Solar 150 - Queensland's large-scale solar investment program

We have committed to supporting up to 150 megawatts of solar power generation in Queensland—to drive significant growth in renewable energy investment.

The initiative, in conjunction with the large-scale solar PV competitive funding round conducted by the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), will help support the development of large-scale solar energy projects in Queensland. We have some of the best solar resources in the world, and are ideally placed to benefit as solar generation becomes an increasingly important part of Australia's electricity generation.

This guide explains the application process, key dates and supporting information.

Benefits of large-scale solar generation

Large-scale solar generation is already common feature in the USA (California and Texas), Spain and India.

Queensland's Solar 150 program aims to:

• encourage new large-scale renewable energy projects in Queensland
• reduce the cost and risk of future renewable energy projects by demonstrating financial and technology feasibility
• provide tangible learnings across development and supply chains to facilitate future renewable energy developments.

ARENA's role

ARENA has allocated $100 million for the competitive round. ARENA's funding will attract up to 482 megawatts of solar energy capacity throughout Australia.

Our role

We are supporting the development of local, large-scale solar projects by providing long-term revenue contracts to successful Queensland bidders for the ARENA funds.

This financial support will provide project proponents with long-term income certainty. This helps access favourable financing arrangements and develop lower-cost projects.

This government intervention is needed to remove obstacles for large-scale solar growth.