The project signals ADG’s ongoing private sector leadership in renewable energy generation in the Northern Territory, at DIA and Alice Springs Airport (ASA), which it owns and operates.
The $5M investment includes ADG capex investment and funding from North Australia Infrastructure Facility (NAIF).
The project will see solar arrays installed on rooftops at Bunnings, the Cold Store Facility, Osgood South Business Park, the DIA terminal and terminal carparks by the end of 2021, with all works being undertaken by local businesses.
ADG Executive General Manager Property and Terminal Ross Baynes said the investment demonstrates ADG’s commitment to sustainability.
“ADG is committed to its renewable energy target, which is more ambitious than the United Nations Paris Agreement on Climate Change. ADG has been an early adopter of large-scale solar generation and this new investment builds on earlier investments at both our Darwin and Alice Springs sites,” he said.
DIA currently has two airside solar farms and various existing rooftop arrays totalling over 6 megawatts, which last financial year produced 8,297 megawatt-hours of renewable energy, enough to support 84% of DIA operations, including the terminal. ASA has an additional megawatt of solar producing 1,546 megawatt-hours, which last financial year covered ASA energy demands.
The additional solar expansion is expected to provide DIA with all the energy it requires to operate.
“ADG will continue to invest in solar energy to offset energy costs associated with operating our businesses,” Baynes said, “and planning is well underway for additional solar arrays across our sites in Darwin, Alice Springs and Tennant Creek.
“As a local business that has operated in the Territory for more than 20 years we believe we can make a positive difference to the lives of Territorians, by investing locally and using local businesses to undertake works where we can.”
NAIF CEO Chris Wade said: “NAIF works with project proponents to help bring a positive impact to local communities and we are pleased to partner with the ADG to help bring these solar arrays to the site. NAIF has been a long-standing supporter of the ADG, funding improvements across the airport sites, and we look forward to continuing that partnership going forward.”
By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.
Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.
You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.
Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.