Australia's two largest solar plants open in NSW

Australia has more than doubled its large-scale solar power capacity with the opening of the nation’s two largest solar plants in New South Wales.

AGL Energy Limited and First Solar have opened solar photovoltaic plants in Nyngan and Broken Hill which have a combined capacity of 155 megawatts and are the two largest solar plants in the Southern Hemisphere.

This translates to the ability to produce around 360,000 megawatt-hours of renewable energy per year, enough to power some 50,000 average Australian homes.

The $440 million project was part funded by a $166.7 million grant from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) and $64.9 million in funding from the NSW government.

“As well as reducing CO₂ emissions by an estimated 301,560 tonnes a year and helping advance large-scale solar technology in Australia, the AGL solar plants delivered some 400 jobs during the construction phase and injected close to $29 million into local economies,” Minister for the Environment Greg Hunt said.

“The solar plants will be operational for 30 years and it is estimated more than $222 million will flow into the Nyngan and Broken Hill regions over that period through employment and direct maintenance service requirements like plant and infrastructure upgrades.”

The announcement comes less than a week after the government announced the 22 solar projects shortlisted to provide support from a $100 million large-scale photovoltaic project fund.

“This funding will support the development of around an extra 200 MW of large-scale solar capacity, which will again double the nation’s large-scale solar generation within two years,” Hunt said.

Pictured: The Broken Hill solar farm.