Eco Energy secures planning consent for second solar farm in Australia

Eco Energy World has secured planning consent for a second solar farm in Queensland, winning approval for a 20MW solar park near Chinchilla in the Western Down region.

It follows approval in October for a 140MW solar park near Maryborough, and this project will also likely be developed along a “merchant” model, meaning EEW will source revenues from the spot market for electricity and large-scale renewable energy certificates rather than waiting for a power purchase agreement.

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EEW expects the Chinchilla project will begin construction in 2017. It will use single axis tracking technology, as most new solar PV projects in Australia will do.

“We are happy to secure our second planning approval in Australia which brings us closer to our goal to develop 1GW of solar farms in Australia,” EEW chairman Svante Kumlin said in a statement.

“The 20MW project will bring new job opportunities to the community as well as clean and renewable energy; helping Australia meet its long-term energy and climate change commitments.”

The Chinchilla project will comprise 70,000 solar PV modules on about 73 hectares of land and will provide construction jobs for around 90 people.

EEW’s parent company is a UK-based developer of utility scale solar projects, with solar farms in UK, Italy, Spain, Germany, France, Russia and Sweden. It says it has a development pipeline of 800MW of solar farms in Australia.

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