Origin Energy is making new purchases for its future life without coal.

Origin has snapped up 1GW of solar projects ahead of the planned closure of the Eraring power station in 2025.

The purchases include the company’s biggest investment in large scale solar to date, buying the Yarrabee solar project in NSW, which is expected to become a 450MW facility in its first stage, with approval to go to 900MW.

Origin has also bought the 74MW Carisbrook solar project in central Victoria, which should begin commercial operations in 2023, subject to a final investment decision and remaining approvals.

“Origin aims to lead the energy transition to net zero emissions through cleaner energy and customer solutions, and the acquisition of the Yarrabee Solar Farm development project demonstrates further progress on this ambition,” Origin Energy’s head of energy markets Greg Jarvis says.

“We believe the Yarrabee Solar Farm can play an important role in helping Origin provide cleaner energy to our customers, while also reducing emissions from our generation portfolio.

“Our teams will now focus on progressing development activities prior to a final investment decision targeted over the next couple of years, subject to upgrades to the Transgrid transmission network.

“More broadly, the team continues to focus on the multi-gigawatt opportunity to grow renewable energy and storage, through developing greenfield sites or acquiring advanced stage pre-construction renewable projects like Yarrabee.”