THE federal government was yesterday forced into reopening the tender process for public funding of its $1.5 billion solar flagship project as doubts mounted over whether the project could ever be financially viable.
The move came as the Commonwealth Bank – a financial backer of an unsuccessful Flagships consortium – questioned whether it was presently possible for a solar project to get off the ground here given the low price of renewable energy certificates, The Australian Financial Review reports.
Commonwealth Utilities Energy & Renewable Solutions head Nick Sankey also questioned the process leading up to the awarding of $300 million to the Moree Solar Farm project in round one of Solar Flagships, given it did not have a power purchase agreement (PPA) with an energy retailer.
"We were surprised [with the decision] . . . when I think everyone who was not a retailer was struggling for a power purchase agreement," Mr Sankey said. "Everyone got to the same point in negotiations with off-takers [retailers], even with a big government grant you just can't get near the right price on a commercial basis."
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