Great news.
Construction of the Newstead Solar Farm is under way and will be completed in the first quarter of 2024.
Households in Newstead will be able to sign up to source their electricity from the farm next year.*
What you can see happening now
Solar tracking systems are going in.
Solar panels will be installed next.
What’s yet to happen
Battery to be installed and connected
Power line to be extended from the Pyrenees Highway to the site
Panels to be connected. (Underground wiring will mean sheep can graze beneath the panels.)
Watch out for two key next steps in the first half of next year. They are:
- a community open day on site
- an offer from our farm builder and electricity retail partner Flow Power to sign up as customers. People who have previously signed an expression of interest (EOI) don’t need to do so again – RN has your EOI.
What you can do
Click on the RN website here to register your interest in signing up to become a Flow Power customer. This is an expression of interest, not a commitment to, buying your power from Flow Power.
Click here to go on the RN mailing list.
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Background stuff
Volunteers behind Renewable Newstead, the group that’s worked to get renewable energy generated locally, are delighted.
“We’ve all been visiting the site, some of us daily, to check on progress since construction began in earnest earlier this month.” RN's Convenor Geoff Park said.
The farm is on 6.2 hectares, less than 3km from town. It’s estimated it will produce six times Newstead’s annual power use.
Excess energy will be stored in a 5MWh battery energy storage system and traded to maximise returns and keep the project commercially viable.
Included will be rows of solar panels 80-100metres long and six meters apart with 4320 panels set on a tracking system that follows the sun to maximise energy generation.
*Until all coal and gas fired electricity generators are closed down, all grid electricity is a mix of renewable and non-renewable (i.e. coal and gas-fired) energy.
