AN UNTAPPED RENEWABLE ENERGY OPPORTUNITY In partnership with Prological, the University of Wollongong Sustainable Buildings Research Centre’s new research reveals shrinking ROI periods for renewable generation can provide cost savings for businesses in brownfield and greenfield environments.
Australia receives an average of 58 million petajoules of solar radiation per year.
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ccording to the Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources, over the next ten years, solar photovoltaic (PV) – solar energy which directly converts sunlight into electricity – is expected to grow at a rate of 58.7 per cent annually, with small scale rooftop solar to make up 90 per cent of that growth. The push towards solar energy is happening, and its acceleration is imminent. Peter Jones, Founder and Managing Director at Prological, says that despite the overall trend in favour of sustainability technologies – particularly in residential environments – the industrial market remains the unloved child in this connection. Having seen his own son complete a Master of Research with Wollongong University’s Sustainable Building Research Centre (SBRC) – studying sustainability technologies in people’s homes – Peter wanted to further investigate how new energy opportunities might be applied in his 52 | MHD FEBRUARY 2022
world of manufacturing and warehouses. “Australia is a global leader in a lot of sustainability parameters, but it isn’t translating to the industrial market,” Peter says. “Through an innovative research approach, we wanted to develop a sustainability tool for clients to add to our design capability.” To conduct this research, Peter describes his search for an industrial unicorn: someone with the right background knowledge and expertise – but more importantly, the passion to uncover the cost parameters of the integration of renewable energy and storage technology for the Australian warehousing and industrial manufacturing sector. Craig Pickup, Research Lead for the project, possesses these attributes, and has used his detailed findings to create real-world applications for businesses around the country. “We placed emphasis on economics from capital expenditure, OPEX [operating expenses] costs, replacement
costs, determination of levelised cost of electricity (LOCE), simple and discounted payback, net present cost, and the future costs of renewable energy,” Craig says. “These elements combine to form a cost evaluation for a particular business, so they can more precisely determine the right time to make the switch to renewable energy.” To be finalised in March 2022, the research has lead to the creation of an assessment tool that will allow businesses to evaluate commercial opportunities for improving energy efficiency through the application of various technologies. “We are analysing the economic side of the installation versus the cost of energy from the grid,” Craig says. “Our expectation is that over time the battery and installation costs associated with solar will decrease, and the cost of energy from the grid will increase. Through our research we will be able to inform a company what will be the optimal year for investment in solar
