Australia grants funding for 482MW of solar projects

The 12 plants are expected to deliver 10 per cent of the new capacity required to meet Australia’s 2020 renewable energy target, while also creating 2,300 direct jobs and “thousands more” indirect jobs.

According to ARENA CEO Ivor Frischknecht, the funding is expected to result in nearly $1 billion of commercial investment, benefitting regional Australian economies in the process.

Instead, the dozen ventures will deliver an extra 480 megawatts if all proceed, and drive $1 billion of investment in regional Australia.

“In 2015, this dropped to 43 cents at the EOI stage of ARENA’s $100 million large-scale solar funding round; and to an average of 28 cents in June 2016 when full applications were submitted”, he said.

Solar panels being installed at the Sydney Town Hall.

Signatories to the open letter, which was released on Thursday by industry body the Clean Energy Council, include Vestas Wind Systems A/S (CPH:VWS), Xinjiang Goldwind Science & Technology (HKG:2208), First Solar Inc (NASDAQ:FSLR), Conergy, Infigen Energy (ASX:IFN), AGL Energy Ltd (ASX:AGK), General Electric Co (NYSE:GE) and Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA).

Labor, which went to the July election quarantining $300 million of those cuts, may decide as soon as Tuesday’s caucus meeting whether it will back the government’s omnibus funding through Parliament.

“Obviously ARENA’s announcement today means we will have another wave of projects”, he said.

With a 107 megawatt generation capacity, the Darling Downs Solar Farm will be the largest plant in the country.

The title of largest plant, though, may be up for grabs.

Australia has the highest uptake of rooftop solar photovoltaics (solar PV) but lags behind other countries in the construction of large-scale solar farms, with 240 megawatts of capacity built so far, due to higher costs.

The six Queensland projects will ultimately generate enough power to power 120,000 Queensland homes.

“ARENA is not just focused on building more solar”. That’s going to change over the next 12 months as a result of ARENA’s large scale solar deployment.

“ARENA is working to accelerate Australia’s shift to a sustainable, affordable and reliable energy future and our work supporting the development of Australia’s large-scale solar industry is central to this vision”, Frischknecht said, Energy Business Review reported.

Details of solar’s advance came as 11 major energy companies issued an open letter to federal politicians calling on them to protect ARENA’s funding.

Queensland’s new solar farms.

He said this support lowered the cost of providing large-scale solar projects by reducing problems with commercial viability.

Queensland minister for energy Mark Bailey has promised electricity prices won’t be affected.

The backing is in the form of long-term revenue contracts to aid investor confidence.

Mr Thornton said it was now time to begin training workforces that worked in traditional energy supply companies to work in renewable energy.

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