The Northern Territory’s Power and Water Corporation has signed an agreement to purchase power from a 1MW solar farm in Alice Springs for the next 20 years.
The Uterne solar farm will be the largest tracking solar energy system in Australia when it is completed in May of next year. Uterne means “bright sunny day” in the local Arrente language.
The facility will cover over four hectares at Ilparpa on the outskirts of Alice Springs and consist of 3,048 SunPower solar panels. Each 318 watt solar module will be mounted on a tracker that will follow the sun throughout the day. Solar tracking systems can improve the output of solar panels dramatically.
The 1MW solar farm could meet the electricity requirements for 288 average homes. The Uterne facility will provide the opportunity for Alice Spring households who aren’t able to install their own rooftop solar power systems the ability to invest in clean electricity and become indirectly partially solar powered by signing up for the company’s GreenPower product.
According to Power and Water Sustainable Energy Manager Trevor Horman, the company has been integrating small solar energy systems in remote communities for two decades and currently has three other solar farm projects in the pipeline. Other existing projects include Kings Canyon, which generates 241kW peak to support the electricity needs of the community. At the time, it was the largest single installation of its kind in Australia.
Power and Water Corporation is the only provider of electricity, water supply and sewerage services to almost 80,000 customers across the Northern Territory – an area of more than 1.3 million square kilometres.
