Australia So Much to See

The Merredin Solar Farm is located on 462 hectares of former farming and grazing country. The site is adjacent to the Western Power Merredin Terminal Substation and will connect to the substation at 220kV.

Merredin Energy Pty Ltd (MEPL) has developed the 82 MW open cycle gas turbine power station. It comprises two efficient and low emission GE gas turbine generators, with associated plant equipment, and operates as a reserve capacity power station.

Risen Energy developed this facility, and SUN Energy currently operates the 132MW Merredin Solar Farm on Robartson Road, to the south west of the town of Merredin.

With a generation capacity of 100MW, Merredin Solar Farm is the largest solar farm in Western Australia and will have an expected output of 281GWh of electricity annually, generating enough energy to power approximately 42,000 Western Australian homes. The solar farm consists of approximately 360,000 panels mounted on a single axis tracking system.

Through a PPA signed with BHP in February 2021, the solar farm also supplies BHP Nickel West’s Kwinana Refinery with 50MW of Merredin’s capacity until 2031, covering up to 50% of the refinery’s electricity use.

Merredin is well situated for solar and wind power. Wind turbines of the Collgar Wind Farm are approximately 25 kilometres south east of the town.

The plant is designed to run on average for around 100 hours per year, during periods of extremely hot weather in the Perth metropolitan area when the power draw is the greatest.

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Adjacent to the Merredin Solar Power farm is the Western Power Merredin Terminal Substation together with the 82 MW open cycle gas turbine power station. Both generation sources feed into the state grid through this substation.

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Follow our touring around Merredin on the following pages