Great news.

Construction of the Newstead Solar Farm is under way and will be completed in the first quarter of 2024.

Households in Newstead will be able to sign up to source their electricity from the farm next year.*

What you can see happening now

Solar tracking systems are going in.

Solar panels will be installed next.

What’s yet to happen

Battery to be installed and connected

Power line to be extended from the Pyrenees Highway to the site

Panels to be connected. (Underground wiring will mean sheep can graze beneath the panels.)

Watch out for two key next steps in the first half of next year. They are:

(more…)

Have you been to Streaky Bay in South Australia recently?

There you’ll see a small-scale solar farm (3.10MW) that's slightly smaller than ours is planned to be (5MW in two stages).

It’s owned by the same company, Flow Power, that will build, own and operate our solar farm. The Streaky Bay solar farm supplies power mostly to South Australia’s Western Eyre Peninsula.

Our solar farm will be developed in two stages, each of 2.5MW and each with a 2MW battery.

Stage 1 is expected to over about eight hectares. The solar panels will cover about 35per cent of this area. Their size and dimensions are yet to be finalised.

The panels will track the sun from east to west each day and will be recyclable. They will be in rows 80-100 metres long with enough space between rows to allow access and to avoid significant inter-row shading.

A same sized second stage is planned and will go ahead is there is successful uptake of the first.stage.

Subscribe to our newsletter here for updates on the final design as soon as it becomes available.

In 2022 Newstead will start using the sun to generate power for our community.

Come & learn more on December 5 & 12

It’s nearly Christmas and we’re getting excited too because we are in the throes of finalising the contract to build our community-driven renewable energy project on Newstead’s outskirts in 2022.

Come and find out all about it on:

  • December 5: at Newstead on Show. Visit the Renewable Newstead stall. Meet new and long-time members of our RN team, ask questions & express interest in buying your power from the Newstead Solar Farm. Plus hear a special 20-minute project presentation from 10.15am. Newstead on Show - 10am-4pm at the Newstead Community Centre, Lyons St, Newstead.
  • December 12: Community gathering – This public forum is open to all, especially households and businesses in and around Newstead keen to support our project. 9.30am-11am at the Newstead Community Centre, Lyons St, Newstead

Find out things like:

  • what’s planned – what the Newstead Solar Farm will look like
  • equipment – the panels, inverters and battery (so energy can be stored for use at night) to be used
  • how ‘green’ our project is
  • who will be able to buy their electricity from the Newstead solar farm
  • planned construction timelines
  • what you can do to make our community’s dream to be powered by renewable energy come true

You’ll hear directly from the director and founder of our chosen partner, Flow Power, about why they’re keen to be involved in our community-driven project, how their values match ours and how competitive their power prices will be.

You’ll get a rundown from the RN team including on our 2022 countdown to construction, have plenty of opportunity to ask questions and hear how you can help make our community’s dream for our local renewable energy project come true.

Like prospective life partners, bringing our community and our solar farm builders/electricity retailers together feels a bit like introducing “the parents” to each other.

We think you’ll like them.