The Sunshine Coast Solar Farm has been operational since work completed in 2017. Its the first local council project to ensure renewable energy offsets 100% of energy consumption.
Location
The Sunshine Coast Council is Australia’s first local government to offset its entire electricity consumption across all its facilities and operations from renewable energy generated at the 15MW Sunshine Coast Solar Farm, located at 909 Yandina-Coolum Road, Valdora. It sits on 24 hectares of a 49 hectare site.
The characteristics of the site are that it:
- is adjacent to Energex’s 33kV power line which is capable of receiving the solar farm’s power output
- is flat and large enough to develop a scale of solar farm which can generate a reliable output to match council’s annual power needs
- has the optimum solar perspective with no shading, is located away from urban areas and provides limited impacts on the surrounding rural community
- is a complimentary use to agricultural production.
In its first year of operation, the solar farm has received five prestigious awards:
- LGMA Queensland 2018 Awards for Excellence – Sustainability category winner
- LG Professionals Federation Awards – Environment and Sustainability Award
- National Awards for Local Government – Boosting productivity through infrastructure award
- PIA 2017 Awards for Planning Excellence (Queensland) – Wendy Chadwick Encouragement Award
- Australian Regional Development Awards 2018 – Environment and Sustainability Award
Watch a time-lapse of construction of the Sunshine Coast Solar Farm:
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