Chinese, French, Spanish and several big Asian companies have carved up the fast-growing large-scale solar farm development sector as they tap Australia’s booming growth in renewable energy, leaving major domestic suppliers such as AGL Energy and Origin Energy playing around the edges.

China’s Beijing Energy International has stealthily emerged as the largest owner of utility-scale solar projects in Australia, closely followed by France’s Neoen, the target of a $10 billion takeover offer from Canadian giant Brookfield, according to data from research consultancy Rystad Energy.