March 2012 saw the 9MW Liddell facility, which was developed to augment an existing coal fired plant, switched on. Later that year, in August, saw Novatec’s most significant achievement, the inauguration of the world’s largest Fresnel power plant, PE2 in Spain. The 30MW solar thermal power station has a mirror surface of 302,000 m2 and its electrical output is generated exclusively by solar power, producing 50 million kW hours of electricity per year. Annually, this equates to a reduction of carbon dioxide emissions of over 16,000 metric tonnes and enough clean energy to power 12,000 Spanish households.
In December 2012, ABB, a strategic shareholder with Transfield in Novatec Solar, announced the decision to discontinue certain parts of its EPC business. The business model with Novatec, delivering the solar boiler technology and ABB being responsible for the conventional power plant engineering and construction, was part of this EPC business As a consequence of this strategic decision, in April 2013, the shareholders in Novatec Solar signed a share purchase agreement and Transfield acquired all shares from ABB, bringing its holding to 85% of the company.