The Cathedral College in Rockhampton has made history as the first Australian school to embrace Tesla’s Powerpack system poised to award the institution a 40 to 50 per cent energy savings. The school hopes to realise a return on this investment within six years. A recent video released by Tesla provides details of the project, and a clear view of the institution’s combination of the Powerpack battery storage unit and a 100kW solar system to generate adequate electricity to power the school’s boarding houses and adjacent buildings during the night.
“The motivation for us with installing the Tesla Powerpack was to create an efficient way for us to harness the energy produced by the sun and use that at nighttime,” Aaron Nunn, the ICT Manager for The Cathedral College, stated. The video illustrates a Powerpack being charged using solar energy all day and then used to power the whole dormitory for about five hours at night. “The Tesla Powerpack has definitely exceeded expectations,” Nunn added.
The news comes at a time when Tesla’s popularity spreads far and wide as it continues to diversify its ventures to include new energy market sectors, while bringing solar technology closer to the education sector as well as private businesses. The Cathedral College now joins other institutions that have been looking to implement Tesla Energy products as a way of slashing the high electricity costs and drive increased dedication to safeguarding the environment through the use of sustainable energy.
Elsewhere, the College of Marin in Marin County, California, has installed five 480-kilowatt Tesla Powerpacks that will save the school up to $10,000 a month in power bills. The community college received the batteries free of charge, thanks to an energy program involving Tesla. Apparently, Tesla used $5.3 million obtained from state and utility incentives to finance the construction, installation and upkeep of the batteries.
In recent months, Tesla has registered a strong presence in the Australian market, as it advances the world’s largest lithium-ion battery storage system. The project, which has been set up in Southern Australia, was initiated to help stabilize the power grid and curb blackouts. The Cathedral College is the latest among many institutions and organizations to have installed solar PV panels and battery storage units to reduce energy costs and present a reliably sustainable alternative.
