AGL's $450 Million Solar Projects Gain Momentum with Secured Financials

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources Australia (Perth, Australia)--After receiving $37 million in federal government funding from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), AGL Energy Limited secured the finances to build $450 million worth of solar farms in Australia. ARENA previously approved $127 million to develop AGL's Nyngan and Broken Hill solar farms, and has now raised funds to total $166 million. An additional $64.9 million will be funded by the New South Wales (NSW) state government.

With ARENA and the NSW government as players, the projects are supported by local councils and communities at Broken Hill and Nyngan.

Nyngan and Broken Hill will be Australia's largest solar projects, with an expected electricity production of 155 megawatts (MW). Nyngan, at 102 MW, will become the largest solar farm in the Southern Hemisphere, with a total project cost of approximately $350 million. Both solar farms will be located in New South Wales and will supply electricity to 51,900 local residences.

AGL has selected Consolidated Power Projects (Sydney, Australia) and First Solar (Australia) Pty Limited (Sydney) are the primary contractors for the project and Sinclair Knight Merz (Sydney) as the owners' engineers.

Construction on Nyngan will take 16 months to complete and is expected to begin in January 2014. Broken Hill will begin construction in mid-2014. AGL expects to bring both the projects online by November 2015.

Nyngan Solar farm will feature 1,350,000 thin-film solar photovoltaic panels, while Broken Hill will consist of 650,000 panels. Both will be supplied by First Solar Incorporated.

AGL explained that the development of the proposed solar farms will create approximately 450 jobs and support the federal government's 2020 renewable energy target by reducing carbon gas emissions, equivalent to removing 89,000 cars from transit.

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