Royal Mint launches tender for “invisible” 230kW+ solar array

The Royal Australian Mint is one step closer to installing solar PV on its 900-square-metre roof, with the publication of tender documents to apply to design, produce, supply, install, operate and maintain a 230kW system.

In April this year, the managers of the Mint – one of the federal government’s most energy-intensive workplaces – asked energy companies to look into the feasibility of installing one of Canberra’s largest solar PV arrays on the 50 year-old heritage-nominated building in Deakin.

Mint CEO Ross MacDiarmid said the agency had been considering the project for more than two years as a way to cut the building’s greenhouse gas emissions and electricity costs.

The tender – which will close one month from today, on November 7 – said the project would be a large-scale system of 230kW or more, and included a timetable for the installation to start on November 24 and be completed by February 2015.

Due to the significance of the building – which, as well as producing and circulating coins in Australia, serves as a tourist attraction and a heritage nominated example of stripped classical architecture – the tenders specifies that the proposed PV installation “must not be visible from any vantage point.”

The documents also said tenderers should be accredited by the Clean Energy Council, and have the ability to secure a connection agreement with the Actew energy network or a private electricity network.

The design was also expected to be “future proof” so the energy generation system could be compatible with current and emerging technologies.