Asia-Pacific logistics company LOGOS is partnering with renewables fund Solar Bay to deliver Australia’s largest rooftop solar installation, writes Casey Cann.
The company and its consortium partners recently announced a 30-year agreement with Solar Bay to install and operate the solar project at Moorebank Logistics Park in southwest Sydney.
The intermodal and logistics precinct is the largest freight facility in Australia, and Solar Bay – a renewable energy fund that installs, owns and operates energy infrastructure across Australia and New Zealand – will provide network and retail energy services to its tenants by installing 60MW of rooftop solar across the estate and 150MWh of battery energy storage to supply the embedded network with renewable electricity.
The energy generated by Moorebank Logistics Park’s rooftop solar and battery will be the equivalent of powering 40,000 homes, and will avoid an estimated 67.2 kilotonnes of CO2 emissions each year.
With more than 800,000 square metres of roof space at the precinct, it has the capacity for up to 130MW of rooftop solar, with the capability of generating 183GWh of electricity per annum.
“The implementation of this green infrastructure at Moorebank Logistics Park will accelerate our achievement of green scale and enable our operations to achieve net-zero emissions,” says head of LOGOS Australia and New Zealand, Darren Searle (pictured, above left).
“The impact of the infrastructure we develop with Solar Bay will extend far beyond the site itself and play a key role in state, regional and local economies given the size, scale and influence of our market-leading site.
“It also offers a substantial opportunity to the tenants of Moorebank Logistics Park, where they seek to run their business operations on a carbon-neutral mandate.”
Once fully operational, the solar microgrid will supply the full energy requirement of the freight precinct during daylight hours, and it will source electricity from an offsite wind farm outside peak solar generation periods.
Future stages of the microgrid will utilise additional solar generation for electric truck fast charging, thermal storage, hydrogen generation and supply, and related low-emission infrastructure.
“Moorebank Logistics Park is a prime example of the convergence between property and energy infrastructure that we’re seeing across Australia and New Zealand,” says Solar Bay investment director James Doyle (pictured, above right).
“A precinct-wide microgrid facilitates the onsite installation of utility scale solar and batteries, providing tenants with the ability to access a vast amount of renewable electricity that matches the scale of their electrified operations.
“With more than 800,000 square metres of rooftop solar possible, we can assist in the decarbonisation of transport and utilise surplus generation to produce low-emission fuels such as hydrogen.
“Solar Bay is excited to be involved with the rollout of the renewable infrastructure at Moorebank Logistics Park, and see it setting a strong precedent for what’s possible at industrial precincts moving forward.”
LOGOS and its consortium partners – Australian Super, AXA IM Alts, Ivanhoé Cambridge and TCorp (NSW Treasury Corporation) – acquired the Moorebank Logistics Park site in December 2021 for $1.67 billion.
Once fully developed, the site will be worth an estimated $4.2 billion.