Telstra funding construction of $100 million solar farm in northern Queensland

Telstra’s solar contract part of bigger power play, AFR, Angela Macdonald-Smith 30 May 17 Telstra has lifted the veil on its highly anticipated new energy strategy, revealing it will underpin the construction of a $100 million solar farm in northern Queensland as part of a wider play to protect itself from soaring power prices. Under a deal struck with renewable energy giant RES Group, Telstra will buy all the power generated by a 70 megawatt solar project to be built near Emerald over “multiple” years.

Head of Telstra’s new energy division Ben Burge also said the telco was gearing up to use its hundreds of megawatts of backup power at exchanges around the country to offer electricity into the wholesale market when ultra-high demand causes prices to surge.

“It’s a highly distributed, highly responsive source of energy which over the coming years we will look to make better use of in order to improve our resilience but also to address extreme wholesale prices in the market,” Mr Burge, the former head of Meridian Energy’s Australian business, said.

He said Telstra, which accounts for about 1 per cent of the country’s power demand, was looking to protect itself from movements in power prices the way large corporates did for exchange and interest rates…….. http://www.afr.com/business/energy/solar-energy/telstras-solar-contract-part-of-bigger-power-

May 31, 2017 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Queensland, solar

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