Minister for Energy Mark Bailey and ARENA CEO Ivor Frischknecht have congratulated the successful Queensland proponents who will turn the Sunshine State into the Solar State at a gathering at Parliament House.
ARENA announced last week it was providing grants to support the development of six new large-scale solar projects across Queensland.
Mr Bailey said the Palaszczuk Government also announced it was upping its commitment to a clean energy future by increasing the Solar 120 program to Solar 150.
“Queensland-based projects that receive ARENA funding, become eligible for State Government funding and out of the six ARENA projects, four have won Palaszczuk Government support under the Solar 150 program,” Mr Bailey said.
“The Solar 150 companies which are leading the charge in Queensland’s renewable energy transition will receive a 20 year revenue guarantee from the Queensland Government which will help reduce financing risk and improve commercial viability.”
“Solar farms will be built right across regional and rural Queensland, including in the Whitsundays, Georgetown in North Queensland, Oakey and Longreach regions and these projects position Queensland as a leader for renewable energy investment”
“This exciting start of a new large scale renewable industry in Queensland will boost Queensland investment by more than $600 million, creating around 600 direct jobs and hundreds more indirect jobs in regional Queensland.”
“No large scale solar projects were constructed during the term of the previous LNP Government and we are playing catch up because of their inaction.
“More than 300 megawatts of renewable energy generation provided by these projects will bring enough power to run 120,000 households to Queensland’s electricity network”.
“Queensland has some of the best solar resources in the world and I look forward to meeting with some of the proponents today and hearing in detail about their large-scale solar project plans.”
The projects supported through ARENA and Solar 150 are:
- Whitsunday Solar Farm – 58 MW generation capacity
- Kidston Solar Project – 50 MW generation capacity
- Oakey Solar Farm – 25 MW generation capacity
- Longreach Solar Farm – 15 MW generation capacity
- Projects supported through ARENA:
- Darling Downs Solar Farm – 107 MW generation capacity
- Collinsville Solar Farm – 42 MW generation capacity
“We are committed to attracting significant investment into renewable energy developments across the state and this latest announcement is a prime example of that.
“These investments create jobs, and they help our regional and rural communities to thrive while reducing carbon emissions.”
