Alice Springs can expect four per cent of its electricity supply to come from solar by the end of 2015.

Already Australia's largest tracking solar farm, the 3.1 mega watt expansion of Uterne will bring its total capacity to 4.1 mega watts.

The renewable energy company Epuron owns the solar power plant, which currently supplies the desert town with one per cent of its annual electricity needs through a deal with the Power and Water Corporation.

Company director Martin Poole says the new 45, 0000 square metre construction won't be much bigger than the original set up.

"Even though it has three times the generation capacity, the existing plant has a foot print of about 300 metres by 100 metres (30, 000 square metres)," he said.

"So there are a lot more solar modules per square metre of site area, and that's simply because the modules are closer together."

Epuron always had plans to expand the Uterne facility, but says it had trouble getting finance and can only now go ahead thanks to a $13 million loan from the Clean Energy Finance Fund.

The company won't disclose the total cost of the new project, but expects it to be completed by the end of next year and there is already a supply deal with Power and Water.

Mr Poole says once it's constructed, it won't take long for the energy to enter Alice Springs' power supply.

"It provides the Power and Water Corporation with valuable additional source of electricity for the Alice Springs network. Listen Duration: 4 minutes 7 seconds 4 m 7 s Listen Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Martin Poole, executive director, Epuron ( Lauren Fitzgerald ) Download 1.9 MB

"And it's a supply of electricity where the cost is know for the life of the plant, and it's not going to be subject to increases because of increases in gas or diesel prices.

And he says they are committed to employing local people where possible.

"There are definitely jobs in the civil contracting part of the project, where the site will need to be levelled and foundations installed.

"And then there is a lot of electrical work, which I'm optimistic will be sourced locally.

"And the I think there will be some specialist solar management skills brought in from elsewhere or maybe even overseas where large scale projects like this are much more common."

There are plans for much bigger solar farms in Australia, but Uterne is the largest with tracking technology that allows panels to follow the sun.

And Mr Poole says there is a lot of international interest in Alice Springs' potential for solar energy.

"I think it's very important because Alice Springs is one of those place where things like this can happen sooner, simply because the sun is that much better."