In principle agreement for large-scale solar energy

Minister for the Environment and Sustainable Development, Simon Corbell, has today welcomed in-principle support from the ACT Legislative Assembly, for legislation which will allow large-scale solar facilities to be rolled out across the ACT.

"The Government's legislation proposes to allow large-scale solar facilities to access the feed-in tariff, which is an Australian first, that will encourage more companies to consider the ACT as a base for their renewable energy installations," Mr Corbell said.

"The ACT Labor Government is working hard to make Canberra Australia's solar capital and this legislation is the next step to ensure that this becomes a reality."

The new solar energy auction bill will support the development of up to 210 MW of large-scale renewable energy generation. The first release of 40 MW capacity will reduce emissions by around 850,000 tonnes over its 20 year life.

Mr Corbell said that this legislation, if passed later this week, could see at least two major commercial solar facilities constructed in the ACT which would be capable of powering approximately 7000 homes.

"These potential solar facilities could provide as much as 14% of the minimum electricity demand of the ACT which would assist in reducing carbon emissions and take the ACT closer to carbon neutrality by 2060."

The large-scale auction process will require companies to provide a detailed proposal to the ACT Government on how they propose to provide large amounts of renewable energy to the community at the lowest cost to Canberrans.

"Lowering our carbon emissions is something that we must address as a community and large-scale solar is a key way that industry can contribute to tackling the effects of climate change.

For further information and to find out more with a comprehensive information package, visit www.environment.act.gov.au/energy/solar_auction