The 102MW plant at Nyngan and 53MW facility at Broken Hill have more than doubled Australia’s large-scale solar capacity and can generate enough electricity to power 50,000 average Australian homes.

Earlier this month a solar farm proposed by Goldwind Australia Pty Ltd near Glen Innes was given the green light to progress to the next stage of a $100 million funding round conducted by the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA).

Goldwind Australia is also in the process of building a wind farm in the same area.

It’s not the only company pursuing renewable energy opportunities in this region, with work all but complete on a $150 million solar farm at Moree, built by Fotowatio Renewable Ventures.

It’s expected to generate enough power to supply 15,000 homes.

AGL Energy Limited and First Solar are behind the two plants opened on Tuesday, helped by $166.7 million in support from ARENA.

ARENA’s acting chief executive officer Ian Kay joined representatives from both companies, federal Environment Minister Greg Hunt and Parkes MP Mark Coulton in Nyngan for the official opening.

“It comes less than a week after ARENA released the shortlist of 22 projects invited to progress to the next stage of its $100 million large-scale solar PV competitive round,” Mr Kay said.

“This new funding has attracted unprecedented interest from the sector and all levels of government, and is set to double the nation’s large-scale solar generation in two years.”

Mr Kay said the lessons learned during the Nyngan and Broken Hill projects would be applied to the next cohort of projects, “building on this success and knowledge to lower costs and speed up development even further”.

Mr Coulton said the solar plants would be operational for 30 years and it was estimated more than $220 million would flow into the Nyngan and Broken Hill regions during that time through employment and direct maintenance service requirements.