The New South Wales government has given the nod to Infigen Suntech to develop the state’s first commercial solar farm.
The $300 million solar power station will be constructed on 200 hectares at East Nyngan Road and Boundary Street East, Nyngan and will consist of 300,000 solar panels.
The Nyngan PV Solar Farm will generate enough renewable energy to provide clean electricity for up to 20,000 homes and will avoid the generation of 150,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions each year – the equivalent of removing approximately 30,000 cars from Australian roads annually.
The construction phase of the facility will create 50 jobs and 5 long term jobs.
The plant will be developed under the Australian Government’s $1.5 billion Solar Flagships program, which supports the construction of up to four large scale, grid-connected solar farms in Australia.
Infigen-Suntech Pty Limited is a consortium comprising Infigen Energy and Suntech Power. Suntech Power Holdings Co., Ltd. is the world’s largest manufacturer of solar panels.
Suntech’s CEO, Dr Zhengrong Shi, has strong ties to Australia. He is a graduate of the University of NSW and spent many years in the country working in solar research before returning to China to start Suntech. Dr. Shi has continued his close association with the University of New South Wales and Suntech solar panels are based on solar cell technology that was developed in collaboration with the University..
Infigen Energy also has interests in 35 wind farms globally, including six in Australia. Infigen recently developed the Capital wind farm, near Bungendore in NSW, the largest wind farm to be built in NSW and the largest renewable energy project commissioned in NSW since the Snowy Hydro Scheme.
