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AAP
AAP
Politics
Fraser Barton

Australia's largest solar farm close to operational

The 400MW Western Downs Green Power Hub, west of Brisbane, has more than one million solar panels. (PR HANDOUT IMAGE PHOTO) (AAP)

Australia's largest solar farm capable of powering 235,000 homes, is close to being switched on in Queensland.

The 400-megawatt Western Downs Green Power Hub, about 300 kilometres west of Brisbane, has more than one million solar panels.

The private farm owned by Neoeon is undergoing final tests with commissioning needed before it is fully connected to the grid.

Queensland state-owned CleanCo will buy 80 per cent of the electricity generated on the site.

The project is connected to the grid via a transmission line built by Powerlink and already exports more than 350 megawatts of clean energy.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk says the government is committed to powering Queensland homes with renewable energy.

"We're going to be seeing more and more of these solar farms and wind farms right across Queensland because that's what we need to transition to our renewable energy future," she told reporters at the site on Wednesday.

UGL and Tesla are building a 200MW battery next to the solar farm, which is expected to be completed by early 2025 at the latest.

Neoen's solar farm is one of many planned to transform the state's grid which has been heavily reliant on coal- and gas-fired power stations.

In March, the government bought private company CuString's 1100km electricity transmission line project Copperstring 2.0.

It said it would invest $5 billion in linking the mineral-rich northwest with the grid via a high-voltage line to Townsville, which is due to be completed in 2029.

The government has also promised that 80 per cent of Queensland's electricity demand will be met by renewable sources by 2035, a target that will be made legally binding later this year.

The premier rapidly rolled out her decarbonisation plans last year, but since then electricity prices have steadily risen.

The Queensland Competition Authority is set to allow household electricity bills outside southeast Queensland to rise by $432 to $1928 and business bills by $215 to $2334 in 2022/23.

The Australian Energy Regulator is also considering allowing electricity retailers in the southeast to hike annual residential power bills by $321 to $1941 and small business bills by $669 to $4115 from the next financial year.

Ms Palaszczuk said last month that households and small businesses would be given rebates on their electricity bills in the June state budget.

Queensland taxpayers also do not know how much compensation they will pay to Rio Tinto, NRG Energy and partners for their Gladstone Power Station due to the federal cap on coal prices.

Meanwhile, publicly owned generator CS Energy's coal-fired Callide Power Station will not be fully operational until January.

The 1540MW station, which meets about 30 per cent of the state's electricity demand, has not run at capacity since an explosion in May 2021.

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