The Clean Energy Finance Corporation has committed $37 million towards X-Elio’s 200-megawatt Blue Grass solar farm in south-east Queensland, which will use advanced technology that can help further drive down the cost of solar to $15 a megawatt-hour.
CEFC chief executive Ian Learmonth said the loan to the project – the green bank’s 32nd investment in solar since its inception in 2012 – showed solar energy was a crucial technology as Australia moved to net zero emissions. The funding, together with financing from ING and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, took debt financing for the project to more than $100 million and allowed it to reach financial close.