SunPower Corp. announced yesterday the completion of construction of a 305-kilowatt SunPower solar panel based system on the roof of the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Alice Springs, Northern Territory. The installation is the largest rooftop solar power system in Australia currently.
The Crowne Plaza Hotel’s $3.3 million system is expected to provide between 40 and 80 percent of the hotel’s power requirements, depending on the time of year. Additionally, the hotel’s energy efficiency program that includes replacement of light bulbs, the installation of low flow shower heads and electricity monitoring systems will further reduce consumption by 18 percent according to the owners, Investnorth Pty Ltd.
Sunpower also announced yesterday an agreement to design and build a 2.2-megawatt solar electric power plant in Tolentino, Italy as the first phase of a 7.1-megawatt development that is expected to be completed this year. In addition to its high-efficiency solar cells and solar panels that generate up to 50 percent more power than conventional solar technologies, SunPower will also utilize its Tracker technology; a mounting system that follows the sun during the day, delivering up to 25 percent more energy than fixed-tilt systems.
SunPower entered the rapidly growing Australian solar market in 2008 and has installed over 400 megawatts of large-scale solar power systems globally
