With the Moree Solar Farm consortium unable to meet all of their funding conditions and proposing substantial changes to the project, the Australian Government has decided to open Solar Flagships Round 1’s PV element for another round of bidding – and may well get far more solar bang for the Australian taxpayer’s buck.
On Monday, Greens Deputy Leader Senator Christine Milne blasted Energy Minister Martin Ferguson’s handling of Solar Flagships Round 1, which has been plagued by delays.
Senator Milne stated Minister Ferguson had “mismanaged this process from start to finish” and called on the Government to expedite the setting up of the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) to take over the administration of the scheme.
On Tuesday afternoon, Minister Ferguson announced bidding would be re-opened for a large-scale, solar panel based power station, which would attract a $306.5 million grant from the Australian Government as part of the Solar Flagships Program.
“The Government is committed to the deployment of large-scale renewable energy technologies in Australia. However, we must also ensure that taxpayer money is spent prudently,” Minister Ferguson said.
“Moree Solar Farm has not met its obligations under its funding agreement and, consequently, the Government now has an opportunity to take another look at the Moree project against its competitors to ensure the Government continues to back the best PV project available at this time.”
With prices of solar panels and other components dropping dramatically in recent times, the new round of applications should see far more value for money.
Another Solar Flagships Round 1 project, Solar Dawn, has also run into funding issues. However, Minister Ferguson said Solar Dawn remained the best value solar thermal project and granted an extension until 30 June 2012 for the Solar Dawn consortium to reach financial close. Solar Dawn is a $1.2 billion 250MW solar thermal project to be constructed near Chinchilla in Queensland.
The Australian Solar Energy Society (AuSES) welcomed the extension.
“It is extraordinarily difficult to get financing for large-scale infrastructure projects globally, and Big Solar is no different,” stated AuSES CEO, John Grimes.
While Solar Flagships issues have been dominating local renewable energy headlines in recent days, RenewEconomy’s Giles Parkinson believes the main game in the Australian solar industry has “moved from the corridors of power in the Federal Parliament to the more modest resources of the ACT Legislative Assembly” – ACT’s solar auction.
