From pv magazine Australia

European Energy said its 1.1 GW Upper Calliope solar project has received planning approval from the Gladstone Regional Council, opening the way for the fully contracted development to move into final design, grid connection processes and construction planning.

With construction targeted for 2026, the Upper Calliope Solar Farm is expected to be the biggest in the National Electricity Market (NEM), spanning a 2,700-hectare site about 50 kilometres southwest of Gladstone and producing 2.8 TWh of clean energy per year – enough to meet about 5% of Queensland’s current demand.

European Energy Vice President and Australia Manager Catriona McLeod said the council’s decision positions the project as a permitted, large-scale solar asset in a key industrial energy region.

“With planning approval now in place, we can move ahead with the Upper Calliope project, one of the largest projects European Energy has undertaken to date,” she said. “It’s an exciting and important step and our experienced team will now move on to the next phase of development.”

With both planning and federal environmental approvals in place, McLeod said the project has progressed into an “advanced stage” of development with remaining steps including grid connection finalisation, procurement and final investment decisions.

The Upper Calliope project is supported by a 25-year power purchase agreement with the global mining and materials company Rio Tinto, under which the solar farm’s full output is contracted. Electricity generated by the solar farm is intended to supply Rio’s industrial operations in Queensland, including aluminium smelting and alumina refining in the Gladstone region.

Thorvald Spanggaard, Executive Vice President and head of project development at European Energy, said the long-term offtake agreement provides revenue visibility and underpins the project’s commercial structure while planning approval reduces execution risk.

“Approval significantly reduces development risk and allows the team to progress with final design and procurement decisions,” he said.

“Together with the long-term contracted offtake, the project now represents a permitted, utility-scale solar asset with defined revenue characteristics – one of the largest of its kind.”

The Upper Calliope Solar Farm is part of European Energy’s rapidly growing pipeline of projects in Australia, which now totals more than 5 GW of renewable energy capacity under development.

The company earlier this year completed its first PV project in the country with the commissioning of the 58 MW Mokoan Solar Farm in Victoria and earlier this month announced that all 170,044 panels had been mounted at the Lancaster Solar Farm being built in northern Victoria.

The 106 MW PV facility will now move into the final stages of construction, commissioning, and testing, while construction of the 31 MW Mulwala Solar Farm in New South Wales is progressing.

Other projects in European Energy’s development pipeline include the 1 GW Sawpit and 500 MW Leichardt solar farms in Queensland, and the 100 MW Winton North solar project in Victoria.

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