SmartestEnergy Australia has signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) with Australian investor Providence Asset Group (PAG) for the output of solar farms across Victoria and New South Wales.
Under the terms of the agreement, SmartestEnergy will purchase the renewable generation output of the community solar farms for an initial 30-month period, with both parties planning for a 10-year extension on the firming PPA at the end of the initial period.
When all the solar farms are operating, the combined generation output will be around 500 gigawatt-hours a year.
As part of the rollout, PAG also plans to deploy green hydrogen energy storage and production units at the regional solar farm locations.
Lavo’s HEOS containerised metal hydride hydrogen storage and production facilities will be the first of their kind in Australia and also globally.
The technology was developed in Australia by the University of New South Wales and Lavo with the seed investment from PAG venture capital.
Alan Yu, PAG co-Founder and chief investment officer, said: “We are thrilled to announce this deal with SmartestEnergy.
“It’s another vote of confidence in Australia’s renewable energy industry and provides an ideal base to demonstrate the technical and commercial benefits that commercial scale solar farms coupled with the Lavo HEOS system can deliver.
“This will serve as a flagship project, highlighting the importance of grid-connected fuel cells and projects of this type.”
PAG will also commence work on developing a green hydrogen export roadmap to Japan.
The Lavo HEOS offering will use Lavo’s patented metal hydride technology to store and transport green hydrogen safely and efficiently to Japan and other export markets inside a standard shipping container.