Five key NSW solar plants receive financial backing from Canadian Solar

Canadian Solar, one of the largest solar companies in the world, is investing in five projects in New South Wales.

In partnership with Photon Energy, the companies will develop sites at Gunning, Mumbil, Gunnedah, Suntop and Maryvale, which together will provide a capacity of 1.14GWp.

Canadian Solar is taking a majority 51% stake in all five projects, with Photon retaining a 49% stake in the Gunning project and 24.99% in the others.

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Photon Energy Australia Managing Director, Michael Gartner, commented: “Australia is entering an exciting period where solar power will make a major contribution to Australia’s electricity needs.

“Photon Energy has been a pioneer in large scale solar Down Under reacting ahead of competing developers to utility scale opportunities through developing Australia’s largest solar pipeline.”

This is the first of several recent investment announcements in Australia’s solar industry. In December, the Clean Energy Finance Corporation revealed it is investing $207mn into expanding capacity at solar farms in Queensland and Victoria, helping it to pass 1GW of projects it has supported.

This time last year, US company First Solar was awarded the module supply contract for the 140MW Sun Metals Solar Farm, said at the time to be the largest solar project in Australia.

Canadian Solar is a keen investor in Australia, and over the past 16 years has successfully delivered over 25GW of modules to over 100 countries around the world.