Antinuclear

As part of a new funding round the Australian Renewable Energy Agency and the Clean Energy Finance Corporation will collaborate to offer, respectively, grants and loans to get major solar projects off the ground to feed into the energy grid.

It is understood some state governments have also signalled they will financially support bids for projects in their jurisdictions potentially through long term offtake agreements.

The round will look to support at least four and potentially as many as 10 projects. ARENA will offer grants of up to $30 million as part of its $100 million programme while the CEFC will roll out a complementary $250 million large-scale solar financing programme……

Mr Frischknecht said the focus on solar for this funding round reflected the numerous projects on the drawing board and targeting large scale projects would correct a previous focus on rooftop solar.

“Australia has huge natural advantages in this area: more sun than almost anywhere else and a solar R&D sector that is the envy of the world,” Mr Frischknecht said.

“Projects seeking funding from ARENA and debt finance from the CEFC will benefit from our organisations working together during each stage of the application process, to minimise transaction and due diligence time and costs.”

One of the major goals was to encourage volume so that local suppliers could bring down their prices for goods such as frames and pipes, he said.

Mr Frischknecht said sunny locations would have an advantage but projects could stack up in most states with a key criteria being the presence of an offtake agreement.

The CEFC will provide long-term fixed rate loans that it hopes will also spur other sources of finance……”By working closely with ARENA, and investing alongside private sector co-investors to bridge the financing gap for projects that make commercial sense, we’re seeking to build Australia’s expertise in solar and bring down development costs.”

The federal government recently signalled it would require the CEFC to direct funding away from wind to other sources such as solar……..

Both agencies have supported existing projects. AGL’s project at Broken Hill and Nyngan (supported by ARENA) is already grid-connected at Nyngan and generating electricity. The 56 MW Moree Solar farm (supported by both the CEFC and ARENA) is expected to come on line early next year.

Together the two projects will have 2.2 million panels and power 65,000 homes when fully operational.

Construction is also underway on Australia’s largest solar and battery storage project to date, at the Sandfire Resources DeGrussa​ copper mine in Western Australia. It is also supported by both CEFC and ARENA.: http://www.theage.com.au/business/energy/large-scale-solar-plants-get-350m-push-20150908-gjhg1s.html#ixzz3lBp4LMCF