
Australian infrastructure company Downer has secured a contrac worth A$165m ($113m) from Alinta Energy Transmission for the Chichester solar farm.
Downer will be responsible for the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) of the solar farm and the development of power infrastructure in the Pilbara region in Western Australia as part of the Chichester Solar Gas Hybrid Project.
Downer CEO Grant Fenn said: “We are looking forward to delivering the project in partnership with Alinta Energy and we are expecting an efficient integration of the solar farm and supporting power infrastructure into Alinta Energy’s existing network in the Pilbara.”
The company will construct the 60MW Chichester solar farm, about 60km of the transmission line, two new substations and upgrade another substation.
As part of the Chichester Solar Gas project, a new solar photovoltaic generation facility will be constructed at the Fortescue Metals Group’s Chichester Hub iron ore operations.
Additionally, the project will include a new 60km electricity transmission line that will connect the Fortescue’s Christmas Creek and Cloudbreak mining operations with Alinta Energy’s Newman gas-fired power station and a battery facility with a 35MW capacity.

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By GlobalDataAlinta Energy managing director and CEO Jeff Dimery said: “Working together, we are on the cusp of demonstrating that renewables can drive Australia’s economic powerhouses forward – even for remote and complex industrial applications.”
The project is expected to be completed in the first half of 2021.
This is not the first renewable energy project Alinta Energy agreed to help construct this year. In February 2019 the company awarded a contract to Danish renewable energy company Vestas to build the 214MW Yandin windfarm in Dandaragan, 175km north of Perth.