Nothing says energy transition quite like a renewable energy facility being built on an old fossil fuel asset. Solar farms have been built on or near several old coal plants, and now the South Australia state government utility SA Water plans to build a new solar farm with more than 35,000 solar PV panels on the site of a former oil refinery.

SA Water said on Thursday that it has agreed to purchase 14 hectares of land at the former ExxonMobil Port Stanvac oil refinery, next to the Adelaide Desalination Plant which the solar farm will help power. and as part of the utility’s push to a “zero cost energy future” that involves more than 150MW of solar across dozens of sites, and 34 megawatt hours of battery storage.

The ExxonMobil refinery was closed in 2003 and demolished in 2014, and the overall 240 hectare site is being remediated to pave the way for other industry activity.

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