Michelle Landry (Capricornia, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

With many job losses in the Queensland coal sector in the past few years, I rise today to inform the House of some good news. Indian based energy company Adani will construct a $200 million solar farm near Moranbah, in the inland coalfields of my electorate of Capricornia. The project is touted to create hundreds of new jobs over various stages of the work. This will provide a welcome shot in the arm for the mining town, normally reliant on coal. The Adani energy company will build the solar plant on 600 hectares of land on a local cattle property about 20 kilometres from Moranbah. The 100 megawatts of power to be generated will be significant, and this project, along with the Adani Carmichael coal project, demonstrates the company is committed to Queensland and job creation. The company expects construction to begin on the solar farm in mid-2017. The federal government has a policy of transitioning the economy from being resources-heavy to a future of innovation and technology, and this is one type of project that meets this goal. It also adds to our bipartisan, fully legislated renewable energy target of 23.5 per cent by 2020. For the record, Adani coal will not be used in Australia but will be exported to India.