A team of renewable newcomers are behind a $190 million plan to build a solar farm by the Forrest Highway which would feed power to industrial projects and the state’s first EV servo.
A team of renewable newcomers are behind a $190 million plan to build a solar farm by the Forrest Highway which would feed power to industrial projects and the state’s first EV servo.
The proposed Binningup Solar Farm would see 75 megawatts of solar power generation and a 55MW battery storage system built on a former farm in the Kemerton industry buffer zone.
It is the brainchild of Tonic Group, a Bunbury-based outfit better known for construction work at BHP and Albemarle mine sites.
Tonic Renewables has signed a preliminary deal to supply power to Green Steel of WA’s proposed Collie steel mill and is targeting offtake agreements with Water Corporation’s Binningup desalination plant and Simcoa.
Tonic Group director Andrew Dobson said the company’s engineering team had been cleared to get to work.
“They are currently going through detailed design and power connection, and once we get that steady state detailed design, and Western Power give us the green light to connect, we go to construction,” he said.
“This is solely owned by three of us, we have forked out our own capital spend, we haven't received a cent to date until we get to construction from any outside entities.
“We are not waiting for government funds, we are not waiting for someone down the street to invest a little bit extra to keep us moving, we are driving it ourselves.”
Part of the project would see an electric vehicle fast-charging service station built adjacent to the site.
Mr Dobson said he was unsure of the demand for such a facility, but said Tonic was keen to build the servo regardless to test the waters.
Being an unknown in the renewables sector, and a small company, has presented issues for Tonic Group.
Without an army of advisors at his beck and call, Mr Dobson said navigating government systems had proven a challenge.
“[The government has] probably been our biggest hurdle, most projects of this the size will say the same thing,” he said.
“Approvals, buying, support; it is very difficult to navigate the process and the system of who you need to talk to to get interest from the government.
“You have got Empowering WA, AEMO, Western Power, and then you have got your government officials.
“There's no central point that actually deals with all those separate processes.”
Mr Dobson said another challenge had been attracting domestic investors, which had grown weary of endless promises in the renewables sector.
That has led Tonic to tap international financiers instead.
“We tried for about 12 months. We approached hundreds of people, to be honest, and it was very difficult to get anybody on board,” Mr Dobson said.
“A lot of the feedback we got was that a lot of renewable projects are being spoken about, but only a handful of those projects actually happened.”
Tonic aims to start construction in 2026 and have the plant online by early 2028.
An additional 45MW of battery storage would be built under stage two of the project.
Mr Dobson said Tonic was scouring the Pilbara and Southern Cross for a second project.
He said the Pilbara had so far proven a difficult environment to stand a renewable energy project up.
