As part of the Request for Proposals brief released, Alice Springs Airport is also on the lookout for technologies that can make a contribution to their energy supply needs.
“The Alice Solar City Consortium is working closely with Alice Springs based renewable energy specialists, CAT Projects, to investigate technology providers capable of constructing a large scale solar power station”, says Brian Elmer, Alice Solar City general manager. “Part of the suite of large scale iconic projects for Alice Solar City, the solar power station at Ilparpa will be approximately 1 MW in size.”
“We invite the wider renewable energy industry in Australia to express their interest to develop technologies that are technically and economically suitable for Alice Springs”, said Mr Elmer. “We are confident that a number of alternative options will be identified as there has been a significant amount of new developments in solar energy technologies in recent years.”
“Alice Springs residents can already purchase ‘green energy’ from Power and Water Corporation, with the renewable energy source being a landfill gas project in Darwin. But there are great opportunities to increase the amount of green energy available – and a solar power station at Ilparpa would be a clean green energy provider in our own backyard. Our intention is to see that happening through Alice Solar City by the end of 2010.”
“The uptake of solar technologies in Australia continues to grow through programs like Solar Cities that are creating awareness of and increasing demand for solar installations.”
