Western NSW solar projects create research and job opportunities

Two of Australia’s top universities will partner with AGL on two large solar photovoltaic (PV) projects in western New South Wales.

Lead Research Organisation the University of Queensland (UQ) and its partner, the University of New South Wales (UNSW), will work together on a $40.7 million research project involving a 106 MW solar power plant at Nyngan and a 53 MW plant at Broken Hill.

First Solar's Copper Mountain project is a similar size to the Broken Hill project. Image courtesy of First Solar.

In June, AGL was announced as the successful bidder for funding under the government’s Solar Flagships Program for the solar projects.

First Solar will supply the PV modules and provide engineering, procurement and construction services for the projects, as well as maintaining both projects for AGL for the first five years. The plants will use the company’s advanced, thin-film CdTe PV modules.

The federal government is providing $129.7 million in funding for the projects’ development, while the NSW Government will provide $64.9 million. The projects are expected to be complete by 2015 and will have an estimated capital cost of $450 million, the balance of which will be funded by AGL.

AGL anticipates the projects will create around 150 direct construction jobs in Broken Hill and up to 300 in Nyngan.

The Solar Flagships Program requires the project to include a research project - which is where the two universities come in. The research is funded under the Education Infrastructure Fund (EIF). The EIF funding will be used to build a Power Systems Interface Research Facility at UNSW to investigate the successful integration of solar PV stations into Australia's electricity grid.

The research aspect of the projects will focus on energy storage, plant optimisation, power systems and the impact of renewable energy on the national electricity market.

“The research will build national capacity for solar power research at the utility scale and provide invaluable infrastructure for the broader Australian research community,” UQ’s Professor Paul Meredith said. “This will be a truly world-class facility for solar PV research.”

For more information about the projects, click here.