Australia's largest solar farm opens

The 10-megawatt Greenough River Solar Farm, Australia's biggest solar project comprising 150,000 photovoltaic panels, has opened.

Located near Geraldton in Western Australia's Mid West region, this is Australia's first utility-scale solar farm.

The project, covering 50 hectares of farmland about 50km south-east of Geraldton, was completed in about 12 months, on time and on budget.

Energy produced by the farm is being purchased by the Water Corporation to help offset the energy requirement of its Southern Seawater Desalination Plant, near Binningup in the state's south.

The state government had provided $20 million towards the $50 million project, including a $10 million investment from the Royalties for Regions program, with the remainder contributed by joint venture partners Verve Energy and GE Energy Financial Services, according to Regional Development Minister Brendon Grylls.

"The initial performance of the Greenough River Solar Farm has exceeded expectations and the potential to expand the project to 40MW of capacity will be evaluated by Verve Energy in the future," Mr Grylls said.

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