Energy Minister Simon Corbell said We want the activity to occur here in Canberra”.
We want the flow on benefits in terms of economic activity during construction and potentially also in operation to be available here in the territory. We want the employment to happen here. It’s very much about staking out Canberra as the solar capital.
ActewAGL is among many firms bidding for the right to build a solar energy plant in Canberra. The company’s chief executive Michael Costello says it has already invested $7000 on a viability study but says this does not guarantee they will win the bid.
We did that to demonstrate that we thought that it was possible in the ACT that there was the right amount of sunlight, basically, and to get some idea of the economics, he said.
But we don’t expect any special treatment, we just expect to be treated on exactly the same level as anybody else.
Costello said if their bid is successful, they will plan to expand the project.
We’re looking at something a big bigger than what’s being specified, he said.
We may do about that size to start with, but we’d most likely have a modular approach to it.
We need to learn, and A-G-L needs to learn how to operate these things and make them work commercially, because they haven’t been operating in Australia yet.
