Areva exits Australia’s $1.2 billion 250 MW Solar Dawn Project
12 Nov 2012
Australian $1.2 billion 250 megawatt Solar Dawn Project will not take off after the consortium building Solar Dawn said that it no longer plans to develop the country's largest solar energy project.
''The Solar Dawn Consortium has today confirmed that although it remains committed to Australia's large-scale concentrated solar power industry, it will no longer be pursuing development of its proposed 250MW solar thermal power facility in South-West Queensland,'' the company said in a statement.
The Solar Dawn Consortium includes, French energy giant Areva's subsidiary Areva Solar, a global designer, manufacturer and installer of solar steam generators and provides performance guarantees for its Compact Linear Fresnel Reflector (CLFR) technology and renewable energy generation, and Wind Prospect CWP, a global developer of utility-scale renewable energy projects.
The project is backed by the Australian government and research partner the University of Queensland.
To be built near Chinchilla in South West Queensland, Solar Dawn is a proposed 250 megawatt solar thermal gas hybrid power plant and was supposed to be the largest plant of its kind in the world when completed.
The Australian and Queensland governments had pledged to contribute $464 million and $75 million, respectively, to the project.