From the category archives:

Solar Flagship Projects

Desertec: Solar Power from the Sahara to Germany

February 24, 2012
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A recent article in the Sydney Morning Herald analyses German’s plans to pipe solar power from the Sahara Desert across the Mediterranean, and into its electricity grid. The project, known as Desertec, is on the concept level simple, but on the technical, economic, and political levels, fraught with potential risks. Desertec is an interesting foil [...]

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100% Renewable Energy: Campaigning for large-scale solar power in 2012

February 22, 2012
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Since 2010, 100% Renewable Energy has been working to build up grassroots capacity to effectively campaign for a complete transition to clean energy in Australia. Galvanised into action by the lack of leadership in the upper levels of government, founder Lindsay Soutar started the organisation with the intention of educating and empowering local communities to effect [...]

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What the Solar Flagships trouble means for large-scale solar

February 14, 2012
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The Solar Flagships program has been receiving a lot of media attention recently for the failure of the program’s two winning applicants to meet the deadline for funding requirements. The 250MW concentrating solar power (CSP) plant in Chinchilla, Queensland has managed to have this deadline extended, while the Moree Solar Farm, a 150MW solar PV [...]

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NSW’s Renewable Energy Precincts project

December 9, 2011
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The New South Wales government is undertaking a project to explore avenues to strategically encourage the uptake of sources of renewable energy in order to meet the state’s 2020 deadline of 20% energy sourced from renewables under its Renewable Energy Plan. One such project is its Renewable Energy Precincts project, which has established 6 zones [...]

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‘Solar Energy Zones’ announced for US desert regions

October 31, 2011
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In a proactive policy move, the US government’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has released maps of areas that have already passed most or all requisite environmental and cultural conditions for development of large-scale, commercial solar power installations. Once the policy is in place, it will streamline the process of finding a location for commercial [...]

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Solar Flagship Program Winners: Moree Solar Farm, Chinchilla CSP plant

June 22, 2011
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The Federal Government has announced the recipients for funding from Round 1 of the Solar Flagships Program. Moree Solar Farm in NSW’s Central Tablelands is a 150MW photovoltaic installation, and the Solar Dawn consortium is planning to build a 250MW hybrid gas/concentrating solar power plant in Chinchilla, Queensland. Blog this! Digg this post Recommend on [...]

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Solar power in the federal budget: outcomes and changes

May 11, 2011
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The budget for the Australian federal government for the next financial year was released this week. This article covers the changes to funding for solar power projects and policies across the nation. Some of the most notable changes: the national Solar Schools program will close on 30 June 2013, and the Solar Flagships budget will [...]

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Major commercial solar power project planned for Queensland

April 14, 2011
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Prime Minister Julia Gillard has announced plans for a massive commercial-scale solar power for Australia’s Sunshine State. 44MW of supplementary solar power will be added on to a preexisting coal-fired Kogan Creek electricity generation plant in Dalby, south-west Queensland. Blog this! Digg this post Recommend on Facebook Share on Linkedin Share with Stumblers Tweet about it [...]

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Own and Run a Solar Farm

February 4, 2011
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The image of a rural plot with a wind turbine producing electricity to be fed into the electricity grid with cattle milling about underneath grazing the grass has become a familiar one, but more and more rural Australian landholders are also making the choice to own and run solar farms. Blog this! Digg this post Recommend [...]

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Solar PV in Australia: The Land of Beauty and Terror

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    (Contact a Solar Choice Broker for free, impartial advice on the solar PV installer and system options available in your area of Australia.) It is unfortunate that the growth of the solar power industry is not determined by the availability of sunlight. In spite of the unpredictable weather, Australia could be the centre [...]

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State Government Approval Granted to NSW’s First Solar Farm

January 13, 2011
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Infigen Energy has been granted the Keneally government’s approval for NSW’s first commercial solar farm. The farm, to be located about 2km south of Nyngan, a small town in the dry about 600km west of Sydney. The farm would feed directly into a pre-existing power substation. The Nyngan farm is part of Infigen’s aims to [...]

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Fed Govt calls early finish to $8k rebate, effective 9 June 09

June 9, 2009

Below is a copy of the media release just provided this morning by the Federal Government, announcing that it will cease taking applications for 8k rebate with immediate effect from today: The Australian Government will today release the final legislation for the expanded Renewable Energy Target (RET) which will allow for the creation of new [...]

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Federal budget provides an inspiring boost for solar

May 26, 2009

The Federal Government announced in it’s 12 May 09 budget a new $1.5 billion investment in renewable energy, including a new $1.35 billion Solar Flagships program to construct up to four large scale solar power stations. At a time of global economic turmoil, it’s encouraging that the Federal Govt views the solar energy and renewables [...]

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