Luminous Energy wins approval for 300 MW solar farm in Qld

Broken Hill solar plant.

PV Magazine

Luminous Energy has won development approval for a 300MW solar PV project in Queensland. The A$300 million ($226.8 million) project was approved by the Western Downs Regional Council, after a seven-week review process.

“It’s a massive project, not only in terms of economic benefit and local job creation but also in the flow-on business development opportunities for associated renewable energy industries,” said  Andrew Smith, spokesperson for the Western Downs Regional Council.

“We’re serious about being known as the Energy Capital of Australia, and we’re open for business.

Broken Hill solar plant.
Broken Hill solar plant is currently one the largest PV projects in Australia

It will be built in three phases across 540 hectares of land between the towns of Miles and Chinchilla. The array will take about 18 months to build. Upon completion, it will  generate enough electricity annually to cater to the needs of about 110,000 homes, according to an online statement by the local authorities.

Luminous Energy has not yet revealed a PV module supplier for the project, which will create 400 construction jobs, in addition to another five to handle post-construction operations. It will be the fourth and biggest solar installation in the region.

In November, UK developer Eco-Energy World secured approval to proceed with the construction of a 20 MW plant in Chinchilla. And Sydney-based power group Origin Energy plans to start building a 200 MW array early this year in the nearby Darling Downs region.

Source: PV Magazine. Reproduced with permission.

Comments

4 responses to “Luminous Energy wins approval for 300 MW solar farm in Qld”

  1. trackdaze Avatar
    trackdaze

    Good news for miles, chinchilla,qld,australia.

    Bit expensive given recent similar sized deals though at $100mw. Presume it has tracking?

  2. Ian Avatar
    Ian

    I lifted this from a Queensland government business site:

    A number of Queensland power stations generate electricity using natural gas as fuel.

    Queensland’s current gas-fired generators include those listed below. The figure in megawatts (MW) is their registered capacity for trading in the National Electricity Market.

    Barcaldine Power Station: a 37MW gas-fired generator located at Barcaldine
    Braemar Power Station: a 504MW gas-fired generator at Wambo, north-east of Dalby
    Braemar 2 Power Station: a 519MW gas-fired generator located next to the Braemar Power Station at Wambo, north-east of Dalby
    Condamine Power Station: a 144MW gas-fired generator at Miles
    Darling Downs Power Station: a 644MW gas-fired generator located 40km west of Dalby
    Oakey Power Station: a 282MW gas-fired generator located in Oakey
    Roma Power Station: a 80MW gas-fired generator located at Roma
    Townsville Power Station: a 242MW gas-fired generator at Yabulu, north of Townsville
    Yarwun Power Station: a 154MW gas-fired generator located 10km north-west of Gladstone.

    A lot of these are in the Western Downs region. The electricity transmission infrastructure is already there, plenty of scope for these big solar projects.

    1. Ian Avatar
      Ian

      Taking a stab at some figures, with tracking in a semi desert part of the country they could probably get 7 WH/W installed for 300 days a year . 2.1KWH/W/Year at a cost of $1/W installation cost. @5c/KWH, such an installation would take 10 years to pay off (or would gross @$50/MWH= $31.5 Million/year). A 300MW plant would produce 300 x 7 x 300MWH a year =630 000MWH and thus attract @ $90/MWH LGC = $56.7 million a year on LGC alone! Pinch me someone, this can’t be reality.

      1. GlennM Avatar
        GlennM

        I suspect that this is why Engie is advertising for RE projects. The base price now makes them profitable and the LGC is a “bigly” bonus.

        There are 2-3 GW shortage on the RET, multiply your numbers above by 10 and you see why clever people outside of the Aussie echo chamber see the opportunity.

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