Energy developer RATCH Australia has announced that it will begin construction of its $100 million solar photovoltaic (PV) farm in Collinsville, Queensland.

The farm will have 180,000 solar panels to maximise solar exposure and will have the capability to generate 42.5 megawatts (MW).

The expectation of the project is meant to provide enough electricity to 15,000 homes each year and eliminate about 90,000 tonnes of carbon emissions during the first 12 months of its initial operation.

A lot of jobs will also be generated from the creation of the farm with up to 100 construction jobs available during the build and approximately 20 maintenance and operational positions to go with it.

However, despite the finalisation of the project, Ratch’s executive general manager of business development Anthony Yeates says that getting funding was quite a challenge.

“We have been working on redevelopment options for the site for a really long time and it is great to finally see one of these options come to life. The finance from the CEFC and ARENA’s funding have helped us repurpose a disused site which receives optimal sunshine, and can take advantage of existing infrastructure to feed its solar output into the grid,” Anthony says.

The plant is the 10^th project receiving funding from government-owned Clean Energy Finance Corporation’s (CEFC) Large-Scale Solar Program with an estimated $60 million being provided.