The Moree Solar Farm consortium was given until December 15, 2011 to meet financial close as a condition of the $306.5 million grant on offer from the Australian Government as part of the Solar Flagships Program.
The consortium has provided information to the Department of Resources, Energy and Tourism indicating they have been unable to meet all of their funding conditions and has proposed substantial changes to the project that was originally selected.
The Australian Government will now invite Moree Solar Farm and the three other shortlisted PV projects from AGL, Infigen-Suntech and TRUenergy to update their applications for reassessment by the independent Solar Flagships Council.
The Minister for Resources and Energy, Martin Ferguson AM MP, said this process provides the Moree project with the opportunity to demonstrate whether it is still the most meritorious project.
The Government is committed to the deployment of large-scale renewable energy technologies in Australia. However, we must also ensure that taxpayer money is spent prudently, Minister Ferguson said.
That is why we have put in place a staged and gated approach to funding grants under the Solar Flagships program.
Government has always had a role to play supporting the research, development and commercialisation of new technologies.
This Labor Government is providing unprecedented support for the development of a broad range and scale of solar energy projects and technologies in Australia through a number of programs and market mechanisms including the Renewable Energy Target, a price on carbon as well as over $3.2 billion in direct funding through the Australian Renewable Energy Agency.
Moree Solar Farm has not met its obligations under its funding agreement and, consequently, the Government now has an opportunity to take another look at the Moree project against its competitors to ensure the Government continues to back the best PV project available at this time.
The Solar PV industry is undergoing a period of change and consolidation, due in part to the significant reduction in PV panel prices in the past two years, with some analysts reporting that PV panel prices have dropped by as much as 70 percent.
A decision resulting from this process is expected in the second quarter of 2012.
The Government has also extended the time to reach financial close for the only solar thermal project to be assessed viable by the Solar Flagships Council, the Solar Dawn solar thermal project.
Minister Ferguson said Solar Dawn remained the best value solar thermal project for the Flagships program and has given the $1.2 billion 250MW solar thermal project near Chinchilla in Queensland until 30 June 2012 to reach financial close.
