Carriewerloo Station, situated about 30 kilometres north of Port Augusta, will become home to a new solar thermal plant.
Scott and Amanda Michael along with Scott’s parents David and Jill, were approached by contractor SolarReserve about 2.5 years ago to utilise 607 hectares of their 153,780ha property, with the game-changing project finally given the green light this week.
The Michaels run about 25,000 sheep and said the land for the solar thermal plant was a small fraction of their property.
“It seems like a lot of land in some sense, but it’s not,” Scott said.
“The location they have picked isn’t going to affect the way I operate our property.
“Visually I probably won’t be able to see it from the house due to a couple of hills blocking it.”
The facility will cover a 3km circle of land with a 234-metre tower in the centre capturing the reflected sunlight.
Scott said he was excited to see the project “get off the ground”.
“There hasn’t been much after the closure of the power plant and it’s good to see something happening in Port Augusta to get the wheels turning again with a power station for the state,” he said.
SolarReserve chief executive officer Kevin Smith said the station would provide much-needed capacity for the SA market to reduce price volatility.