“Developing two solar plants of the magnitude of Nyngan at 102 megawatt and Broken Hill at 53MW is a major accomplishment and signals the birth of large-scale solar in Australia. We are proud to have achieved this on time and on budget,” AGL Energy managing director Andy Vesey said.

“The two plants add to AGL’s credentials as Australia’s largest non-government owner, operator and developer of renewable energy generation with over 1900MW of renewable capacity currently in operation,” Vesey said.

Since becoming operational in July (Nyngan) and December (Broken Hill) 2015, both plants combined have generated over 200,000MW hours of renewable energy, which is enough to power around 34,000 average Australian homes.

Annually, the two plants combined will produce some 360,000 MWh of renewable energy, powering more than 50,000 average Australian homes.

The plants will have a 30-year operating life and host more than two million solar panels.

“Adding renewable or near-zero emission technology like our two solar plants is an integral part of our greenhouse gas policy, which will help to reposition AGL as it moves towards a decarbonised electricity generation sector,” Vesey said

AGL wants to close down its older, high-emitting coal-fired power plants by 2015, and replace them with large scale renewables.

Australian Renewable Energy Agency acting CEO, Ian Kay congratulated AGL and partner First Solar on the significant milestone. ARENA paid $166.7 million to support the developments.

“In the future, this historic achievement will mark the moment big solar started to become a major contributor to Australia’s energy supply,” Kay said.

The AGL plants, along with other ARENA-supported large-scale solar projects currently underway and the $100 million funding round, are part of ARENA’s efforts to make large-scale solar in Australia more competitive with other sources of energy generation.

“Ultimately, this momentum will allow us to capitalise on Australia’s world-leading solar resource and speed up the transition to renewable energy for our electricity needs,” Kay said.

Jack Curtis, First Solar’s regional manager for Asia Pacific, believes Australia is poised to take advantage of low-cost utility-scale solar.

“In many parts of the world, solar energy is already cost-competitive with conventional generation. Considering the substantial and sustained cost reductions in the solar industry and the lessons learnt at projects like Nyngan and Broken Hill, it is inevitable that utility-scale solar projects in Australia will compete on an unsubsidised basis, in the near future,” Curtis said.

Last week released the shortlist of 22 projects invited to progress to the next stage of its $100 million large-scale solar PV competitive round, saying there had been unprecedented interest from the sector.

It says Australia is set to double the nation’s large-scale solar generation in two years.