{"id":592720,"date":"2026-09-07T08:22:22","date_gmt":"2026-09-07T08:22:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/592720\/"},"modified":"2026-09-07T08:22:22","modified_gmt":"2026-09-07T08:22:22","slug":"sydney-cbd-solar-farm-to-cut-carbon-emissions-by-2000-tonnes-a-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/592720\/","title":{"rendered":"Sydney CBD solar farm to cut carbon emissions by 2,000 tonnes a year"},"content":{"rendered":"

A solar farm heralded as the largest in any central business district (CBD) in the Southern Hemisphere is being built in the heart of Sydney.<\/p>\n

About 4,500 photovoltaic panels will cover the rooftops of the International Convention Centre Sydney (ICC Sydney) and produce enough electricity to power up to 400 homes.<\/p>\n

The rooftop generation, combined with purchased renewable electricity, will mean the government-owned site is powered entirely by green energy.<\/p>\n

\"Construction<\/p>\n

The solar farm will be built in the heart of Sydney.\u00a0 (ABC News: Alexander Lewis)<\/p>\n

Paul Scully, the minister for planning and public spaces, told the ABC that the upgrade would attract more events to Sydney.<\/p>\n

“Coming to one of the most environmentally friendly convention centres in the world is a big selling point,” Mr Scully said.<\/p>\n

“This is showing how, as an urban community, we can do our part in the rebuild of our energy system, where we’re using large roof spaces.”<\/p>\n

\"Solar<\/p>\n

The panels will be installed on the rooftop of the ICC Sydney. (ABC News: Alexander Lewis)<\/p>\n

The solar farm will cut carbon emissions by up to 2,000 tonnes a year, which the government has said is equivalent to the amount absorbed by a forest of about 100,000 mature trees.<\/p>\n

The ICC Sydney already had some solar panels installed, but the older technology was too heavy to be placed on certain sections of the rooftops.<\/p>\n

With lighter panels now available, the centre can increase the size of its solar footprint.<\/p>\n

‘300 per cent more energy’\"A<\/p>\n

Paul Scully and Chris Jones are lauding the project.\u00a0 (ABC News: Alexander Lewis)<\/p>\n

Chris Jones is the head of asset management at Capella Capital, which leads the consortium that maintains the facility.<\/p>\n

Mr Jones said the newer, more efficient panels would allow the ICC Sydney to produce about 300 per cent more energy.<\/p>\n

“This facility running at full capacity is a big drawer of electricity,” Mr Jones said.<\/p>\n

Battery storage was not an option as it would take up too much space.<\/p>\n

“The only logical way to do it is to use the grid as a synthetic battery, if you will,” Mr Jones said.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_0466\"<\/p>\n

The solar farm will cut carbon emissions by up to 2,000 tonnes a year. (ABC News: Alexander Lewis)<\/p>\n

With power bills reaching $1.8 million a year, the centre was also trying to reduce consumption by upgrading appliances such as fridges.<\/p>\n

ICC Sydney chief executive officer Adam Mather-Brown said the facility sought to use less power each year.<\/p>\n

“We’ve just finished an entire re-bulbing exercise on the building, because being 10 years old, new technology has come in,” Mr Mather-Brown said.<\/p>\n

“For thousands of lights that we have, we’ve reduced that already.”<\/p>\n

The existing panels were dismantled this week and will be given to the Kindly Animal Sanctuary near Armidale in the Northern Tablelands for reuse.<\/p>\n

It is estimated they will last another 10 to 15 years.<\/p>\n

“They can reduce their energy bill and keep those rescue animals warm at the same time,” Mr Scully said.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

The rooftop of the ICC in Sydney’s CBD. (Supplied: Solar Fit Solutions)<\/p>\n

More cities likely to follow<\/p>\n

In June, NSW Opposition Leader Kellie Sloane pledged to create a renewable energy zone (REZ) in the cities of Sydney, Newcastle and Wollongong.<\/p>\n

The state’s first urban REZ is being set up in the Illawarra, drawing from solar generated on the roofs of homes and businesses, and using home and community batteries.<\/p>\n

Mr Scully would not say whether the government was looking to establish a REZ in Sydney but hinted other areas of urban generation would follow the Illawarra.<\/p>\n

“We’re looking to use that as the test bed to see what we might be able to take from that and scale up to other urban communities,” he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A solar farm heralded as the largest in any central business district (CBD) in the Southern Hemisphere is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":592721,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[14876,273,292210,292204,292205,111,139,69,292207,292206,171815,292211,147,55418,292203,292202,292209,292208,292212],"class_list":["post-592720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-chris-jones","tag-environment","tag-icc-sydney-chief-executive-officer-adam-mather-brown","tag-international-convention-centre-sydney","tag-international-convention-centre-sydney-solar-farm","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-paul-scully","tag-photovoltaic-panels","tag-power-bills","tag-reduce-consumption","tag-science","tag-solar-farm","tag-solar-farm-sydney-cbd","tag-solar-farms-sydney","tag-solar-panels-installed","tag-the-minister-for-planning-and-public-spaces","tag-urban-rez"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/592720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=592720"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/592720\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/592721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=592720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=592720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=592720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}