UK solar firm challenges Australian utilities with big solar plans

A leading UK-based solar farm developer has received approval for its first 140MW solar farm in Queensland, and intends to bypass Australia’s major electricity utilities and sell the output from its growing portfolio of projects to the spot market.

Eco Energy World Australia says it received planning consent last week for the Aramara solar farm near Maryborough, on Queensland’s Fraser Coast.

But it won’t be waiting for a contract, or power purchase agreement from a utility; instead, it intends to begin construction within a few months and sell the output directly to the market.

“We have a unique proposition, where our projects are based on a merchant income model and therefore the projects are not delayed by PPAs,” says EEW chairman Svante Kumlin.

And he intends to take a similar model to a pipeline of 1GW of large-scale solar projects, of which 440MW are in various stages of planning. All of them are in Queensland.

Read Giles Parkinson’s story on RenewEconomy - “UK solar firm challenges Australian utilities with big solar plans.”