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The University of Queensland was recently announced winner of a 2019 Australasian Green Gown Award for its Warwick Solar Farm project.<\/p>\n
The Australasian Green Gown Awards<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n Still under construction, Warwick Solar Farm is located\u00a0near 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.<\/p>\n The installation of approximately 204,000 solar panels<\/a> on single axis trackers is now complete.<\/p>\n “Work on site is now focused on connecting everything together, to be followed by testing and commissioning of all parts of the system,” said<\/a> UQ Energy & Sustainability Manager Andrew Wilson. \u201cWe will soon be producing more clean electricity than we use.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Warwick Solar Farm is expected to generate 160,000 MWh of clean energy in its first year of operation compared to UQ\u2019s forecast electricity consumption next year of around 145,000 MWh.<\/p>\n While the facility will be “battery ready”, the University of Queensland is initially focusing on energy storage \u2018behind the meter\u2019 at its various sites in order to load shift and compliment generation at Warwick.<\/p>\n 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<\/a>.<\/p>\n Once Warwick Solar Farm is up and running, the University will be a large energy generator as well as\u00a0a large energy consumer; presenting opportunities for developing and deploying innovative demand response<\/a> solutions.<\/p>\n Additionally, Warwick Solar Farm will also provide teaching, learning, research and industry partnership opportunities.<\/p>\nAgriculture And Other Opportunities<\/h2>\n