Clean Energy Council visit solar power station

05 Aug 2010

Around 50 delegates from the Appropriate Technology Retailers Association of Australia, who are a part of the Clean Energy Council, will visit the solar power station that supplies electricity to the remote community of Hermannsburg, as part of their annual conference held this year in Alice Springs.

This solar power station is one of three in the Northern Territory that were purchased by Power and Water earlier this year in a move that highlights the growing importance of renewable energy as a viable energy source in remote communities.

Located at Hermannsburg, Lajamanu and Yuendumu, the solar power stations provide around 30 per cent of electricity for these communities on sunny days.

Power and Water’s Darryl Day, General Manager for Remote Operations, says purchasing the power stations was an opportunity for Power and Water to develop sustainable energy solutions for remote communities.

“These solar power systems have proven to be a reliable technology and as costs reduce for this technology and greater efficiency improvements are achieved, the economic value in moving from burning diesel to using solar power improves for remote communities,” said Mr Day.

“Renewable energy is now a part of Power and Water’s core business. Owning these solar power stations will help us to develop the skills and capacity needed to grow this area of our business and will eventually increase the total amount of renewable energy used to generate our remote power stations.”

Power and Water is currently in commercial negotiations to establish three additional solar power stations in remote communities by mid-2011.

The solar dishes are 14 metres in diameter and follow the sun across the sky during the day and focus the equivalent of 500 suns onto the central receiver. Altogether there are 30 concentrated photovoltaic solar dishes that supply power and Power and Water has purchased electricity from these systems since August 2005.

The conference delegates will visit Hermannsburg on Saturday 7 August.

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