The ACT could have one of the country's largest solar power plants operating next year, pumping out enough electricity for 10,000 homes.
But it might take higher power bills to make it happen.
First, the ACT Government needs to find an area the size of 20 football fields for the solar panels, or dishes.
The Government and ActewAGL announced yesterday a feasibility study into building a large-scale solar plant, touting the need to tackle climate change.
The plant could involve one hundred or more large solar dishes, or rows of solar panels on the ground, or it could be made up of trough-like mirrors.
Whatever it looks like, it will be big.
It has been welcomed by the Conservation Council, which said Canberra was on the way to becoming "a solar capital".
Chief Minister Jon Stanhope said the feasibility study was wide open so he could not say how much the plant might cost, or where it might be built.
It may service 10,000 homes, which scientists said would require a 33 megawatt plant, which might cost $100million to build. Such a plant might cover about 100ha.
Power bills are likely to rise to pay for the new plant. Mr Stanhope said the ACT Government might subsidise the plant and would ask the Federal Government to do likewise, but some of the cost would be borne by users through higher electricity charges.
ActewAGL chief executive John Mackay sought to reassure consumers, saying green energy had a market of its own and that market was strong.
Mr Stanhope said the plant was additional to the premium tariff for domestic solar power, which the Government has been working on for months, but is yet to finalise.
The solar plant's backers promoted it as a means of cutting greenhouse-gas emissions.
Mr Stanhope said "there is no more important issue facing the world" than climate change.
However, energy expert Hugh Saddler, from local consulting firm Energy Strategies, said the plant also made sound business sense, as ActewAGL would have to source more green energy to meet the Federal Government's growing national mandatory renewable energy targets.
Mr Saddler asked why the ACT Government was getting involved in the plant when it could achieve far more if it focused on reducing demand for electricity.
The Federal Government had created the market for renewable energy and the industry could take it from there, he said.
Possible locations for the plant are a mystery. Mr Mackay said surplus land which was sunny would be ideal.
The plant could be under a flight path, in a noisy location, or on contaminated land. Sheep could graze beneath it. Mr Mackay said the study should be finished in July and the plant by mid next year. The technology used could be either photovoltaic or solar thermal.
Chief executive of renewable power company Wizard Power Tony Robey said Australia did not yet have a solar power plant on such a large scale. It had only small research plants.
When built, Canberra's plant would be one of the biggest, if not the biggest, in the country.
Solar power plants had taken off in Spain, Greece, Portugal and southern France, and a massive power plant of 64 megawatts had just been completed in Nevada.
The ACT Liberals welcomed the feasibility study, but raised concerns about the cost of the plant being added to electricity bills.
Liberal environment spokeswoman Vicki Dunne said she was worried that increases to bills had already been flagged.
"We would want to make sure that the less well off would not be made even more worse off," she said.