The Australian Government will re-open the Solar Flagships Program to four short-listed applicants for the development of the 150 MW Moree Solar Farm photovoltaic project. The A$930m (US$1bn) Moree Solar Farm in northern New South Wales backed jointly by the UK’s BP Solar, Australia’s Pacific Hydro and Spanish firm Fotowatio Renewable Ventures – was in line for A$306.5m (US$330m) of Solar Flagships cash. But Moree has failed to meet the conditions for government funding and has “substantially changed” the nature of its project. The government is now inviting the three other shortlisted PV projects – AGL-First Solar, TruEnergy-First Solar, and Infigen-Suntech – to update their applications for reassessment by the Solar Flagships Council.
The government also extended the deadline for developers to reach financial close on the 250 MW Solar Dawn hybrid (CSP and natural gas) project. Solar Dawn is the only one of the proposed projects to use CSP technology.