Minister for the Environment and Sustainable Development, Simon Corbell recently announced that construction of what will be Australia’s largest photovoltaic solar farm, Royalla Solar Farm has officially commenced.
“At full capacity, the Royalla Solar Farm will provide 20 megawatts of renewable energy, enough to meet the demands of 5000 households,” Mr. Corbell said
Mr. Corbell explained that the project will eliminate 700,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions during its first 20 years of operation Corbell added that the Royalla Solar Farm is owned by Spanish company Fotowatio Renewable Ventures (FRV), the first successful bidder in the ACT’s solar auction process, and will play a key role in the ACT Government meeting its target of sourcing 90% of Canberra’s power from renewable energy by 2020.
“The cost to the average household for this project is expected to peak at 24 cents per week in 2016, reducing to 15 cents per week in 2021, which is a small price to pay for reducing our carbon footprint and the negative impacts of climate change,” Mr. Corbell said.
“ACT residents have demonstrated their support for solar power through the uptake of more than 14,000 household solar installations to date, which have a combined capacity of another 39.5MW already feeding into the grid.” Mr. Corbell commented.
Construction of the Royalla Solar Farm is due to be completed in the first half of 2014.