The 204MW Edenvale Solar park – a joint-owned project by Japanese corporation Sojitz and compatriot energy company Eneos – has started commerical operations in the Western Downs region of Queensland, Australia.
Deploying around 400,000 solar modules over approximately 428 hectares, Eneos and Sojitz said that Edenvale is the largest Japanese-built solar project in Australia. The project was executed via the companies’ joint subsidiary holding firm, Sapphire Energy.
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“Queensland continues to lead the charge on sustainable energy generation,” premier of Queensland, Annastacia Palaszczuk said. “It’s clear the world recognizes the opportunities present and is choosing Queensland to invest.”
Sojitz – a conglomerate with some 400 subsidiaries and affiliates – said that it will supply an unspecified portion of the solar power from Edenvale to the Gregory Crinum coking coal mine in Queensland, which it owns. It said this would directly reduce its scope one and two emissions.
As Australia continues to retire its long-established coal generation fleet in favour of renewable energy, the Australian Energy Market Operator has warned that the country needs to invest in its grid infrastructure “urgently” to avoid reliability issues.
The Australian government aims to install 26GW of renewable capacity by 2030, and Queensland for its part, has invested in deploying 22GW of solar and wind by 2035 with a forecast AU$62 billion investment. The state has announced plans to develop 12 dedicated Renewable Energy Zones to facilitate this capacity expansion.
PV Tech Premium looked into the dynamics of state and federal renewable energy legislation in Australia earlier this year.
Elsewhere this week, Australian renewables developer Edify Energy secured federal approvals for a 600MW Queensland solar PV project expected online in Q3 2025, and earlier this year, French oil major TotalEnergies joined forces with fossil fuel company Petronas to develop a 100MW PV plant in the Roma area of the state.
The Australian Clean Energy Council (CEC) warned earlier this year that the investment level into future renewable energy projects is “concerning” for the market. The first half of this year has been one of the slowest investment periods in Australia since 2017, in particular for newly-signed projects that would come online in 18-24 months’ time.