Australia’s largest solar plant – construction begins
Construction begins on Nyngan, Australia’s largest solar PV plant REneweconomy, By Sophie Vorrath on 28 January 2014 Construction of AGL Energy’s $300 million solar PV plant in central NSW is set to begin, with the head contractor, First Solar, going on-site on Tuesday.
The ARENA-backed Nyngan Solar Plant – with more than 1,350,000 PV modules expected to be installed on a 250 hectare site – will be the largest PV plant in Australia, and the largest of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere, once finished.
Construction is expected to take around 18 months to complete, with the 102MW plant slated to be fully operational by June 2015.
Nyngan Solar Plant had its inception in the federal government’s Solar Flagships program, a renewables scheme created under the first Rudd regime to foster the development of utility-scale solar projects. After some years and a good deal of trouble securing the private financial backingnecessary to gain access to the government funds, AGL managed to bridge the gap with a little help from the NSW Government ($64.9 million), the Education Infrastructure Fund($40 million), and the federal government’s Australian Renewable Energy Agency, or ARENA ($166.7 million).
Once completed, the Nyngan Solar Plant will produce enough electricity to power more than 33,000 average NSW homes and to reduce CO2 pollution by more than 203,000 tonnes every year.
AGL group general manager of merchant energy, Anthony Fowler, said the project, which began more than four years ago, would provide significant flow on benefits to the Nyngan region, including 300 direct construction jobs created to support the plant’s construction, and with the majority of workers expected to be housed in an accommodation camp being built in Nyngan.
The Nyngan plant will be complemented by AGL’s second solar plant at Broken Hill, due to commence construction in mid-2014, with an expected completion date of November 2015. Together the two solar plants will cover an area equivalent to Sydney’s CBD and North Sydney with PV modules, and will deliver a total capacity of 155MW of energy for NSW.
First Solar will provide engineering, procurement and construction services for the Nyngan and Broken Hill Solar Plant projects, using its advanced thin-film PV modules. First Solar will also operate and maintain both projects for AGL for five years after commercial operation starts…..http://reneweconomy.com.au/2014/construction-begins-on-nyngan-australias-largest-solar-pv-plant-67902
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Antinuclear 
When the people of Australia understand stand alone power, we will use our own solar panels with a small wind turbine, solar hot water and sungel batteries. If we can set up our own power production system, why in the world would we pay the man for the use of our power. We don’t have to pay the sun and wind for the use of our power. Poor AGL are going to take a dip in their profit margin. We have a number of companies who will set up your off grid system. Look them up try searching ( stand alone power.)
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