Townsville Stadium installs solar, Australian market growing

Australian stadium goes solarThe Townsville RSL Stadium in North Queensland, Australia flipped the switch on a 348-kilowatt rooftop solar array earlier this month.

The solar installation, which includes 1,800 solar panels from Kyocera, will supply the basketball stadium with two-thirds of its energy needs, according to a release from Kyocera.

The project also highlights the growing solar industry in Australia and increasing opportunity for companies like Kyocera to sell modules there.

“This installation is one of the largest rooftop solar installations in Australia,” writes George Phani, sales manager for Kyocera Australia. “It demonstrates that Kyocera’s product quality can be suitably integrated into rooftops throughout the community offering proven utility grade power.”

The system provides enough energy to power 75 typical Australian homes and offsets the carbon emissions of 100 cars.

The project was a good fit for a stadium so close to Australia’s Sunshine Coast.

“These measures make the most of Australia’s natural resources and help us make the gradual shift to a modern, clean energy economy,” Australian Parliamentary Secretary for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency Mark Dreyfus said in a statement.

The installation was part of Australia’s Solar Cities initiative, Phani said. The program includes government incentives for homeowners and businesses to add solar to their buildings. The program has spurred the installation of more than 1 megawatt of solar in Townsville.

There are seven Solar City programs in Australia and they’re all building momentum in the solar industry in the country.

Kyocera is a solar panel manufacturer and doesn’t have an installation arm. Instead, the company partnered with Ergon, an Australian installer, on the Townsville project. “Kyocera supplied the solar modules to Ergon via the Solar Cities program,” Phani said.

While solar is picking up steam in Australia, Kyocera has had a presence there for a long time and simply sees these new developments as an opportunity to grow in the market.

“For more than 20 years, Kyocera has supported proven solutions in Australian residential, commercial and industrial sectors,” Phani said. “Kyocera continues to be an industry leader in the Australian Solar market.”