Australians are set to pay $300 million in subsidies to an outback solar farm owned by a Saudi Arabian billionaire in a new test of the federal government’s looming energy reforms, escalating a dispute over whether to cut the handouts to keep coal-fired power stations alive.
The project’s owner, Mohammed Abdul Latif Jameel, is expanding into new solar farms across Australia after the federal government backed the first development with grants and concessional loans as well as guaranteed credits for more than a decade.
The scale of the financial aid has triggered calls to scale back the subsidies as Nationals MPs warn that jobs will be sent overseas if Australia does not find a way to drive down energy costs.
Source Credit: The Australian
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