More of Queensland ‘s renewable energy will now come from inside the state’s borders with Ergon Energy entering the market to buy 150 megawatts of renewable energy from regional Queensland.
Minister for Energy Mark Bailey said that Queensland’s renewables sector will also see a major boost in job numbers.
“This is the beginning of the large scale renewable energy agenda of the Palaszczuk Government,” Mr Bailey said.
“This will mean new construction projects, jobs in regional areas, and getting on with building our renewable future. This simply would not be happening if Ergon Energy was being privatised as planned by the previous LNP government.
“Our focus on public ownership and strong commitments on renewable energy gives confidence to Ergon to take this forward.
“Leveraging new solar, wind and hydro opportunities will create further jobs across the state during construction and ongoing maintenance.”
Ergon Energy chief executive Ian McLeod said the move to investing in the renewables industry was a common sense approach.
“Renewable energy sources including rooftop solar are already contributing over 10 per cent of the electricity for our main grid and we expect that growth to continue,” he said.
“Queensland’s sugar industry’s generation of renewable energy is already contributing $45.7 million in economic value to the industry.
“We have a government owner of a retailer committed to renewable energy projects.”
Ergon Energy Retail will this week be calling for detailed submissions from companies that can help to meet this goal.
Ergon Energy Retail is looking to partner with new renewable energy projects with companies that have a solid reputation in the renewable energy space and can demonstrate their projects will contribute significantly to Ergon Energy Retail meeting its Renewable Energy requirements.”
Companies interested in submitting an Expression of Interest for Renewable Energy Project Developments will be able to download documentation from Ergon Energy Retail’s website at www.ergon.com.au when the Expression of Interest is released next week.
Projects already supported by Ergon Energy include:
o Bagasse Sugar projects including Mackay (36MW) , Proserpine (10 MW), Maryborough (3.5MW) and Bundaberg (2.8 MW)
o Solar – Fraser Coast Solar Farm – 400Kw
o Wind – Windy Hill Wind Farm (12 MW)
o Hydro – Burnett Dam (2.8MW), Tinaroo 1.6MW, Paranella Park (14.7kw)
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