Australia’s biggest rooftop solar array for former motor plant

The South Australian government has called for proposals to develop what could be the country’s largest rooftop solar array, to cover 8 hectares – up to 25,000 square meters – of the roof space of a former automotive plant in Clovelly Park, south of Adelaide.

Screen Shot 2014-10-29 at 2.04.40 PMLocated 10 kilometres south of the CBD, the 61 hectare industrial site known as Tonsley was once a manufacturing hub where Chrysler and then Mitsubishi made cars for nearly 50 years, until Mitsubishi ceased operations in 2008.

In 2010, realising the site’s strategic importance, the South Australian government bought it with the idea of creating a high value manufacturing and industry cluster, to help facilitate the state’s transition to cleantech manufacturing.

Two years later a Master Plan for the site was released and the government committed $253 million to its redevelopment.

Screen Shot 2014-10-29 at 1.41.50 PM
An aerial view of the Tonsley site, including the iconic saw tooth roof

The site has since been redeveloped around the skeleton of the old Mitsubishi plant, making a feature of the iconic saw-tooth roof that once housed the Mitsubishi plant’s main assembly building.

The solar project – for which a two-staged request for development proposals will open this week – will allow for up to 25,000 square meters of solar panels to be installed on that same roof, to generate a potential 3.6 megawatts of electricity; enough to power up to 770 homes a year and save 2430 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions.

If it goes ahead at that size, it will be three times bigger than the next biggest rooftop solar array, the 1.2MW installation at the University of Queensland.

SA Premier Jay Weatherill says the project aligns with his government’s recent announcement to increase the state’s renewable energy target to 50 per cent of power generation by 2025.

The plan is to use a retailer-funded business model to leveage private investment for the array, rather than additional government funding.

When it is built, the PV array will provide Tonsley tenants and investors with solar-powered electricity at a cheaper rate than the grid.

The first companies to come on board were IT company Tier 5, which is investing $113 million in a state-of-the-art data centre, and multinational engineering and advanced technology firm Siemens.

In 2012 Siemens signed an MOU to become a strategic partner in the project, and subsequently committed to develop a new manufacturing facility on site.

Earlier this year, it was announced that Basetec Services, Signostics Limited, battery storage and solar company Zen Industries and MAN Diesel and Turbo Australia also had signed on and that CIC Australia had been chosen as the residential developer.

Santos, Beach Energy and Senex Energy have also pledged multi-million dollar support for a new Mining and Petroleum Centre of Excellence to be based on site.

Tonsley
An impression of the completed Tonsley site

The redeveloped industrial hub already houses a new TAFE training centre, and development of a campus for Flinders University is well underway.

“The solar array further adds to Tonsley’s environmental focus to reduce ongoing energy operating costs and demonstrate a significant reduction in carbon emissions,” said SA manufacturing and innovation minister Susan Close.

The request for proposals for the project also includes an option to expand onto the adjoining TAFE SA Sustainable Industries Education Centre roof space.

The Sustainable Industries Education Centre at Tonsley has been recognised internationally, recently winning an award at the World Architecture Festival.

Ninety per cent of the existing steel structure of the old plant was retained for the new centre, with glazed partitioning both internally and on the façade showcasing TAFE’s activities to the public.

Tonsley is one of two pilot programs in South Australia pursuing sustainability ambitions for a five-star Green Star Communities rating from the Green Building Council of Australia.

It is projected to provide 6,300 jobs during the life of the project and the site will annually accommodate 8,500 students.

Work in progress on the Flinders University “Flinders Pod” at the Tonsley site
Work in progress on the Flinders University “Flinders Pod” at the Tonsley site

Comments

8 responses to “Australia’s biggest rooftop solar array for former motor plant”

  1. barrie harrop Avatar
    barrie harrop

    An exciting project.

    1. disqus_3PLIicDhUu Avatar
      disqus_3PLIicDhUu

      Be even better to see Aussies sliver panels used, created by ANU and hopefully they encourage the latest in energy management and energy saving equipment at the site, as generation/use of energy is a double edged sword

      1. barrie harrop Avatar
        barrie harrop

        A PR dream at this stage.

        1. disqus_3PLIicDhUu Avatar
          disqus_3PLIicDhUu

          Goes to the USA and shelved, that would be write, should of dealt with China, same as the Germany do, if you want something to actually happen and not get stifled.

          1. Fred Hooper Avatar
            Fred Hooper

            Would have been shelved pretty much anywhere. Sliver’s key advantage was to use less silicon, but had much more processing required to achieve less silicon. Main driver for PV price drops in recent years was the drop in price of silicon, such that Sliver became unviable. Being in China might have meant cheaper production costs due to cheaper labor, but probably would not be cheap enough to keep in line with current PV costs.

  2. Neil_Copeland Avatar
    Neil_Copeland

    I hope this goes ahead, I pass it every day.

  3. Henry WA Avatar
    Henry WA

    Great to provide tenants with off grid electricity for their day time needs. Any information on the likely cost of the project? It will be interesting to see how economies of scale work compared to ordinary roof top solar.

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