A Spanish solar developer has won a bid to build Australia’s largest solar farm.

Fotowatio Renewable Ventures (FRV) will construct the 20MW facility near Canberra following a reverse auction held by the Australian Capital Territory (ACT).

The solar farm will be supported by the nation’s Feed-in Tariff (FiT) system of AUD186 per MWh for 20 years. It will have 83,000 solar panels and produce around 37,000 MWh every year, enough to power around 4,500 homes.

Simon Corbell, ACT’s Environment Minister said: “This is about making Canberra the solar capital of Australia, it’s about making the shift to renewables at a very cheap price, with a great saving in terms of greenhouse gas emissions and jobs and economic activity in our city.”

The ACT Government said the solar farm would cut around 560,000 tonnes of carbon emissions over 20 years and could help towards making Canberra carbon neutral by 2060.

Construction is expected to start next year and finish by 2014.