Cork based renewable energy developer DP Energy moves toward construction of its Port Augusta hybrid wind and solar project in South Australia (SA) with Spanish energy giant Iberdrola. Construction on the ground-breaking project is to commence in mid-2020.

Established more than 20 years ago, DP Energy has successfully delivered 13 renewable energy projects totalling 400MW in various jurisdictions with a further pipeline of projects totalling more than 2000MW under development across Australia, Canada, Ireland and the UK. These projects variously incorporate both on and off-shore wind, solar and tidal energy technologies, with PAREP selected as the first hybrid renewable facility.

With a history of more than 170 years, Iberdrola is a global energy leader, the number-one producer of wind power and one of the world’s biggest electricity utilities by market capitalisation. The group supplies energy to more than 100 million people in the countries in which it operates.

The Port Augusta Renewable Energy Park (PAREP) is one of the new generation of renewable projects designed to provide predictable power more uniformly across the day and when complete will be one of the southern hemisphere’s largest hybrid renewable power stations. The Project is projected to produce approximately 900 gigawatt hours (GWh) per annum, enough to power around 180,000 households each year, with an emissions saving of approximately 400,000 metric tonnes of CO2 annually.

DP Energy CEO Simon De Pietro welcomed Iberdrola’s participation in the project. “We are delighted to have partnered with Iberdrola on this project. The company is a global energy leader with a track record of 31GW of renewable capacity amongst other activities. It’s exciting that they’ve chosen PAREP for their first investment in Australia and we are enthusiastic to see the project commence construction. DP Energy will continue to work with stakeholders and the local community and support Iberdrola through construction and commissioning,” Mr De Pietro said. He went on to explain that PAREP is one of the new large scale projects currently being developed by DP worldwide, including a number of utility scale solar projects in Canada and onshore and offshore wind in Ireland. ‘DP Energy is focused on the delivery of renewable energy when and where it is needed to support the transition to a fossil fuel free future’.

Country Manager Fernando Santa Maria said collaborating with the DP Energy team and securing investment for Iberdrola’s first project in Australia was an important milestone. “A 320MW hybrid wind and solar project is of great significance to our team and we look forward to being involved in South Australia throughout the lifetime of the project,” Mr Santa Maria said.

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