Energy Matters Forums

[James1979]

Hello guys,

Does any body have a idea about how much cents/kwh will a retailer purchase from an large scale solar farm like around 1o megawatt capacity in NSW?

[Gordon-Loomberah]

Welcome to the Energy Matters Forums James

I would think large solar farms will generally be getting the current wholesale market rate, unless they have a contract to supply a single user with their entire output.

[James1979]

Hi Gordon,

Thank you for the prompt reply and the warm welcome for me, I did some google and look up the AEMO website, the average price for wholesale in NSW is like $56/MWh. which is like 5.6cent/KWh? Is that possible for solar farm to make money?

[Gordon-Loomberah]

You can see it in near real time here:
https://www.aemo.com.au/Electricity/Nat ... -dashboard

Yes, you will get a much better rate retailing it yourself. If you are going to build a large solar farm, I know of some people that might be interested in buying the output. However, there will be all sorts of rules and regs in place that you have to negotiate to get past the existing marklet structure.

[James1979]

Thanks for the info, just one more question, if the existed large scale solar farm like Moree Solar farm have a 56 MW plant, assume they generated 100 MWh per annual and if we can improve the output by 50% more without installed additional solar panels. Will the solar farm owner need to renegotiated the terms with the grid owner or get approval from the government?

[Gordon-Loomberah]

I think Moree already has single axis trackers to improve capacity factor. No doubt the expected output has to be negotiated with AEMO when things are being negotiated initially. You'd have to talk to the market operator about any increases in output for an existing solar farm.

[James1979]

They do have a tracker system in place, . so when you said talk to the market operator, are you referring about AEMO or the solar farm owner? Sorry for asking some many questions and thank you for the help.

[Gordon-Loomberah]

I suspect the solar farm owner wouldnt be giving out any confidential information, you'd have to talk to the AEMO about specific terms and conditions.

[James1979]

Yeah I think so too.. the all those large solar farm owner will need to negotiated the rate with their local retailers? I just wondering do you a roughly idea about how much can the $/KWh those solar farm owner can get? like 20cents sound possible???

[Gordon-Loomberah]

I'm afraid I have no idea about the negotiations carried on by the large solar farm operators, except that when you are a generator and a retailer you are likely to be in a better postion than having to buy from the wholesale market.
This forum probably isn't the ideal place to be doing market research