Neoen to build Australia’s largest solar farm

• 3 years ago (2020-05-07)
• David Flin

Australasia 51 Solar 242

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French renewables developer Neoen will build a 400MW solar farm in the Western Downs region of Queensland, Australia after securing a contract to sell most of the power to the state government-owned renewable energy generator CleanCo . The Western Downs Green Power Hub is set to become Australia’s largest solar farm. The project is located 22km south of Chinchilla in the south-west of Queensland.

CleanCo has agreed to buy 352MW of the project’s output, which will help the state make progress on its target of 50 per cent renewable energy by 2030. The power purchase agreement will contribute over 30 per cent of the energy required for CleanCo to meet its target of 1GW of new renewable energy by 2025.

The $570 million investment by Neoen is expected to create up to 400 jobs for the local and South West Queensland area when construction begins in July. Connection will be via publicly-owned Powerlink’s existing Western Downs substation via a new overhead line, with energy generation scheduled to start in the first quarter of 2022.