In a first for Queensland, Orrcon Steel is producing torque tubes from Australian BlueScope coil for solar trackers supplied to the Aldoga solar farm in Gladstone, Queensland.
Orrcon is working with global energy firm Nextracker on the project. Critical steel components will be produced from BlueScope’s steel coil at Orrcon Steel’s Salisbury Tube mill in Brisbane and finished at the Northgate site by Baojia, which is Nextracker’s global manufacturing partner.
Orrcon general manager Tony Schreiber said the company aimed to be a significant participant in Australia’s renewable energy supply chain. The investment also includes a large tubular mill at Unanderra NSW, tooling to produce solar torque tubes and more warehouse capacity to support the supply of products for the rapidly expanding sector. “The collaboration with Nextracker and Baojia is another example of how we’re making a difference in the utility scale solar industry with an Australian-made, high-quality product,” Tony said.
Some 16 new jobs have been created to produce up to 50,000 tonnes of torque tubes to support the equivalent of more than 2.5 gigawatts of solar energy. Nextracker’s solar tracker systems have been used on some of the country’s largest projects, including the New England Solar Farm, the Stubbo project new Gulgong in NSW and Western Downs in Queensland. Officially opening the plant project, Minister for Energy and Clean Economy Jobs Mick de Brenni (pictured) said it would support Queensland and the rest of the world’s move to a renewable energy future.
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Project launch... (from left) general manager of Nextracker Australia, NZ and South East Asia Peter Wheale, CEO BlueScope Australian Steel Product Tania Archibald, Queensland Minister for Energy Mick De Brenni and chair of Baojia Vic Xu Hai Dong.