Many Australians have had solar panels on their rooftops for years.
Now, utilities companies are also looking to the technology for a renewable future.
The first large-scale solar project in the country is now online in the outback -- and it could be a sign of things to come.
Rhiannon Elston reports.
It's a city built on mining, but with the boom long gone from Broken Hill there's new hope for a resource it won't run out of.
With high levels of solar radiation and access to infrastructure, the city on the edge of the outback is now home to a massive solar plant.
AGL Broken Hill Solar Plant Project Manager Adam Mackett says, together with a sister site in another part of New South Wales, it's the largest purpose-built plant in the southern hemisphere.
"The solar resource at Broken Hill is fantastic. It's got a lot of days of sun, the sun's really strong, so when we measure sun we talk about solar irradiance, and it's fantastic out here. The connection is also really good. A town the size of 20,000, Broken Hill has a high demand both for residential and commercial, so it's a strong connection and a good place to put a solar plant."
Although rooftop solar panels have become a common addition to many Australian homes, utilities companies have been slower to exploit them.
Roger Dargaville, of the Melbourne Energy Institute at the University of Melbourne, says that's because of the cost of building new infrastructure.
It's taken state and federal government funding to get this project off the ground.
"At the utilities scale, the solar farms have to compete with the large-scale generators such as coal fired power stations, and they can produce power at the order of 5 cents a kilowatt hour. So you actually have to be considerably cheaper at the utilities scale in order to be cost competitive."
The site will have just two to three permanent staff members, says AGL's Broken Hill Project Manager Adam Mackett.
"This type of plant is really 'set and forget' technology, so people have been really familiar with it. Similar to what's on people's rooves. So in terms of the long term, there will be monies that will flow into the local economy, we do anticipate some ongoing maintenance, but from a jobs perspective, given the set and forget technology, we'll probably have about two to three people full time operating the plant."
Local resident and Broken Hill Chamber of Commerce President Ann Rogers is disappointed it hasn't led to greater employment for the region.
"We can see that hasn't happened, and probably that has been an opportunity that has been missed, but they obviously only need two people out there at the time, so I don't know how much we can change with the plans from AGL."
But she's hopeful it may draw more renewable pro jects to the region... where wind and sunshine is plentiful, but jobs are not.
"I had the opportunity to have solar put on our roof out here, and I'm just amazed at the saving we've had from our electricity bill that's come in now, so I can see the benefit of renewable energy in costs, but not only that, it's the greening and that sort of thing too. So we've got the perfect opportunity out here in Broken Hill to be able to do that."
And help this community switch focus from what's under the ground -- to what's above it.
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