A $150 million solar farm will be built near the New South Wales town of Bungendore east of Canberra.
Planning approval has been granted to the proposed Capital solar farm, subject to conditions of consent, by the New South Wales Department of Planning.
A consortium comprised of Infigen Energy and Suntech Power Holdings has proposed the development of 150 MW of solar capacity across three sites in New South Wales including the Capital solar farm. This is the second of the consortium’s proposed solar farms that has received planning approval. The New South Wales Government granted planning approval to the proposed Nyngan solar farm on 10 January, 2011. The consortium is one of four short-listed solar photovoltaic proposals being assessed for Commonwealth Government funding under the Solar Flagships Program.
“The planning approval granted to the Capital solar farm represents another important milestone for the Infigen-Suntech consortium’s overall proposal,” Infigen general manager of development, David Griffin said.
“The community support for the proposed Capital solar farm has been fantastic. We look forward to giving back to the area in terms of employment and funding upgrades to community infrastructure if the project proceeds,” he said.
The development of the Capital solar farm and the consortium’s other proposed solar farms in New South Wales remains conditional on several significant project milestones being achieved including, but not limited to, the consortium being successful under the first round of the Solar Flagships Program and the receipt of necessary Commonwealth Government and New South Wales Government funding for the projects.
The Commonwealth Government is expected to announce the successful solar photovoltaic bidder under the first round of the Solar Flagships Program in mid-2011.
This project, as for all investment in Infigen’s pipeline of potential renewable energy development projects, will also only proceed subject to a stringent final investment decision that has regard to capital availability, alternative uses of available capital, and appropriate offtake arrangements for both electricity and renewable energy certificates.
