Green Light For Queensland’s Rodds Bay Solar Farm

Gladstone Regional Council has approved the development application for Rodds Bay Solar Farm, a 300MW PV-based facility to be built near the township of Bororen; approximately 50km south of Gladstone.

Rodds Bay will be one of the largest solar farms in Australia. It is expected to generate 625 GWh of electricity each year, enough to supply the electricity needs of approximately 88,000 homes. The facility will be constructed on a site currently used for grazing and it’s anticipated sheep will continue to access the area, keeping vegetation under control.

Developer Renew Estate say the project will provide substantial opportunities for local businesses, contractors and workers; with approximately 300 workers required on-site during the peak of construction. The company has also committed to prioritising the employment of locals in ongoing roles once the project is operational.

After its 30-year service life, the site will either be decommissioned or could potentially be refurbished andcontinue operations. If it is decommissioned, the area will be restored to its pre-development state.

Construction of Rodds Bay Solar Farm is expected to commence late this year and the project will be fully operational in the first quarter of 2020.

“More generation and competition mean lower power prices and Renew Estate looks forward to delivering the cheap solar energy produced by this project to consumers and businesses in the greater Gladstone area,” said Director Simon Currie.

Another Renew Estate project for the Gladstone region is Yarwun Solar Farm. Located approximately 7 kilometres west of the city, the 32MW capacity facility will generate approximately 67 gigawatt-hours of electricity annually.

A major shareholder of Renew Estate is Wirsol Energy, which has set itself a target of 1 GW of installed capacity in Australia.  Last month, Wirsol signed offtake agreements with SIMEC Zen Energy relating to the 89MWp Clermont Solar Farm in Queensland and 110MWp Wemen Solar Farm in Victoria. Wirsol claims to have the largest portfolio of solar PV projects in the country.

Gladstone Small Scale Solar Energy Statistics

As well as large-scale projects, Gladstone is a hive of small scale solar activity. According to the most recent data available from Australia’s Clean Energy Regulator, there are at least 6,078 solar power systems installed in Gladstone’s postcode (4680), with a collective capacity of 23.89MW.

The 2016 Census put the population of the 4680 postcode at 54,166 people, so that works out to 440 watts of installed small scale capacity per capita; not taking into account any population changes since the Census. Across Australia, there’s approximately 282 watts of small scale solar power capacity installed per capita.