The University of Queensland (UQ) in Australia says it has become the first major university globally to offset 100% of its electricity use with renewable energy produced by its own assets with the commissioning of the 64 MW AC UQ Warwick Solar Farm. The AUD 125 million project was completed by EPC contractor Lendlease after breaking ground in April 2019 (see 64 MW Warwick Solar Farm Enters Construction).
The project is designed to produce about 160 GWh annually. It adds to the existing 7 MW solar portfolio of the university, data from all of which will be published online by UQ to encourage knowledge sharing among government and industrial entities. It will also incorporate the facility within its curriculum and teaching.
UQ will be open to collaboration for research and development of new solutions such as battery energy storage and hydrogen conversion technologies.
"Over the past five years under Labor, 39 large-scale renewable energy projects have commenced operations or are financially committed, creating 5700 jobs in construction. Queensland now has 6,600 MW of large-scale renewable generation either operational or committed," said State Energy Minister Dr Anthony Lynham. "We are forecast to reach 20 % renewable generation this year and are on target to reach our commitment to 50% by 2030."
Lynham also shared that the state's renewables focused publicly owned clean energy generator CleanCo will add an additional 1 GW of clean energy by 2025.