The project is one of Australia's largest, and can supply up to 122,000 homes at maximum capacity
Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) has helped the Australian arm of Spanish renewable energy conglomerate Acciona win its bid to acquire one of the country’s largest solar projects – the 265MW Aldoga solar farm in Gladstone, Queensland.
The law firm’s team was led by partners Luke Simpson and Gerard Pike with assistance from solicitor Nick Toth.
“This project is very significant for Queensland the Gladstone region, and we look forward to helping Acciona to bring the Aldoga Solar Project to fruition,” Simpson said. Under the terms of the project, Acciona will develop, finance, construct and operate the solar farm through a 30-year lease with the Queensland State Government.
Queensland aims to have half of it power needs supplied by renewable energy by 2030. At maximum capacity the Aldoga project will deliver the equivalent amount of energy needed to supply up to 122,000 households, which is around five times the number of households in Gladstone.
“The project shows the Queensland government taking a different approach to creating employment opportunities in regional Queensland by auctioning a long-term land lease and access to grid infrastructure for large-scale solar on state-owned land,” Simpson said. The project is expected to support up to 240 construction jobs and 10 ongoing jobs upon completion.
