Canberra building installs 100kW commercial solar array – one of ACT’s largest

Canberra’s “largest known” commercial rooftop solar installation was completed this week, with the switching on of a 100kW system on a building in Barton, in the heart of Canberra’s Parliamentary Triangle.

The rooftop PV system, installed on the Macquarie St building known as Maddocks House, will supply up to 40 per cent of its energy needs during the week, and export electricity to the grid during times of surplus generation.

maddocks_house
Maddocks House

ACT environment minister Simon Corbell said the 100kW commercial solar array added to the Capital Territory’s renewable energy credentials and would further reduce its greenhouse gas emissions.

“The installation highlights not only the environmental and sustainability benefits, but also the already significant and growing financial benefits to the commercial sector of adopting renewable energy sources generally and rooftop solar PV in particular,” Corbell said in a statement on Thursday.

Commercial-scale solar – while taking off in the US and Europe – has been slow to gain momentum in Australia, not least of all due to ongoing policy uncertainty.

But this could be starting to change. In NSW, a spike in commercial installations helped the state beat out Queensland in February for added solar capacity on a monthly basis.

According to two different analyses, NSW became the biggest monthly market in February – a position almost entirely due to businesses installing rooftop solar on their premises.

Commercial scale solar – between 10kW and 100kW systems – now accounts for one third of total capacity in NSW, and more than 23 per cent of all small-scale solar installations in Australia in January and February.

Comments

4 responses to “Canberra building installs 100kW commercial solar array – one of ACT’s largest”

  1. Shtoney Avatar
    Shtoney

    Here are some unknown ACT PV arrays: 400kW at Nishi in Acton, ~200kW at Kamberra Winery, ~144kW in Symonston and I assume some others…

    5th largest commercial PV in the ACT?

  2. Hilton Fletcher Avatar
    Hilton Fletcher

    It’s not that hard to check the veracity of claims of “ACT’s Largest”. In addition to the arrays listed by Shtoney below, there is a 200kW tracking array on the rooftop of Herzog Steel in Fyshwick. Most of these larger arrays have been up for a number of years and are pretty well known.

  3. Jo Avatar
    Jo

    Good on them. But I find it quite sad that an installation of just 100kW still makes waves through the news. These are peanuts and it looks just great because with just a few exceptions we are building no large scale solar systems in Australia.

  4. Doug Smith Avatar
    Doug Smith

    And another 200kW system for a Federal Govt. dept. rooftop in Canberra last year by Laros Technologies using Trina panels.

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