Australia’s largest solar farm, based at the Western Downs Green Power Hub, is almost completed. But in positive news, it reached a milestone recently, with its ability to now export 100MW of clean energy into the nation’s electricity grid. The good news is, that there’s even more to come.
All about the Western Downs Green Power Hub
An ambitious undertaking, the $600 million Western Downs Green Power Hub is nearing the final stages of completion, with testing works currently being undertaken with Powerlink and the Australian Energy Market Operator. When completed, it will be capable of sending 400MW of renewable energy into the grid.
The Queensland Government-owned energy retailer, CleanCo has already signed a Power Purchase Agreement with the solar farm, meaning it will receive 320MW of power from the project. CleanCo has committed to bringing 1,400 MW of new renewable energy into the market by 2025, and the agreement with the Western Downs Green Power Hub is a large part of that.
When fully completed, the Western Downs Green Power hub is expected to generate more than 1,080 GWh of energy per year. To put that into perspective, it’s the equivalent of avoiding 864,000 tonnes of carbon emissions.
A huge boost for Queensland
Minister for Energy, Renewables and Hydrogen Mick de Brenni has labelled the solar farm project as one of the greatest job opportunities in generations. The project has already delivered over 450 construction jobs. Best of all, he says that because Queensland’s energy network is publicly owned, it puts billions of dollars back into the pockets of Queenslanders.
So, by aggressively chasing a 50% renewable target by 2030, the economy is expected to boom as a result. Mr de Brenni suggests that the economic benefit of the new solar farm will be around $32 million per year for Queensland.
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Source URL: https://ahlecsolar.com.au/2022/09/23/important-milestone-for-australias-largest-solar-farm/
