Wednesday 24/3/2010 Page: 64
SOLAR energy is becoming the renewable energy of choice, with two announcements yesterday that will expand its use in Australia. In the first, CBD Energy subsidiary eco-Kinetics was named a preferred supplier to the Alice Solar City project in Northern Territory under the federal $94 million Solar Citi Investment Researches Program. eco-Kinetics expects sales of close to $3 million by the end of the year by supplying to the Alice Solar City bulk buy program, which has 400 homes registered, managing director Edwin Cywinski said."It was a logical place for growing use of solar power and offered potential for eco-Kinetics to gain a strong market position," he said. Seven centres have been chosen to become sustainability models for the rest of the country - Adelaide, Alice Springs, Blacktown, Central Victoria, Moreland, Perth and Townsville - integrating energy options, solar technologies, cost-effective pricing trials and education. The announcement follows a contract win for eco-Kinetics this month with Queensland electricity utility Ergon Energy for photovoltaic systems In the second announcement, Woolworths will trial solar panels at its petrol outlet at Belconnen in northern Canberra in what is claimed to be an Australian first.
The retailer expects the panels will generate about 15% (or 60 kWs) of the site's total energy needs - enough to power store and bowser lighting. If the Belconnen trial and another at Hume in the ACT are successful, solar panels will be placed at other outlets nationwide, but only where gross feed-in tariff and other incentives are offered. "At the moment costs are prohibitively high," Woolworths executive Ramnik Narsey said.
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