Shunfeng International Clean Energy Limited (SFCE) announced that a 33.9MW solar project proposed by SF Suntech Australia Pty Ltd., a subsidiary of SFCE, has been selected by the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) to progress to the next stage of competitive bidding for its AUD100 million large-scale solar PV program.
In September 2015, ARENA launched a program to provide funding of AUD100 million to support the development of 200MW of large scale solar projects in Australia. SFCE's project was one of 22 high merit projects that were selected from 77 eligible expressions of interest to submit a full application by 15 June 2016.
The shortlisted projects, with a total capacity of 766MW, are projected to generate energy below the threshold cost of AUD135 per MWh. Projects that are selected through the competitive bidding process will be eligible to receive allocations from $100 million of funding from ARENA and apply for complementary financing from the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) under its $250 million large-scale solar financing program.
"With abundant solar and land resources, and global leadership in solar technology development, Australia is an ideal market for the deployment of large-scale solar plants," said Eric Luo, SFCE's executive director and CEO. "The Australian government actively encourages the deployment of large-scale solar PV projects, and is striving to reduce the cost of solar energy generation to potentially less than AUD100 per MWh by 2020. With our rich experience and strong capabilities in the development, construction, operation and maintenance of large-scale solar PV projects all around the world, I am confident that we are well positioned to secure funding through this competitive process and contribute to the ongoing development of solar in Australia."