UQ Scores Green Gown Award For Solar Energy Project

The University of Queensland was recently announced winner of a 2019 Australasian Green Gown Award for its Warwick Solar Farm project.

The Australasian Green Gown Awards were established in 2010 and recognise exceptional sustainability initiatives undertaken by universities and colleges. 2019 winners were announced last Thursday at a ‘green tie’ event where UQ took out the 2030 Climate Action category.

Still under construction, Warwick Solar Farm is located near Warwick in Queensland’s Southern Downs. The 78MWdc/64MWac project builds on UQ’s other solar power efforts and will enable the University to source the equivalent of all its electricity requirements from renewables from early next year – and then some.

The installation of approximately 204,000 solar panels on single axis trackers is now complete.

“Work on site is now focused on connecting everything together, to be followed by testing and commissioning of all parts of the system,” said UQ Energy & Sustainability Manager Andrew Wilson. “We will soon be producing more clean electricity than we use.”

Warwick Solar Farm is expected to generate 160,000 MWh of clean energy in its first year of operation compared to UQ’s forecast electricity consumption next year of around 145,000 MWh.

While the facility will be “battery ready”, the University of Queensland is initially focusing on energy storage ‘behind the meter’ at its various sites in order to load shift and compliment generation at Warwick.

Agriculture And Other Opportunities

The layout of the facility will also allow for sheep grazing and potentially other agricultural activities. UQ previously successfully piloted sheep grazing integration within an operational solar farm at the Gatton Solar Research Facility.

Once Warwick Solar Farm is up and running, the University will be a large energy generator as well as a large energy consumer; presenting opportunities for developing and deploying innovative demand response solutions.

Additionally, Warwick Solar Farm will also provide teaching, learning, research and industry partnership opportunities.

Further information on Warwick Solar Farm can be found here.

Individual Actions Count

Acting Vice-Chancellor Professor Aidan Byrne said the University was proud to have received the Green Gown Awards recognition.

“We’re at a moment in history when the decisions we make, in my view, will determine the future well-being of humanity, and we must stop saying that individual action will not make a difference,” said Professor Byrne. “Society is largely built on the cumulative effect of small acts.”

Among UQ’s other solar energy projects are a total of 2.3 MW of rooftop solar power at its St. Lucia campus and a 3.275 MW ground-mount installation at Gatton campus.