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CSIRO’s Black Mountain Solar Installation

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CSIRO’s Black Mountain facility is set to have a further 2,900 solar panels installed in a plan to save around $900,000 a year. They’ve called for tenders this month and hope to have a decision made this week.

CSIRO’s Black Mountain Solar Installation

Black Mountain Solar
CSIRO’s Black Mountain Solar Installation (source: CSIRO)

Federal government agency CSIRO are doubling down on their previous solar investment – with an existing 380 solar panels at Black Mountain set to be increased by around 700%. The first 480 panels were installed earlier this year, and according to the Canberra Times, over 880kW of solar systems have been rolled out at other CSIRO sites since 2016 – including Black Mountain, Armidale in NSW, Werribee in Victoria, Kensington in Western Australia and Darwin. 

According to a CSIRO spokesman, 1.2MW of solar will also be installed in Pullenvale (QLD) and Waite (SA) – with a further 4.2MW planned for the ACT, NSW, Victoria and Western Australia.

“Once installed, these [photovoltaic] systems will deliver more than $900,000 [in] annual savings on energy bills, save close to 8000 megawatt hours of energy and reduce CO2 equivalent emissions by about 7400 tonnes each year,” the spokesman said.

All together, the plans are to install five megawatts of grid-connected, on-site renewable energy across its building portfolio by 2020.

“A key opportunity exists for CSIRO to hedge against the predicted upward price trend in electricity prices by investing today in alternative renewable energy sources to power their sites,” the CSIRO tender document says.

“The installation of large scale on-site renewable energy generation is a key mechanism to reduce CSIRO’s carbon footprint.”

The CSIRO have called for tenders for the Black Mountain solar upgraded and have advised that they will sign a contract this week, before deciding on a timeline to complete the upgrade. Some more fantastic news for government-installed solar and another step in the right direction for Australia’s renewable energy future. 

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Metz Solar Farm installation in Hillgrove, near Armidale.

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The Metz Solar Farm installation, which will generate 100MW of power, has been approved for a property in Hillgrove, which is east of Armidale. The project will be one of the largest in New South Wales.

Metz Solar Farm Installation – Details

The farm will comprise of 400,000 panels and, according to Northern Tablelands MP Adam Marshall, will power 40,000 homes and produce almost 10% of New South Wales’ solar output.

“This is an enormously exciting project not only for Armidale and the Northern Tablelands, but for all of NSW,” he said.

Metz Solar Farm Armidale Location
Metz Solar Farm – Armidale Location (source: metzsolarfarm.com.au)

The Northern Tablelands already has some large projects in the works, such as the Moree Solar Farm and three wind farms between Glen Innes and Inverell. This means the area currently has 821MW of large scale renewable energy development approved, or in the construction phase. Some great news for New South Wales solar farms and we hope to see a lot more built over the coming years.

The farm, which represents a $130 million investment, will be developed by Infinenergy Pacific and, according to their website, will reduce CO2 emissions by 225,000 tonnes and save 350 mega litres of clean drinking water over its 30 year lifetime. It’s undecided yet whether the PV panels will be mounted in a fixed tilt position or using a single axis tracking system.

According to the Infinenergy Pacific website over 15 different locations in the Armidale area were considered but they ended up with the final site due to the simple grid connection options onsite, the good transporation links and site access, and the ‘low visual impact’ (rolling topography and extensive local shielding) – so it won’t be a pain for residents.

Work on the farm will commence in early 2018 and is expected to finish in early 2019. It will be decommissioned after 30 years. The construction phase of the farm will generate around 150 full time jobs, and another eight ongoing positions will be required for maintenance and upkeep.

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