ACT wind energy auction attracts strong interest

There has been strong interest from electricity companies in the ACT wind energy auction, according to the ACT Government.

The Government wants to source 200 megawatts of power from wind farms in the capital region to supply about a quarter of the ACT's electricity needs by 2020.

The wind energy auction worked as a reverse auction asking companies to submit proposals for the supply contracts with submissions closing last week.

The successful proponents will be offered a fixed feed-in-tariff for 20 years.

The Environment Minister Simon Corbell said there has been considerable interest from energy providers.

"The ACT Government's seen 18 proposals come forward from 15 proponents," he said.

Mr Corbell said he expected the strong competition.

"This is consistent with the Government's projections to date which ... [showed] we would see strong interest," he said.

"[The competition] is due to uncertainty in other parts of the renewable energy market primarily because of the Abbott Government's move to undermine the renewable energy target."

Mr Corbell said the scheme will reduce the ACT's carbon emissions by 8.5 million tonnes over the first 20 years.

"To put that in context, that figure is about half the emissions associated with electricity usage in each and every Canberra household," he said.

The announcement comes after the largest operational solar farm in Australia was opened in the ACT last week.

The ACT Government has a target of 90 per cent renewable energy for the territory by 2020.