PHOTO: An artist's impression of the Sunshine Coast Solar Farm which is expected to be completed mid-2017.(Supplied: Sunshine Coast Council)
The first solar panel table was put in place today at the Sunshine Coast Solar Farm at Valdora.
The energy from the large-scale solar farm being built in Queensland will supply all the power for Sunshine Coast Council infrastructure when it is completed mid-next year.
It will be Australia's first large-scale solar farm run by a local government.
Sunshine Coast Council Mayor Mark Jamieson said the $50 million project will save ratepayers more than $22 million after costs over next 30 years.
"The energy produced here, the 15 megawatts, will be an offset for all of council's energy use within the Sunshine Coast council area," Cr Jamieson said.
With 57,000 panels to be installed across 24 hectares of a 49-hectare site, it will be Queensland's largest solar farm and the fifth largest in Australia.
The Sunshine Coast Council tried unsuccessfully to attain Federal Government funding to assist with costs, but pushed ahead with the project anyway, which Cr Jamieson said demonstrated the council's commitment to clean energy and renewables.
He said it had piqued the interest of other councils throughout Australia.
"There's certainly a range of other councils looking at what we're doing and there's councils using other technologies ... but none of them are producing the capacity that we are from this particular site."
Cr Jamieson said it would have been ideal to have the panels made in Australia, but the technology here fell short of what was available in China.
"They really are producing state of the art [products]," he said.
"We would love to have been able to source it locally, but we would never have been able to deliver on the outcomes if we used technology that wasn't at that level."
The mayor said once constructed, the farm would be low maintenance, with the exception of some four-legged friends possibly calling the site home.
"We were talking about the prospect of having some sheep or lamas to keep the grass down. They can just live comfortably under all those panels but outside of that, it' pretty maintenance free.
It wouldn't be the first solar farm to bring in animals to help with maintenance costs.
The University of Queensland brought in 10 sheep to maintain its 11.5 hectare solar research facility at Gatton, after the annual cost of mowing the site came in at nearly $50,000.
Cr Jamieson said while the large Valdora site was appealing for its flat terrain and proximity to a 33kV power line, it was a known flood plain.
To mitigate that risk, the panels will be installed around four metres off the ground.
He said other concerns about hail, reflection and an impact on wildlife had also been considered.
"The project manager told me she saw examples in China of 55-kilogram steel balls being dropped on the panels and then just flexing.
"No concern at all about hail and there's people who've expressed concern about reflection ... there's no reflection at all and that's obvious because they're not meant to reflect they're meant to absorb, so it won't affect bird life."
In light of the recent statewide blackout in South Australia, he said a similar occurrence would not be a reality because power to council's infrastructure would be supplied from the solar farm, via the grid.
"All we will see is at different times of the year and different times of the day obviously we can harvest more power because the sun's up for longer or in a superior position.
"When I talk to people around the Sunshine Coast, individually or in groups, about the major projects we've got underway — hospitals, CBD, airport — this is the one that gets them most excited."
