Australia to spend AU$770M on two solar projects

Australia will spend AU$770 million or US$819 million for its Solar Flagships programme.

The programme will finance two of the world’s largest solar power plants. The larger of the two developments, a 250MW hybrid solar thermal and gas plant near Chinchilla, Queensland, will be built by Solar Dawn, a consortium led by Areva Solar, at a cost of AU$1.2 billion.

Around AU$464 million of this sum will be paid for through first round Solar Flagship funding. The Areva-led bid beat rival applications from, among others, a consortium led by Australia’s Transfield.

The second recipient of financial backing was the 150MW Moree Solar Farm in northern New South Wales. The consortium behind the AU$923-million project included Spain’s Fotowatio and domestic renewable energy developer Pacific Hydro. The bid was led by BP Solar. Moree fended off competition from AGL Energy, Infigen-Suntech and TRUenergy to secure Government funds totalling AU$306.5.

Whilst announcing the winners at Queensland’s Australian Labor Party conference, Prime Minister Julia Gillard claimed the solar projects prove that Australia “can move to a clean energy future. When we look at these clean energy projects using our abundant natural resources, wonderful and bountiful sunshine, we can see our clean energy future.”