Approval Granted For 60MW Mareeba Solar Farm

Image: eliseocabrera

Queensland’s Mareeba Shire Council has approved plans for Mareeba Solar Farm, a facility that will boast 196,000 solar panels.

It’s expected construction of the solar power station near Mareeba, a town on the Atherton Tablelands in the far north of the state, will start next year. 200 jobs will be created during the construction phase and up to ten full-time operational roles.

Mareeba Solar Farm will generate more than 147 gigawatt-hours of electricity a year; enough to power the equivalent of 18,723 households.

 “Mareeba prides itself on having 300 sunny days a year so we ought to take advantage of that. Renewable energy is becoming more in demand and we are certainly excited about this potential investment,” said Mayor Tom Gilmore.

The facility will be developed by Sydney-based CleanGen Projects Pty Ltd, which states it has more than 1600MW of solar farm projects in its pipeline, including:

• Kerang (Victoria – 60 MW)
• Burdekin (Queensland – 140MW)
• Narrabri (NSW – 120MW)
• Red Cliffs (Victoria – 60MW)
• Tatura (Victoria – 60MW)
• Yabulu (Queensland – 60MW)
• Townsville South (Queensland – 120MW)
• Loxton (South Australia – 240MW)
• Forbes (New South Wales – 120MW)

CleanGen Projects’ founder and director is Ms. Koovashni Reddy, who is described as a “passionate environmental entrepreneur” with decades of experience in renewable energy, business development, financing, investment, energy trading and power purchase agreements (PPA’s).

Ms. Reddy was previously the co-founder and managing director of solar power retailer Earth Utility, which found itself a spot of bother and went into administration in 2010.

Queensland Solar Juggernaut Rumbles On

Approvals for large-scale solar farms in the sunshine state have been flying thick and fast in recent times. Last week we reported Western Downs Regional Council announced approval of the 250MW Western Downs Solar Farm; the second large-scale PV approval from the Council in a week.

Also last week, Queensland’s Treasurer and then-Acting Energy Minister Curtis Pitt said the state had a pipeline of 40 major proposed renewable energy projects worth $5 billion, with a generating capacity of 5297 MW and 9,245 jobs.

Green Energy Markets’ latest Renewable Energy Index indicated that in August, Queensland outpaced New South Wales for renewable energy jobs related to large-scale projects for the first time.

On the small-scale side of PV, Queenslanders are continuing to embrace rooftop solar power systems, with more than 523,700 installations below 100kW capacity now in place according to data  from Australia’s Clean Energy Regulator.