Enel, through a joint venture between the Group's subsidiary for renewables Enel Green Power and the Dutch Infrastructure Fund, has just connected the Bungala Solar One photovoltaic solar plant (45 MW) to the grid with a first 137.7 MW connection line1 near Port Augusta in South Australia. The plant, which is now feeding energy into the Australian grid, is the first phase of Bungala Solar's solar PV park, which will have a total capacity in excess of 275 MW2, making it the largest PV plant currently operating in Australia.
“We have just reached a historic milestone for the Group, on a new continent: this is the first time that an Enel plant has introduced renewable energy into the Australian grid,” commented Antonio Cammisecra, head of Enel Green Power. “We now develop, own and operate generation assets on all continents, starting with Europe and expanding worldwide to Oceania with this unique project. We are only a few months away from the completion of this solar plant and we are looking carefully at the other opportunities offered by this country rich in renewable energy".
Enel's total investment in the 275 MW plant is approximately 157 million US dollars, out of a total of 315 million US dollars financed through a mix of equity and project finance through a consortium of local and international banks. The electricity generated by Bungala Solar will be fully commercialized under a long-term power supply agreement with one of Australia's leading utilities, Origin Energy.
The entire Bungala Solar plant, which is expected to enter into operation at the beginning of 2019, will be able to generate approximately 570 GWh once fully operational. The park will cover an area of approximately 600 hectares and will include approximately 800.000 polycrystalline photovoltaic modules mounted on structures equipped with monoaxial solar trackers which orient the panels according to the path of the sun from east to west, thus ensuring the generation of a quantity of higher energy than photovoltaic modules with fixed structures.
