CANBERRA: The Baird government has granted planning approval for four new large-scale solar plants, potentially more than doubling the existing capacity in the state. The four plants approved for construction have a combined capacity of 175 megawatts (MW), and would generate another electricity for 56,000 homes if built.
“NSW is Australia’s large-scale solar leader, with the country’s three largest solar farms and hundreds of megawatts of solar electricity capacity online and in the pipeline,” planning minister Rob Stokes said.
“We want to make people’s lives better through good planning, and these projects will increase electricity capacity, cut greenhouse emissions and create jobs for local communities”.
Building the plants would generate more than 330 new construction jobs, save 342,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas annually, and include more than a half a million solar panels between them, Mr Stokes’ office said. NSW is already home to AGL’s two solar plants at Broken Hill and Nyngan, which are operating with a combined capacity of 155 megawatts. Also under construction is the 56 MW Moree solar farm, the largest now being built in Australia.
Solar energy is the one bright spot for renewables in NSW. Compared with other states, NSW has the second lowest share of clean energy as a total of its electricity, ahead of only Queensland. So far this year, NSW has sourced 8.8 per cent of its electricity from renewable sources including rooftop solar – barely half Victoria’s 15.8 per cent and a quarter of South Australia’s 36 per cent, according to energy consultants Pitt & Sherry.
“The issuing of planning approvals is a positive development, but it does not automatically equate to more investment,” Kobad Bhavnagri, head of Bloomberg New Energy Finance’s Australian office. “There are nearly 2000 MW of renewable energy projects with planning approval in NSW, yet in the last year only 175 MW have been financed and committed to construction.”
