Construction commences on Darlington Point Solar Farm in the Riverina, NSW

Construction recently commenced on what is set to be one of Australia’s largest solar farms, Darlington Point Solar Farm, located near Griffith in New South Wales.

Signal Energy Australia Pty Ltd will construct the solar farm with completion anticipated in 2020, contributing to making the Griffith region a leading renewable energy hub in New South Wales.

Located adjacent to the Transgrid substation, the Darlington Point Solar Farm will diversify the region’s energy mix and will consist of Photovoltaic (PV) solar panels, inverter stations, a switch room and a battery yard with a 100MWh battery energy storage system.

EPS began work with Arup and Edify Energy in early 2017 in order to complete biodiversity assessments and associated reporting to inform a best-practice management and assessment approach for the proposed project works. The field surveys consisted of floristic plots, targeted seasonal flora surveys and targeted seasonal fauna surveys for threatened species such as the Plains Wanderer and Corben’s Long-eared Bat.

Following these works, navigation of the residual biodiversity offsets requirements for the project in association with the preparation of a Biodiversity Assessment Report (BAR) was conducted, resulting in fit-for-purpose recommendations in consideration of proposal impacts. The BAR report was subsequently placed on Public Exhibition in mid-2018 and was approved in December 2018.