Construction has commenced on an industry-leading Solar Farm on Sunshine Coast Council owned land at Valdora, Sunshine Coast.

In a series of firsts, the Council is the first local government to build a Solar Farm.

The 15 megawatt (MW) utility scale, grid-connected facility will be the largest solar farm in Queensland and will be the first to operate at 1500 Volt DC (other solar farms are built to 1000 Volt DC).

In another first, and from as early as 2017, Council’s entire electricity consumption will be offset by the Solar Farm. This includes electricity for all administration buildings, swimming pools, performance venues, community centres, libraries, sport and recreation facilities.

It will save millions of dollars over a 30-year period based on today’s electricity costs (taking into account the costs of building and ongoing operational costs).

With electricity prices set to increase substantially in the future, the solar farm will protect Council and its ratepayers from these costs.

The Valdora Solar Farm construction by Downer Utilities, partnering with Council, consists of:

• over 57,000 PV (photovoltaic) modules
• 1500 support structures
• six inverter stations
• control room
• access track
• road widening
• medium voltage (MV) underground lines

At its peak, the solar farm will generate 15,000 kilowatts of electricity from the sun positioning the Sunshine Coast Council as leaders in the renewable energy space.

With this project, Council is well on it’s way to the goal of the Sunshine Coast becoming Australia’s most sustainable region.

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