Australia plans world’s biggest space-age solar power station

SYDNEY (AFP) – Australia has announced plans to build the world’s biggest space-age solar power station as part of a 500 million dollar (375 million US) radical rethink on climate change.

The government said it would contribute 75 million dollars towards the cost of the photovoltaic solar power plant in the first of a series of projects aimed at reducing the greenhouse gas emissions blamed for global warming.

Australia, like the United States, has refused to sign the Kyoto Protocol on climate change and the government is facing increasing criticism of its environmental policies in the face of the worst drought in living memory.

Treasurer (finance minister) Peter Costello said the plant near Mildura in the southern state of Victoria would be the biggest of its kind.

AFP