Some good news: yesterday Australia’s first utility-scale solar farm was switched on, bringing us a few steps closer to the country’s renewable energy targets.
Proudly for us, the Greenough River Solar Farm sits in the home state of Brightgreen founders David and Barry O’Driscoll, near the small Midwest town of Geraldton in WA.
The farm is expected to generate ten megawatts of energy, which is enough to power 3000 homes and displace 20,000 tonnes of greenhouse gases each year. They’re also looking into expanding the plant to 40 megawatts in order to satisfy growing demands for renewable energy.
This is definitely a positive move, as right now (as Renew Economy points out) we trail behind places like Europe, North America and China in terms of getting plants like this up and running.
Australia currently gets ten percent of its power from renewables, with the aim to double that by 2020.
As the Age reports, apparently we’re one of the most ideal places for solar projects, since we have the highest average solar radiation per square metre of any continent in the world.
[Pic via]
