Jabiru wins Engineers Australia Excellence Award, Northern Division
EDL’s Jabiru Hybrid Renewable Power Station has won Project of the Year at the Engineers Australia Excellence Awards – People & Projects Northern Division, held in Darwin on Thursday, 7 September.
EDL CEO James Harman said the award recognised a project that has reliably delivered renewable power to the residents of Jabiru since the power station came online in February 2022.
“Jabiru Hybrid Renewable Power Station provides a sustainable model for remote communities to reduce dependence on expensive fossil fuels and is a blueprint for isolated off-grid communities seeking a reliable, clean energy solution,’’ Mr Harman said.
“Relatively poor energy reliability in remote communities undermines quality of life and limits growth and investment opportunities. Our power station offers Jabiru’s 1,000-plus residents equitable access to reliable energy.
“The power station is supporting Jabiru’s transition from a mining town to a tourism hub for the World Heritage-listed Kakadu National Park by delivering reliable, sustainable and equitable energy to the town.”
This latest accolade makes EDL’s Jabiru Hybrid Renewable Power Station a multi-award-winning operation, after it was named Solar Power Project of the Year – Australia at the Asian Power Awards in November 2022.
Mr Harman will showcase development of the project at the Northern Territory Resources Week, Environmental Management & Decarbonisation Forum in Darwin on Thursday, 14 September.
The Jabiru Hybrid Renewable Power Station is the fourth successful hybrid renewable project delivered by EDL since 2017, and is the Northern Territory’s highest renewable penetration microgrid of its scale.
The power station integrates a 3.9MW solar farm with a 3MW/5MWh battery and 4.5MW diesel generation.
Since the power station was switched on in February 2022, at times it has supplied 100% solar energy to Jabiru during the day. The battery stores the excess solar energy produced to extend renewable energy penetration beyond daylight hours. This enables the power station to deliver more than 50% renewable energy.
Converting Jabiru’s previous 100% fossil-fuelled electricity supply to hybrid renewable energy avoids emission of approximately 4,500 tonnes of CO2-e, per year, which is comparable to removing 1,500 cars off the road annually. This enables Jabiru to contribute towards the Northern Territory Government’s efforts to achieve its target of 50% renewable energy by 2030.
The power station has a modular design that will enable future expansions as Jabiru grows or new technologies emerge to provide even higher renewable energy penetration. Learnings from the project could substantially benefit seven million people who live in rural and remote Australia (28% of the population), and more worldwide.
The Engineers Australia Excellence Award was accepted by EDL’s Peter Hulkenberg, Hybrid Manager – Technical, and Andy Perera, NT Supervisor.
Jabiru Hybrid Renewable Power Station