OUR DIVISIONS
Canigou Australian Solar Energy (CASE)
Sydney and Hong Kong
Project Team: the Australian project team have over 30 years of international experience with over 1,000 projects completed. They have been active in Australia and the Pacific region for over 10 years and have almost 1,000MWp of projects under development. They have expertise in engineering, development and construction of solar systems and are respected specialists in low-voltage electrification at the village and town scales.
Their experience includes the entire spectrum of the energy sector value chain, specifically, detailed project design, electrical network modelling and provision of specialist engineering expertise, installation review and commissioning, as well as ongoing asset management, operations and maintenance services and quality assurance.
The Projects
Canigou are developing town-scale solar farm projects around regional Australia through our subsidiary Shine Australia One. Individual projects are in the range of 5MWp and are connected to the local distribution network, rather than the long-distance transmission network, which is more cost effective. CASE is the next step in the programme bringing the ready to build projects to operational status.
The scale of each project is designed to match current and projected future demands for electricity (e.g. residential, commercial, industrial) within a given community. This means that the clean energy generated will be used locally. When choosing sites, we consider a variety of factors, including proximity to good quality network infrastructure, Council and State zoning restrictions, topography, and vegetation. Road access and availability of labour are also important considerations.
Why Australia?
Reason 1: Growth in Solar deployment
Installed capacity from all energy sources in Australia is expected to grow from 75GW in 2019 to 190GW by 2050 of which renewable capacity is set to grow from 15 GW to over 160GW. Solar will be the driving force of this change making up over 40% of total capacity by 2050.
Reason 2: High Irradiation and Untapped Potential
Studies define the most favourable belt for solar energy production to be between 15°N/S and 35°N/S. These regions have the greatest amount of solar radiation, more than 90% of which falls directly because of limited cloud coverage and rainfall.
Almost 90% of Australia's territory lies perfectly within the latitudes of 15°S and 35°S, meaning that it is one of the few countries that lie almost entirely within the most favourable sun belt on the planet.
Reason 3: Sizeable Peak Demand and High Energy Pricing
Australia has a high price for electricity, when combined with high irradiation, this representing a very favourable opportunity for solar development. Average prices in New South Wales in 2019 were 38.6c per Kwh which is higher than the European average. With a strong manufacturing/industry fuelled economy and a sizeable peak demand in summer, due to energy intensive cooling and air conditioning systems, that matches perfectly with peak solar generation. The Australian market for the sale of solar electricity is divided into two specific routes and the expected IRR for any project is determined by which route or blend of them is chosen to sell the generated electricity.
More information?
If you would like further information on our CASE projects in Europe please contact the Hong Kong office at hongkong@canigougroup.com