Cooba Solar Project

To ensure national power supply, the Australian grid is evolving at a rapid speed to incorporate more resilient power generation from a range of sustainable and cost-effective resources, including solar, wind and hydro generation with energy storage. This diversity in energy supply is critical to secure low-cost energy for domestic and industrial energy consumers, reducing the environmental and financial costs and risks associated with fossil fuel and nuclear power generation in the 21st century.

Clean energy and environmentally integrated power plants are no longer a futuristic luxury. The harsh reality of climate change has hit home with horrific consequences in Australia and elsewhere. Projects such as the Cooba Solar Project are now at the front line of decarbonising our local, national and international economies. We’re proud to be a part of Australia’s rapid decarbonisation. The solar energy produced, stored and distributed from Cooba will contribute significantly to the realisation of Australia’s climate goals.

Venn Energy is committed to an annual community benefit program of $200,000 per year. This equates to $6M over the 30-year operational life of the project. This fund will be designed to evolve with the changing community needs and to respond to the matters that are important to the local community.

Other key benefits of the Cooba Solar Project include:

• Employment opportunities for up to 250 employees and contractors during the construction phase, and 5 permanent positions for the ongoing maintenance of the site.
• Procurement of goods and services from local businesses – such as accommodation, meals, machinery contractors, construction trades, surveyors, cleaning services, security services, training service providers, building supplies, and waste contractors
• Reducing the cost of electricity for consumers in comparison to traditional fossil fuel-based energy sources.
• Training and educational opportunity for local trades, apprentices and local schools

• A diversified income stream for rural landholders that allows to continue grazing sheep on the land

• Significant reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 733,333 tonnes of CO2 annually

The greatest challenge for selecting where to develop a new solar project is identifying areas within the electricity grid with available capacity to connect. Once an area of the grid has been identified with capacity, planning experts assess the viability of the area based on various opportunities and constraints such as ecology, transport arrangements, landscape value, cultural heritage significance, agricultural land value, hazards, amenity impacts, etc.

Venn Energy has chosen the proposed site as an ideal place for a solar project for the following reasons:

• The site is in an area of excellent solar exposure.
• The site is near an existing transmission line, allowing for easy connectivity to the grid.
• The site has already been largely cleared of native vegetation and heavily disturbed by previous cultivation and cropping.
• The proposed layout allows for the minimal disturbance of native vegetation and wildlife.