The Clean Energy Council has said that Queensland is leading the way when it comes to large-scale solar power during their presentation at the Large-scale Solar Industry Forum in Brisbane.

Clean Energy Council chief executive Kane Thornton says that the state has the most rooftop solar power in the country.

“The 14 solar projects that are already under construction or will start in 2017 add up to close to $2 billion of new investment across the state, bringing with them at least 1570 direct jobs and more than 800 MW of new clean energy generating capacity. Just this week it was announced that a 42.5MW solar plant at Collinsville, north-west of Mackay, will start construction very soon,” Kane says.

“A combination of the federal Renewable Energy Target (RET), support from the Queensland Government, Australian Renewable Energy Agency and the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, and billions of dollars in private investment is working to dramatically reduce the costs of the technology, which have almost halved in just the last couple of years.”

Kane also says that the room for opportunity for Queensland is massive and the sole reason for Brisbane to host the Forum in 2017.

“There are huge opportunities in Queensland and a very supportive state government, which is why the renewable energy industry chose Brisbane as the city to host the first Large-scale Solar Industry Forum in 2017. The rapid growth we are seeing is occurring as part of a broader economic transformation which brings with it a big opportunity to retrain people from other industries, including mining,” Kane says.

“As the Australian market gains experience in construction and operation, it’s a great time to get together to share lessons that have been learned, and work to ensure there are skilled professionals to deliver these exciting projects.”

Over 300 engineers and specialist attended the large-scale solar conference in Brisbane which was sold out due to its high demand. Kane says that as technology keeps advancing, so will the scale of its events.

“We’re seeing a trend towards single axis tracking, which allows more solar power to be captured over a longer period of time, as well as storage technology which helps improve energy security and peak demand.”

For the list of speakers, please check out the Clean Energy Council website.