{"id":70357,"date":"2026-08-27T08:31:16","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T08:31:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/70357\/"},"modified":"2026-08-27T08:31:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T08:31:16","slug":"engie-commissions-victorias-biggest-yet-solar-farm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/70357\/","title":{"rendered":"Engie commissions Victoria&#8217;s biggest yet solar farm"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>French renewables developer Engie has marked the delivery of its first large-scale solar facility in Australia, announcing the successful commissioning of the 250 MW Goorambat East Solar Farm (GESF) in northeast Victoria.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pv-magazine-australia.com\/2024\/10\/24\/largest-solar-farm-in-victoria-begins-construction\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">project<\/a>, that comprises about 500,000 solar panels deployed across a 630-hectare site near the town of Benalla, achieved registration status late last year before reaching full production earlier this year.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Engie has now officially celebrated the full commissioning of the project, saying it marks a significant milestone for the state\u2019s renewable energy landscape.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs Engie\u2019s first large-scale solar development in Australia, and currently Victoria\u2019s largest, GESF represents far more than a new renewable energy asset,\u201d the company said. \u201cIt is a real-life example of the energy transition taking shape in Victoria and a reflection of our commitment to building the energy system of the future.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Goorambat East Solar Farm is now the biggest solar facility to be fully operational in Victoria, eclipsing French developer\u00a0Total Eren\u2019s 200 MW Kiamal Solar Farm in the state\u2019s west.\u00a0Commissioned in 2021, Kiamal is expected to eventually overshadow Goorambat with Total Eren proposing a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pv-magazine-australia.com\/2022\/10\/07\/victoria-green-lights-six-solar-farms-and-four-big-batteries\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">second stage<\/a> that would bolster the facility\u2019s capacity by an additional 150 MW.<\/p>\n<p>Engie said the delivery of the Goorambat East Solar Farm reflects the company\u2019s commitment to establish a significant portfolio of large-scale solar, wind and battery energy storage assets in Australia.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe success of this project gives us confidence in what we can achieve next,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n<p>The company, which owns and operates the 150 MW\/ 150 MWh <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pv-magazine-australia.com\/2026\/01\/22\/engie-buys-out-eku-to-achieve-100-ownership-of-hazelwood-bess\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Hazelwood battery<\/a> energy storage system in Victoria\u2019s Latrobe Valley, is aiming to deliver 3 GW of renewables across the National Energy Market (NEM) by 2030. Its project pipeline includes the 120 MW\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.pv-magazine-australia.com\/2022\/05\/06\/solar-shorts-120mw-solar-farm-gets-tick-of-approval\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Silverleaf<\/a>\u00a0and 100 MW Yass solar farms being developed in New South Wales. It is also developing the 200 MW Warhook Solar Farm project in Queensland.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"734\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/robotic-solar-panel-installation-1024x734.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-142661\"  \/>Luminous tested its LUMI S4 fleet during construction of the Goorambat East Solar Farm | Image: Engie Australia<\/p>\n<p>The Goorambat East solar farm was among the first in Australia to utilise robotic technologies for solar installations with multiple companies collaborating to demonstrate how automation can streamline the installation of solar module mountings and pilings.<\/p>\n<p>Australia-based Bouygues Construction and Equans Solar &amp; Storage, with<a href=\"https:\/\/renewablesnow.com\/news\/pv-mounting-robots-install-panels-at-250-mw-solar-park-in-victoria-1283291\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">\u00a0the participation<\/a>\u00a0of China\u2019s Huzhou Leapting Technology and US-based Luminous.<\/p>\n<p>The project marked the Australian debut of robotics company Luminous\u2019 artificial intelligence-powered \u201cpick and place\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pv-magazine-australia.com\/2025\/10\/02\/autonomous-robot-module-installation-trial-fast-tracks-victorian-solar-farm\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">\u00a0solar module-mounting robots<\/a>, which\u00a0the United States-based company said allow solar farms to be constructed up to 3.5 times faster, with improved cost efficiency.<\/p>\n<p>Chinese automation company <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pv-magazine-australia.com\/2025\/04\/23\/leapting-robot-completes-install-of-10000-pv-modules\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Leapting<\/a> also ran a trial of its AI-driven solar module-mounting technology on the Goorambat East project while from US-headquartered Build Robotics tested its <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pv-magazine-australia.com\/2025\/04\/30\/ai-powered-robotic-pile-technology-speeds-up-500000-solar-panel-project\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">auto-pile driver<\/a> at the site.<\/p>\n<p>The trials were facilitated by engineering, procurement and construction contractors Bouygues Construction Australia and Equans Solar and Storage Australia.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"French renewables developer Engie has marked the delivery of its first large-scale solar facility in Australia, announcing the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":70358,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12968],"tags":[3519,30069],"class_list":["post-70357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-engie","tag-engie","tag-utility-scale"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70357"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70357\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}