Tonsley hub edges closer to 100 pct renewables with massive solar rooftop

A 5MW rooftop solar array spanning the buildings of the Tonsley Innovation District in Adelaide will be switched on next week, after an “epic” installation effort that included 80 pallets of PV modules being helicoptered into place.

The stage 2 installation has more than doubled the capacity of the 2.34MW solar system installed on the rooftop of Tonsley’s Main Assembly Building in 2020, which at the time was one of Australia’s largest rooftop systems.

Combined, the two massive rooftop solar arrays will generate up to 80% of the district’s energy demand, which CleanPeak says is the equivalent of powering around 300 homes a year.

At project completion there will be 13,000 panels, secured by 10,000 fixings, 34 inverters and over 15,000 metres of electrical cables installed, with a 3.3MW battery to come, although no detail yet on the storage duration. The goal is for the site to be 100% supplied by renewables.

From fossil car factory to green industrial hub

The former site of the Mitsubishi motor vehicle factory that closed in 2009, the The Tonsley Innovation District, located in the south of Adelaide, has become home to more than 140 businesses.

Powering all that industry is the Tonsley District Energy Scheme, which was originally supplied with solar in a partnership with Sanjeev Gupta’s Simec Energy but is now owned and operated by CleanPeak Energy, which has tipped $20 million into the project.

“
The Tonsley project underpins CleanPeak’s growing investment in South Australia, which includes an upcoming battery fleet servicing multiple commercial sites across the state,” said CleanPeak Energy chief Philip Graham on Wednesday.

“
Our strategy is to couple the Tonsley system with a 3.3MW battery – currently being developed for the site – which will allow storage of excess energy generation.

“This will ensure the site is on track to reduce its carbon footprint and moves us closer to realising our ambition to power the site from 100% renewable sources.
”

Green hydrogen in the mix

Tonsley is also home to one of Australia’s first and only functioning commercial renewable hydrogen electrolysers, as part of the state government-backed HyP SA project that aims to blend green hydrogen with fossil gas for use in nearby homes and businesses via the existing gas network.

In August of this year, the HyP SA team announced its first delivery of renewable gas from the Tonsley Innovation District – the beginning of what is hoped to be weekly deliveries to the Whyalla Steelworks.

A chopper joins the cause

Installation of the second solar array at Tonsley caught our attention in May of this year, when 80 pallets of PV modules – 2,000 of them, all up – were air-lifted into place.

As One Step reported at the time, helicopters made 160 separate pick-up and set-down runs to get the panels onto the roofs of Renewal SA’s Line Zero building – Renewal SA is the state government’s leading urban development agency – and of Tafe SA’s Tonsley campus.

“We commend CleanPeak on the success of the installations – a complex operation which involved dozens of local tradespeople,” said South Australia’s minister for urban development, Nick Champion, this week.

“
Renewables are the future, and it’s great to see Tonsley Innovation District and CleanPeak Energy pushing to not only create cleaner sources of energy but also providing storage capabilities for the future.
”