Port Augusta’s $650 million solar plant funds delayed, but will be operational by 2021
FUNDING for Port Augusta’s $650 million solar plant will be completed early next year, despite SolarReserve engaging a lobbyist, the company says.
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PORT Augusta’s $650 million solar plant won’t switch on until 2021 because of delays in securing funding for the much-vaunted project.
SolarReserve says construction on the project is scheduled to be completed in 2020, but commissioning and commercial operation won’t begin until 2021.
The company also said it had not hired lobbyist Diplomacy Pty Ltd due to any difficulties in securing financing for the 150MW project, despite the process taking “longer than envisaged”.
It stressed the plant was still on track to be built by 2020, as it announced a memorandum of understanding with a South Australian supplier to produce the project’s heliostats – mirrors that reflect sunlight to a central point.
It will work with Heliostat SA to supply and assemble the solar thermal plant’s more than 12,800 heliostats.
At its 2017 launch, SolarReserve initially spruiked construction would begin in 2018.
The company acknowledged its development activities had taken longer than anticipated, but said interest from financiers remained strong. It said a deal to supply 100 per cent of the State’s Government’s energy needs – slated to agree in 2020 – would be unaffected by the delay. It is expected a bridging power supply contract struck with Sanjeev Gupta’s SIMEC ZEN Energy to be extended.
Diplomacy listed SolarReserve as its client on the lobbyist register, but SolarReserve’s spokeswoman said the company was its “strategic communication consultant” and not lobbying MPs on its behalf.
“Any advocacy for the project we do ourselves, whether to politicians, investors, or the community,” the spokeswoman said.
The spokeswoman said SolarReserve was nearing the end of its “development activities” for the Aurora project, and was finalising a tender process for an engineering, procurement and construction contractor.