The Mildura Solar Plant started feeding power to the grid in April 2015 and was the second largest operational solar power plant in the Australia at the time, and today is still the largest in Victoria.
The Mildura solar farm created with out the assistance of government grants, is so efficient that it operates solely on the revenue it earns from the large-scale Renewable Energy Target and the electricity it produces, via a long-term power purchase agreement with Diamond Energy – an upstart power retailer focussed on renewable energy. [source http://www.businessspectator.com.au/article Tristan Edis]
In this respect the Mildura project provides a vastly more convincing case that solar PV could be a significant player in not just competing at the retail level on rooftops, but also the wholesale electricity market, according to Tristan.
The project also helps illustrate how solar’s smaller, highly modular scale and fast construction time could allow it to play a far greater role in ensuring the target for the large-scale RET is met than many currently expect.
By keeping projects at a moderate size and employing simple, standardised equipment and framing, the project becomes a cookie-cutter exercise using domestic installation principals that will reduce installation costs and create a codified system of mass production rather than one-off construction project.
Mildura Solar Park 1” which is a 3.52MWp plant located in Mildura Victoria, “images courtesy of Belectric GmbH copyright 2016”