1st Community-Owned Solar Farm in Australia Coming Soon..

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australia hervey bay to get community-owned solar farm

It was recently announced that construction was about to begin on Australia’s first community-owned solar farm, in Queensland’s Hervey Bay. Ingenero, a Queensland solar company, was awarded the contract to build the 396-kW solar farm.

In addition to the solar farm project, it was also announced that ABB Australia had been awarded a contract to build a 266-kW solar panel system at the Hervey Bay Hospital.

As I mentioned a couple times in my CNBC interview on “Energy Opportunities,” solar power doesn’t only offer environmental benefits. Decentralized solar power offers community benefits, as well. It seems the folks in Queensland (and Australia, in general) get this.

“Importantly, these projects will help reduce energy costs as well as carbon emissions,” Energy Minister Stephen Robertson said. The hospital will save approximately $20,000/year in electricity costs, for example.  The projects will also create local jobs and improve the quality of life in the area.

Victoria, Australia is also looking to get its first community-owned solar farm up soon, as are residents in several other parts of Australia.

More on Australia solar farms and government policies.

Photo Credit: Attribution Some rights reserved by GregTheBusker


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Zachary Shahan

Zach is tryin' to help society help itself one word at a time. He spends most of his time here on CleanTechnica as its director, chief editor, and CEO. Zach is recognized globally as an electric vehicle, solar energy, and energy storage expert. He has presented about cleantech at conferences in India, the UAE, Ukraine, Poland, Germany, the Netherlands, the USA, Canada, and Curaçao. Zach has long-term investments in Tesla [TSLA], NIO [NIO], Xpeng [XPEV], Ford [F], ChargePoint [CHPT], Amazon [AMZN], Piedmont Lithium [PLL], Lithium Americas [LAC], Albemarle Corporation [ALB], Nouveau Monde Graphite [NMGRF], Talon Metals [TLOFF], Arclight Clean Transition Corp [ACTC], and Starbucks [SBUX]. But he does not offer (explicitly or implicitly) investment advice of any sort.

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