Fire forced the shutdown of the Wellington North Solar Farm in central western New South Wales at the weekend but officials expect the 400 MW facility to resume full operations “shortly.”
Image: Sean Bell/Facebook
The 400 MW Wellington North Solar Farm in central western New South Wales (NSW) is currently operating at 90% capacity with project owner lightsource bp assessing the damage after a grass fire at the site on Saturday.
Data provided by market analyst WattClarity shows the Wellington North solar farm, located about 50 kilometres southeast of Dubbo, shut down soon after 1pm on Saturday 6 December. The NSW Rural Fire Service (RFS) reported that a 92-hectare grass fire at the site was brought under control by 2.35pm on Saturday as heatwave conditions fuelled bushfires across the state.
A Lightsource bp spokesperson said on Monday that emergency services have since left the site, and the company is now assessing the impact to the facility and working to understand the cause of the fire.
“The incident has been fully contained, with no ongoing fire activity,” the spokesperson said. “Our incident response protocols were activated immediately, and our teams worked closely with emergency services as they managed the situation.”
The spokesperson said assessments are ongoing but pointed out that the damage is limited to the northeast corner of the 317 ha site.
“At this stage, no damage is expected to major equipment,” the spokesperson said, adding that “the site is currently operating at around 90% capacity and is expected to be fully operational shortly.”
The company also highlighted that there are no reported incidents of any sheep being affected on the site.
The Wellington North Solar Farm commenced operations in mid-2024 and has continued to be home to a large mob of merino sheep.
The fire coincided with heatwave conditions in NSW at the weekend with bushfires causing widespread damage across the state. The NSW RFS said more than 60 bushfires were still burning across the state on Monday, nine of which remained uncontained.
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