Nearly six thousand new solar panels will come online at the Tonsley Innovation District next week, effectively doubling the site's green energy production.
In May, sixty-four thousand kilograms of panels were airlifted onto the rooftops of Renewal SA's Line Zero building and TAFA SA's campus as part of the expansion of the Tonsley District Energy Scheme.
Operated by renewable energy specialist CleanPeak Energy, the scheme focuses on assisting responsible organisations to implement renewable energy solutions to power their sites, reduce electricity costs, lower their carbon footprint and lead the way towards a sustainable future.
This Stage 2 installation, which covers an area approximately the size of one and a half football fields, significantly enhances the capacity of the existing solar infrastructure installed on the roof of Tonsley's Main Assembly Building (MAB) in 2020 - a project heralded at the time as one of Australia's largest rooftop solar installations.
Together, the two arrays will meet up to 80% of the district's energy needs, bringing Tonsley's solar capacity to 5 megawatts, enough to power around 300 homes a year.
When the project is complete, the District Energy Scheme will comprise 13,000 panels, secured by 10,000 fixings, 34 inverters and over 15,000 metres of electrical cabling.
With the upcoming battery project, CleanPeak's total investment in Tonsley will exceed $20 million.
Over the past decade, the Tonsley Innovation District has become a vibrant hub, home to over 140 companies and employing nearly 2,000 people on site - almost doubling the number of jobs since Mitsubishi's closure announcement.
The district now boasts over 1061 trees and 42,513 plants and shrubs spread across the site, including within the MAB woodlands, along streets, greenways and wetlands.
Tonsley is currently home to 500 South Australians and is expected to be home to more than 1800 residents when Tonsley Village is completed.