29MWp

  • Grid tests of Limondale 2, the smaller first part of the site, are progressing well and the site is now allowed to export electricity to the grid at its full capacity
  • Over 818,000 of the 876,000 PV panels are now installed
  • Less than 1,000 piles of the total 58,000 remain to be installed
27/02/2020

80% of PV panels installed

80% of PV panels installed
  • PV panels have been installed at recent rates of approx. 30,000 per week, and installation of the trackers also continues to progress well
  • Almost all construction components have now been delivered to site
  • Grid connection and commissioning tests of Limondale 2, the smaller first part of the site, continue and its electricity export to the grid is slowly being increased
16/01/2020

Construction works off to a flying start after Christmas break

Construction works off to a flying start after Christmas break
  • A record number of 47,000 PV panels were installed in just one week, taking the total to 490,000 or 56% of the 876,000 panels installed
  • 49,000 of the 58,000 piles are now in the ground
  • Limondale 2, the smaller first part of the site, has started detailed grid connection and commissioning tests
2019
20/12/2019

First electricity exported

  • The substation of the bigger second part of the site (Limondale 1) has successfully been energised and the first electricity generated
  • Limondale 1 will now be sequentially commissioned over the next months, as construction works continue to progress
  • Limondale 2, the smaller first part of the site, has successfully achieved market registration and will commence a period of detailed grid connection and commissioning tests in 2020
24/10/2019

Construction update and Interviews

  • New pictures of the construction progress.
  • Interviews with project managers and engineers
07/10/2019

Foundations for all 57 inverter stations complete

  • 35 of the inverter stations have so far been installed Cabling works are progressing well
  • The main transformer for the substation of the bigger second part of the site (Limondale 1) has been installed by grid operator TransGrid
06/09/2019

First electricity exported

First electricity exported
  • The substation for the smaller first part of the site (Limondale 2) has successfully been energised and we generated the first electricity from Limondale on 12th August
  • Over one third of the solar farm’s 58,000 piles are now installed
  • The new O&M building and adjacent store are nearing completion, which will house Limondale’s operational team
28/06/2019

Stunning facts and figures

Stunning facts and figures
From last weekly report:
  • 10,919 piles rammed
  • 82,470 modules installed
  • 22 MVPS installed
  • 22kV switch-room works ongoing
  • 14,816 metres of AC trenching complete
  • 5,595 metres of DC trenching complete
27/06/2019

Commissioning works continue

  • The grid connection for the smaller first part of the site has been completed by grid operator TransGrid
  • Commissioning works on the smaller substation and the SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) system are progressing
  • Installation and connection works of PV panels and tracker systems continue