Construction is well underway on one of Queensland’s most ambitious renewable energy projects, the Aldoga Solar Farm, situated 20km northwest of Gladstone, according to a video posted by its developer.
The 380-megawatt installation by ACCIONA Energía is being developed on Economic Development Queensland (EDQ) land, supporting the state’s renewable energy goals.
“This will be a 380 MW project for QLD delivering renewable energy and supporting the states renewable energy targets,” Project Director Hesham Shehata said.
“What’s different about this project is the sheer scale of it. This is six solar farms in one, whereas we normally have numerous smaller solar farms constructed. We’ve gone through and we’ve developed 6 solar farms in the one area at the same time.”
The project’s construction milestones are significant.
“We’re going to be constructing 42 kilometres of internal roads laying over 263km of medium voltage cable. We’ll have over a million man hours of work completed and most probably over a million cups of coffee drunk,” Shehata said.
The development has already made substantial progress since its ceremonial beginning.
“There have been over 28km of access roads built. We are about 90 per cent through the clearing and grubbing works, about 60 per cent through on the installation of the actual roads, and about 20 per cent through with the installation of the trackers and actural modules.”
The project is creating significant employment opportunities.
“At the peak of the project. They’ll be 450 people. Working on sites to eventually hand over to the O&M team, which will have it 10 to 15 people here on a permanent basis for the next 30 Years,” Shehata said.
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