The Greening of Gavin

Solar Freeway Noise Wall

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Of late, I have been singing the praises of Germany with regards to this countries inginuity and rapid uptake of solar technology.

Well, it is time to focus a little closer to home.  A kind reader, Andrew M, pointed out to me that  VicRoads, our local road authority in this state have fitted 500 metres of solar PV array on one of the freeways in Melbourne.

From the VicRoads website;

“In an Australian first, 210 solar panels are installed along a 500 metre section of the Tullamarine-Calder Freeway noise walls at Essendon North in 2007. A second solar panel installation, constructed in 2012, will generate approximately 120 MWh of electricity per year, saving three million black baloons of greenhouse gas every year. VicRoads sells the solar power into the electricity grid during the day, and purchases it back at night in order to power street lights. “

By the way, a black ballon is eqivilent to 50gm of CO2-e.  That works out to be about 30 tonnes of CO2-e abated each year.  The 210 Schott Solar ASI-OPAK 4 L panels  can generate enough electricity to power three small homes, and each panel can produce 141 watts at peak.
A good way to minimise freeway noise pollution and reduce GHG emissions.  Now if we could just get them to stop building the freeways in the first place, and divert the funds to Public Transportation, it would be an even better step in the right direction!

Over the next few days, I will do a bit of research for other large solar PV installations around our country, and let you all know about them.  I can think of a few, but I dare say that I will be surprised at what I find (or don’t).  If anyone has any suggestions, let me know below via comment, and I will research further.

About Gavin Webber

Gavin Webber's daily goal is to live a more sustainable lifestyle, in an effort to reduce his family's environmental footprint so we can all make a difference for our children & future generations to come.

Learn more about him here and connect with him on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.

Comments

  2. Michael says

    I was originally going to be working with “Going Solar” to install the panels on the freeway near Sunshine (great location for Solar Panels don’t you think?) but the timetable conflicted with some work in East TImor.

    I was involved in the PV system installation at Vic Market a few years ago. About 200kW from memory and quite a good project to work on. One of the installers told me they could actually measure a tiny amount of power during a full moon!!

    Cheers

    Reply

  3. Michael says

    I think Going Solar has some info on their site but I couldn’t find it when I looked. Last time I drove past it was about half complete.

    If I find a link I’ll let you know.

    Cheers

    Reply

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