Queensland's largest solar farm plugs into the grid a month early

The solar farm at Barcaldine in outback
 Queensland. It provides enough energy
 to power about 10,000 homes.

Queensland’s largest operating solar farm has plugged into the national electricity grid and is set to generate enough power for almost 10,000 households by the end of 2016.

The Barcaldine remote community solar farm, in the state’s central west outback, connected to the national electricity market on Wednesday, more than a month ahead of schedule.

The early delivery of the 20 megawatt plant, one of the first in the country to be funded by the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, was evidence of the growing speed and proficiency of big solar developers, said Arena’s chief executive, Ivor Frischknecht.

It is to be followed by a dozen new large-scale solar farms to be built across Australia by the end of 2017, which would ramp up national solar capacity to enough power for 150,000 average homes.

Read Joshua Robertson’s story on The Guardian - “Queensland's largest solar farm plugs into the grid a month early.”