Solar Gains in Geraldton

Geraldton’s Bunnings Warehouse has installed a new network of 384 solar panels (photovoltaic) on the building’s roof, making it possibly the city’s largest solar system. Buildings with a footprint or more appropriately, available roof space such as a Bunnings store are ideal for the use of the sun to generate electricity for the buildings consumption.

BSE is the national sustainability consultant for Bunnings and designed the new system. BSE developed the system including a trial at numerous pilot sites before instigating an ongoing photovoltaic system roll out across Bunnings sites in Australia.

The 100 kilowatt system will generate enough power on a sunny day to run roughly thirty average Australian homes, and is expected to provide about 18 per cent of Bunnings total power needs at the site. Using new micro-inverter technology, each panel is individually controlled allowing it to run extremely efficiently.

The growth in the use of solar generated power across Australia is reducing the reliance on traditional power stations to meet energy demands. This is buoyed by the amount of solar availability in the Geraldton region, which is the amount of days of pure blue skies, meaning that it’s probably one of the most viable regions for photovoltaics in Australia.

Bunnings has a very strong and ongoing commitment to sustainability across its national property portfolio and BSE is proud to be a partner of Bunnings and helping it to be as energy-efficient as possible wherever they operate.