Australian Open goes 100% renewable in wind energy deal with Pacific Blue

Tennis Australia has signed a deal with renewable energy company Pacific Blue, providing 100% of the power for the Australian Open from renewable sources through Large-scale Generation Certificates (LGCs).

Pacific Blue is estimating that over the three weeks of the Australian Open, Tennis Australia will use approximately 3,500 megawatts of power, which corresponds to around 3,500 LGCs. Although this isn’t direct power to the Australian Open, the LGCs mean Pacific Blue will produce enough renewable energy on behalf of the Australian Open to offset the energy they use from the grid.

“I’m pretty confident in saying that there wouldn’t be a partnership like this one anywhere else,” John Ballenger, General Manager of Retail at Pacific Blue told RenewEconomy.

Tennis Australia have “bold plans to not just lead locally but lead globally in sport. They want to be seen as the most climate active sports organisation globally, and certainly want to be seen as leading the tennis world.”

“There’s no other Grand Slam tournament that’s partnering with a renewable only generator.”

The power will be produced from Pacific Blue’s windfarms in the Portland region – with Ballenger suggesting that most would come from Cape Nelson North and South wind farms.

Taking two years to come to fruition, the partnership won’t just be in place for the three weeks of the Australian Open.

“The partnership is with Tennis Australia so we will be powering their full precinct for the full year,” said Ballenger.

Ballenger told RenewEconomy it also includes community grants for renewables and storage for other tennis clubs around Australia, as well as charging stations on the Tennis Australia precinct to power their fleet of electric vehicles.

“We are working hard on climate action across the entire organisation and this is a wonderful opportunity to help us reach our goals – although we recognise there’s still so much work to be done,” said Tennis Australia’s Chief Commercial Officer Cedric Cornelis.

“With more than three decades at the forefront of Australia’s renewable energy transition, Pacific Blue is a natural partner for Tennis Australia. Its ‘Clean Energy, Now’ campaign seamlessly aligns with Tennis Australia’s commitment to the United Nations Sports for Climate Action Framework.”

Pacific Blue recently rebranded from Pacific Hydro, to highlight that only a fraction of the companies 667 MW of generation is water-based. They currently have more than 1.2GW of generation and batteries in development or in the pipeline.

“We speak to customers, we speak to businesses, and they’re all a bit tired of the rhetoric and the promises made from governments or from energy companies who are saying, ‘trust us, we’ll do something in the future’,” said Ballenger.

“We’re not talking about what we’re trying to do in 2030 or 2040 or 2050. We’re making a difference now.

“A partnership like this with Tennis Australia who really want to do something today is very much in line with who we are.”