Goorambat East Solar Farm bird nest and bee hotel making workshop.
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Tens of thousands of trees have been planted and hundreds of nesting boxes installed at a solar farm determined to have a positive impact on its local environment.
ENGIE has planted almost 30,000 mostly native trees across the Goorambat East Solar Farm site for screening and revegetation purposes.
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Almost 450 nesting boxes have also been installed in and around the solar farm area to provide a habitat for local birds as well as bee hotels.
“In early December we held an off-site team building event in Goorambat where we painted bird nesting boxes and made bee hotels,” ENGIE Australia’s renewables and batteries managing director Laura Caspari said.
“ENGIE is committed to having a net-positive impact on the local environment, as well as reducing emissions more broadly through the generation of renewable solar energy.
ENGIE has installed 450 nesting boxes and bee hotels to support birds and bees.
“We are now in discussions with the company who ran the team building workshop and can hopefully help us track the use of the nesting boxes on our Goorambat East Solar Farm site.
“It’s important that we continue to study what impact our activities have on the environment and confirm that the nesting boxes are being used and improving local habitat. This will help us learn, adjust, and improve the outcomes.”
Full energisation of the farm is expected by mid-2026.
Laura said with construction being completed, the farm was looking ahead to full energisation.
“Construction of the solar farm was completed in October, ahead of schedule, thanks to the hard work of our contractors Bouygues Australia and Equans Solar and Storage,” she said.
“Commissioning is under way, which is the testing process required to see that all the different electrical components in the solar farm work correctly and reliably.”
Full energisation of the Goorambat East Solar Farm is well on target for mid-2026.
It will have a generating capacity of up to 250 megawatts, which is enough to power up to 105,000 average Victorian homes.
