Specialist renewable energy and storage fund CEP.Energy has announced the completion of the first stage of Australia’s commercial solar and battery microgrid at the Narellan Town Centre (NTC) in New South Wales.
Located in Sydney’s rapidly expanding south-west airport corridor, the renewable rooftop power plant was inspected and launched by the Minister for Climate Change and Energy, the Hon. Chris Bowen.
Related article: Coles and Origin to install solar panels on 100 stores
The system serves as an embedded network that currently provides the shopping centre and its 270 tenants with around 35% of their energy needs, via:
- A 2.6MW solar system covering 12,577sqm, comprising more than 5,600 solar panels, that saves just under 3,000 tonnes of carbon emissions per annum.
- 12 onsite batteries that hold 4MW/10MWh of storage—equivalent to 800 residential batteries—and have the potential to feed enough power back into the grid to supply electricity to more than 1900 homes.
CEP.Energy has 30-year lease agreement with NTC—covering approximately 35,000sqm of rooftop—to deliver a total renewable energy solution. CEP.Energy engaged renewable infrastructure specialist RACV Solar to supply and install stage one works in 2021. Western Sydney sub-contractors were in turn engaged to assist with the major program of works which were progressively commissioned in 2023.
CEP.Energy CEO Peter Wright said, “This project commenced during COVID-19 and faced the same supply chain challenges as many other major infrastructure projects at that time. The completion of this milestone is therefore testament to a strong partnership and project team.
“We now look forward to working on stage two at Narellan Town Centre which has the potential to deliver an enhanced solar system totalling 10MW, and increased battery storage of up to 20MW.”
Related article: SunPlan building Australia’s largest solar rooftop network
Wright said commercial and industrial rooftop solar and battery projects have the potential to accelerate the transition of Australia’s electricity grid to renewable energy.
“The opportunity to replicate this type of large-scale, rooftop microgrid project across commercial and industrial assets in Australia is significant, particularly in south-west Sydney with its pipeline of development projects to service the new Western Sydney Airport,” he said.
