Construction on GFG Cultana solar farm weeks away, to bring a welcome jobs to Whyalla
A $350 million solar farm key to Sanjeev Gupta’s dreams for Whyalla could be under construction within weeks, promising hundreds of jobs and welcome economic relief.
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The groundbreaking Cultana solar farm is only weeks away from starting construction, with the project set to provide a welcome jobs boost to Whyalla during the COVID-19 crisis.
The $350 million project was announced by GFG owner Sanjeev Gupta in 2018 and is set to become the largest solar farm in Australia, generating enough energy to power 100,000 homes each year.
The project is being headed by SIMEC Energy, which is part of GFG.
SIMEC chief executive Marc Barrington said the project is coming to the end of the approvals phase and construction is now on the horizon.
“Projects these days have a number of hurdles to go through, but where we are currently is we have our financing sorted and we have our construction agreement sorted and we are just waiting on the completion of the performance standard test,” Mr Barrington said.
“Once we have that we can start construction and it is possible that all that will be sorted by late June or early July and we would start construction immediately.”
The construction process is expected to take 12 months and will create more than 750 jobs, with the majority going to locals in the area.
Whyalla Council chief executive Kristen Clark said the start of construction could not come at a better time for the community.
“This news is particularly welcome now, as we look to a future post COVID-19,” Mr Clark said.
“Coupled with other exciting projects underway in Whyalla at the moment, such as building a new iconic loop jetty and construction commencing on a brand new state of the art high school, the future is looking optimistic.”
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The 280MW solar farm will be the first step in Sanjeev Gupta’s vision for a green steelworks site in Whyalla.
While this is a huge win for GFG and SIMEC, Mr Barrington said the biggest winners to come out of the project will be the community of Whyalla and the Australian economy.
“We see this as being substantially important for the community of Whyalla, at its peak during construction we will see around 750 people employed with the majority coming from the Upper Spencer Gulf region,” he said.
“These are great jobs and it will be a 12 month construction process and there will be ongoing jobs after that, so a project like this is really important to get people working in this country.”
The solar farm is expected to be finished construction and operational by July 2021.
