A Riverland property owner has leased her land to host a large-scale solar farm for 40 years, and says unusable agricultural land could be repurposed for renewable energy projects.
In South Australia's Riverland region, Cathy Kruger has leased most of her 7-hectare property to host a solar farm for 40 years."The block across the road from our block had grapevines, but … as long as probably the last 10 years the vines have all been dead there," she said. "It isn't something that I believe can just be built anywhere. It has to be built in a region that has that infrastructure in place."
"I imagined trying to grow crops for arid regions, and we tried to put in some arid lucerne — it just wouldn't grow.", with the Grattan Institute's energy and climate change program director Tony Wood saying land-based solar projects are also on the rise."The role of solar becomes important, not just to replace fossil fuel-based electricity, but also to replace the fossil fuel called gas in our system as well.
Ms Kruger said Green Gold Energy approached her surrounding neighbours and explained the project before it went ahead, with no complaints or pushback.Multiple companies have offered to purchase the 40-year lease, however Ms Kruger said the passive income covered her mortgage repayments with a little extra left over.