The Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Labor government's minister for the environment and sustainable development, Simon Corbell has announced its large-scale solar auction is in its final stage. The feed-in tariff support scheme has shortlisted 22 proposals.
Under the two-stage process, prequalified proponents have been invited to submit final proposals and set out the value of the feed-in tariff they are seeking. 15 of the prequalified proposals self-nominated to submit offers in June 2012 in the fast-track stream, while the remaining proposals will have until early 2013 to complete their bids.
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“I am pleased to announce that 49 proposals were received during the prequalification assessment stage, demonstrating very strong interest from industry nationally and internationally in the process and of these, 22 have been prequalified. This will create a strong basis for competition in the next stage,” Corbell said.
“This decision takes Canberra one step closer to becoming Australia's solar capital and demonstrates the government's commitment to deliver large-scale solar projects to the ACT community.
“The prequalified proposals are from 10 proponents and total 148MW in solar energy generating capacity.”
In December 2011, passage of the Electricity Feed-in (Large-scale Renewable Energy Generation) Act 2011 authorised the territory to develop up to 210MW of large-scale renewable energy generation capacity. The solar auction represents the release of the first 40MW of capacity under the Act.
“This project will take advantage of the large drop in the cost of solar module prices which has occurred over the last couple of years and I am confident Canberrans will receive a good outcome from this process at the most competitive price.
“The 40MW of capacity is expected to in result in a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions of over 850,000 tonnes over the life of the generating assets,” he said.
The solar auction has been designed to take advantage of the provisions in the Commonwealth's Clean Energy Future package that allow for the recognition of voluntary action as additional to national pollution caps. The results are due to be announced in August.
