From gravel pit to solar farm: Pioneering community project nears completion

It’s been a long journey, but after 10 years of grit, determination and collaboration, construction is underway on one of Australia’s pioneering community renewables projects, the Goulburn Community Solar Farm in New South Wales.

First conceived back in 2014 by local residents under the Goulburn Community Energy Co-operative formed by Community Energy 4 Goulburn (CE4G), the 1.35MW solar farm is being built alongside a 2.2MWh battery in the NSW Southern Tablelands.

As CE4G president Peter Fraser put it in 2020, the many hundreds of locals who collectively raised $2.6 million for the project “demonstrated a strong regional appetite for renewable energy and ethical investments,” despite being in the federal electorate of noted LNP renewables opponent and then federal energy minister Angus Taylor.

CE4G secured a contract with local outfit Komo Energy for development services of the solar farm in August 2019, and in March 2020, won a $2.1 million grant from the state government to add battery storage.

Also in 2020, CE4G’s dedication to sustainability and ethical development led them to cut ties with the project’s inverter supplier, Siemens, over the companty’s support of the massive Adani coal mine in Queensland.

Four years later, and with Smart Commercial Solar on board, the solar farm is underway.

Notably, it will be the world’s first project to use a full suite of Trina Solar products, including Vertex N bifacial modules, TrinaTracker Fix Origin fixed-tilt racking, and the China-based company’s new Elementa battery energy storage system – its first deployment in Australia.

“The Goulburn Solar farm is significant because it’s a solar farm started by local local investors and also it’s the first project in Australia to combine our module energy storage and tracker [technology],” says Edison Zhou, Trina Solar head of Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands.

“As solar projects become increasingly complex, having a single procurement source helps to streamline processes, allowing for faster delivery, and unified after-sales service. This approach not only reduces costs but also ensures efficiency.”

Years of grit, figuratively and literally

And yet, aside from the decision to build a community solar farm, not much about this project has been easy.

In fact, in sharp contrast to the claims from Australia’s political far right of a “reckless” roll out of poorly regulated renewables developments, the approvals process for the small, community-owned project has been grueling.

“Smart [Commercial Solar] became involved in sort of mid-2020, bidding on the work, and then we’ve worked very closely [Komo and CE4G] since then,” James Duckworth told One Step Off The Grid in Sydney on Tuesday.

“We had to get a lot of approvals for this project. It was one of those sites that the community were able to get hold of quite well, but Council approvals are extremely difficult.

“It’s in a catchment area, so the mitigation of any runoff causing turbidity in the water was really, really high. There was some landfill issues on the site that had to be investigated. So yeah, the planning and commissions took a lot longer than anyone could have originally considered.

Smart Commercial Solar says the site chosen for the solar farm was not agricultural land but a former gravel washing pit that was sold to CE4G by a local earth-moving company.

“Which is ironic,” Duckworth adds, “since we had so many runoff issues.”

But after an “enormous amount” of water and land management, civil works are underway at the Goulburn site and Smart Commercial Solar expects to break ground on the solar element in mid-April, bringing to life the community’s long-held vision of generating their own renewable power.

“They are particularly concerned about trying to mitigate climate change as a community,” Duckworth said this week.

“And they benefit from the fact that they’re going to be able to offer power [solar] purchase deals.

“No one has to participate in the [project]… but people will be given the opportunity to buy from a retailer at a discounted rate the solar the farm will be feeding to the grid.”