More than 45,000 homes will be powered by clean energy from the world's largest solar power station, when a $420 million plant proposed for the state's north-west goes online, Victorian Premier Steve Bracks said this week.
The 800 hectare, 154 megawatt plant will use world-first technology originally designed to power satellites and able to concentrate the sun's energy by 500 times. The technology, known as Heliostat Concentrator Photovoltaic (HCPV), uses mirrors to reflect the sun's rays into a receiver that converts sunlight into energy and is capable of generating electricity at one-sixth of the cost of conventional solar power.
"These clean energy projects will see the creation of Australia's first solar power station of its kind, create over 1300 jobs and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by more than one million tonnes a year," Mr Bracks said.