Leading the way in urban solar and renewable energy
We have embarked on an ambitious investment program in renewable energy to reduce our environmental impact.
We aim to reduce carbon emissions at UTS by 30% by 2020/21 based on 2007 levels, and are committed to working towards carbon neutrality. To help achieve this we have embarked on an ambitious investment program to transition towards renewable energy.
We continue to invest heavily in on-site solar with six solar systems across campus building rooftops. 4 on-site solar installations have been installed in the past 18 months, including Yura Mudang student housing (28kW), CB04 Science building (74kW), CB10 Aerial function centre (127kW) and the Moore Park UTS ARDC building (60kW).
UTS was also the first large energy customer to contract directly off-site solar. Two small-scale installations piloted the Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) process. These include 200kW at Singleton (Australian 1st in a corporate solar PPA arrangement in 2015) supplying CB08 and 60kW at Orange supplying CB07 (2016).
In 2018, we entered an agreement to co-finance a 32 MW new solar farm in Walgett, regional NSW. UTS will take 10MW from the Walgett solar farm, which added to other PPA agreements and electricity generated from on-site solar will supply half of the university’s annual electricity demand.
As the campus grows, UTS will continue to identify sustainable solutions to reduce its environmental impact. Additional on-site solar installations are currently under consideration.