• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
One Step Off The Grid

One Step Off The Grid

Solar, storage and distributed energy news

  • Solar
  • Battery/Storage
  • Off-Grid
  • Efficiency
  • Software
  • Podcasts
  • Tariffs
  • Electric Vehicles
  • Electrification

University of Newcastle rolls out 2MW solar system at Callaghan Campus

February 27, 2018 by Sophie Vorrath 9 Comments

The University of Newcastle has made a major down-payment on aspirations to take its Callaghan Campus in New South Wales to 100 per cent renewable by 2020, with the installation of a $4 million, 2MW PV system installed across its across 25 buildings.
The new solar system, which is being installed over the course of 2018, is expected to generate around 2.8 million kWh a year, and cut the University’s greenhouse gas emissions by 2800 tonnes CO2-equivalent compared with conventional grid-sourced electricity.
It follows a 2016 feasibility report, which found that the Hunter Valley-based campus could reach 100 per cent renewables by 2020 by installing up to 12MW of rooftop and ground-mounted solar PV and 5MWh of battery storage.
The feasibility study – conducted by the Tom Farrell Institute (the UON’s environmental research and teaching hub, based at Callaghan) with CLEANaS – determined that this would be both technically feasible and financially beneficial for the UON.
“With a healthy return on investment of approximately 8 per cent, finance for this cost-neutral project has a payback time of around 10 years,” a report on the Tom Farrell Institute website says.
The solar and storage would supply up to 85 per cent of the university’s daytime electricity needs, with the possibility of feeding excess energy into the grid, or storing it for when the sun goes down. Remaining demand will be met through energy efficiency, or buying green power.
Whether these plans are realised remains to be seen, but in the meantime, the UON said it would use the new Callaghan solar system as a “living laboratory for sustainable futures” – offering added value to students and inspiration to come up with new ideas and innovations.
More broadly, the UON has overarching target to deliver a 20 per cent reduction on CO2 emissions per meter square of gross floor area by 2020, from a 2007 baseline.
In 2017, it installed a 75 kilowatt system on its library building at its Ourimbah campus – and it is also expanding that system this year. Elsewhere it has 80kW of PV installed at Port Macquarie, Tamworth and Taree. These systems are estimated to generate approximately 120,000 kWh of clean electricity per annum and avoid 100 tonnes of carbon emissions a year.
And it is not the only tertiary institution making the shift to renewables. In Victoria, the University of Melbourne has been rolling out 1.8MW solar at its Carlton campus; while Monash University last year set off on its path to 100 per cent renewables, via an innovative solar and battery storage-based renewable energy microgrid.
In New South Wales, the Charles Sturt University signed up to have 1.7MW of PV installed across 11 buildings at its Wagga Wagga campus; and in 2016, the University of New England announced plans to source up to half of its electricity from solar, through the installation of a PV farm on land adjacent to its Armidale campus.
Also in 2016, the University of Southern Queensland announced plans to add 1.9MW of rooftop solar and battery storage across its Toowoomba, Springfield and Ipswich campuses.
And not everyone is building their own renewable capacity. The University of New South Wales, though an unusual “tripartite” agreement, will buy up to 124,000MWh of renewable energy a year, for 15 years, from Maoneng’s 200MW Sunraysia Solar Farm located near Balranald in south western NSW, meeting the University’s annual energy requirement, starting in 2019.

Sophie Vorrath
Sophie Vorrath

Sophie is editor of One Step Off The Grid and editor of its sister site, Renew Economy. Sophie has been writing about clean energy for more than a decade.

Filed Under: Battery/Storage, Energy Efficiency, Software/Gadgets, Solar

Primary Sidebar

Sign up for our weekly newsletter

Emissions Counter

Renew Economy

RSS Energy News from Renew Economy

  • Tindo signs five-year deal to export Australian made solar panels to Vietnam
  • Neoen starts powering up its second-largest solar farm in Australia
  • I’ve seen the energy future and it’s in China, and Australia must ditch its distrust and collaborate
  • Utilities want control of consumer solar and batteries to help reverse price spikes they just engineered
  • We need more batteries: Spain turns to new technologies after thermal plants fail in blackout

RSS Electric Vehicle News from The Driven

  • The gaping cybersecurity hole in non-Tesla public EV charging facilities
  • The city betting big on wireless charging for electric taxis and last mile deliveries
  • Two “social leasing” programs for zero-emission vehicles  that actually work
  • Nissan launches next generation Leaf, with more range, a new plug, and V2L
  • Mitsubishi to trial battery swap technology for electric trucks and buses

Press Releases

  • Huge luxury Saudi resort goes 100pct renewables with one of world’s biggest batteries
  • How solar + storage can be a game-changer for people with disabilities

Footer

Technologies

  • Solar
  • Battery/Storage
  • Electric Vehicles
  • Energy Efficiency
  • Software/Gadgets
  • Other Renewables
  • Policy
  • Tariffs
  • Contact
  • Advertise with us
  • About One Step Off The Grid
  • Terms of Use
  • Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2025 · OneStep Genesis on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in