Iberdrola. the largest wind energy producer in the world. will make its debut in the Australian market with a $500 million hybrid solar and wind farm planned for South Australia.
The 320 megawatt plant. to be built near Adelaide. would be operational by 2021. and is part of a 650MW plan for wind and solar investments planned for South Australia and Queensland. the company said.
Xabier Viteri. Iberdrola`s director of renewable energy. said that while clean energy had increased its share of the Australia market considerably there remains `tremendous potential for further growth`.
`Like a lot of countries. we see increasing demand from the public and businesses for their energy to come from clean sources.` he said. `When you have that demand. coupled with abundant natural resources for high-performance wind and solar. it creates a highly attractive market to invest in.`
The company said it was aware of existing grid constraints in some parts of Australia following a rush of wind and solar projects in recent years at the Renewable Energy Target to 2020 gets fulfilled.
Under the plan. some 33.000 gigawatt-hours of new renewable energy – excluding for instance the original Snowy Hydro scheme – must be sourced from clean energy sources each year from the end of next year.
However. Iberdrola is confident there is sufficient capacity for the firm`s initial pipeline of projects that will fall outside the RET. a spokesman said.
Spanish-based Iberdrola has operations in Spain. Germany. France. the UK. Portugal. the USA. Mexico and Brazil.