Image: Ben Olschewsky – local maintenance contractor at Alpurrurulam solar farm
You’ve probably never heard of Alpurrurulam. Here are a couple of interesting facts about this small, remote, regional community:
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- It’s one of Australia’s most remote communities.
- It’s located on the Queensland-Northern Territory border.
- It’s leading the way in renewable energy use for electricity generation.
In Australia, renewable energy currently accounts for 17% of the power generation. In Alpurrurulam, it makes up 20% of the power being produced. In fact the community was one of the first chosen to trial remote clean energy production.
The community share their vast space with a 240-kilowatt solar farm and three wind turbines. These power one in five homes on a normal day, with the capacity to power half the community at its maximum. That’s about 50-60 homes.
Before the solar farm was installed in 2011, the town was run solely on diesel generators. While they are still in use, according to Northern Territory Power and Water Corporation, consumption has dropped by 120,000 litres per year – despite a drastic increase in consumption.
The most exciting thing about this project – the use of new technology! Cloud cameras, which measure the density of cloud cover, are being used to gauge when the farm will be generating enough power – and when they need to boost the diesel generation.
Due to this project’s success, the Northern Territory Power and Water Corporation are executing similar projects across the Territory.
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