The Palaszczuk Government has welcomed the commitment by Telstra to enter into long-term power purchase agreement to underpin a $100 million 70 megawatt (MW) solar farm near Emerald in central Queensland, creating 200 jobs in construction.
Energy Minister Mark Bailey said Telstra's commitment was a vote of confidence in the Government’s priorities - jobs in regional Queensland and the creation of a new large-scale renewable energy sector.
"More than one gigawatt (or 1000MW) of privately funded renewable energy projects are currently in the works delivering more than $2 billion of new investment to Queensland and around 2,000 direct jobs, mostly in our regions,” Mr Bailey said.
Minister Bailey said Telstra, like Sun Metals that has committed to a 125MW solar farm near Townsville creating another 210 jobs in construction, had committed to solar to manage its energy consumption and costs, while also contributing to reducing emissions and stimulating investment in regional Australia.
"It's commitments like these from major companies like Telstra that show the increasing importance of renewables in Queensland's, and indeed Australia's, energy mix," he said.
"We’ve helped kick-start the large-scale renewable industry in Queensland after inheriting a stagnating renewable energy sector under the previous LNP government.
"In the past 12 months alone, 16 large-scale renewable energy projects have been committed in Queensland.
"When these projects are all online, they will have more than doubled our large-scale renewable generation capacity.
"Large-scale projects such as the 25 megawatt Barcaldine Solar Farm are beginning to feed into our grid and more large scale projects will start to come online as a result of the Palaszczuk Government’s Solar 150 initiative, including the Whitsunday Solar Farm, Kidston Solar Project, Oakey Solar Farm, and the Longreach Solar Farm.
"The Palaszczuk Government is committed to transitioning to a clean energy future.
"Maintaining the State’s existing baseload generation fleet while adding more renewable energy options to the mix is the right way to take the State’s regional economy forward."