Royalla Solar Farm, a solar power facility built by the Spanish company Fotowatio Renewable Ventures, is now the largest capacity solar energy production platform for electricity installed in Australia.

Fotowatio Renewable Ventures has brought online the largest photovoltaic plant in operation in Australia, with 24 megawatts (MW) of installed capacity. The facility was built by Spain’s Acciona, which will be responsible for its maintenance over a two year period (which could be extended for another three).

Australia has a number of solar energy plants in operation but Royalla Solar is now the largest capacity farm-class plant (solar panels installed over a wide surface area) that is connected to the electricity grid.

The solar farm is located about 25 kilometers to the south of Canberra in Australia and covers a surface area of nearly 50 hectares. It is composed of 83,000 solar panels and, under normal conditions, the facility can satisfy the electricity needs of around 4,500 homes.

During its useful life, the solar farm will prevent more than half a million tons of greenhouse gases from being released into the atmosphere. On average it is expected to generate 37,000 megawatt hours of renewable energy each year over the next two decades.

FRV develops, builds and operates solar power plants. Since its founding in 2006, the firm has become one of the world’s leaders in this sector, with interests in the United States, Spain, Italy, Australia, South Africa, India, Latin America and the Middle East.