Community leads the way with renewables

A remote Kimberley community is acting as a pioneer in the use of renewable energy sources, with a landmark solar farm up and running.

The Aboriginal community of Yungngora, 100km south west of Fitzroy Crossing, has worked in partnership with Horizon Power and the State Government to install a horde of solar panels.

The solar farm was commissioned last month, with approximately a quarter of Yungngora’s power now being delivered by the 200 kilowatt panels.

This varies depending on the amount of sunlight and the power demand from the community, but can routinely exceed 50 per cent.

A diesel power station was built at the community in 2013 as part of the State Government’s Aboriginal and Remote Communities Power Supply Program, but dependence on this has dropped.

Horizon Power’s power system services project director Brett Whisson said the solar farm had been welcomed by the Yungngora community because using energy from the sun meant less diesel fuel would be burned.

“The system has been designed to maximise the use of all of the available solar energy in order to reduce the amount of diesel being burned which will also result in reduced greenhouse gas emissions,” Mr Whisson said.

Horizon Power contracted MPower to design and install the solar farm, with projects managing director Anthony Csillag saying the Yungngora example was a milestone for the company.

“Completing the Yungngora project leaves us with a sense of satisfaction, not only for helping remote communities become less reliant on fossil fuels but also having an Australian- based MPower engineering team continue to progress this important technology,” he said.

Yungngora chief executive officer Neil Ewart said the community was an example to its equivalents across the Kimberley through the use of solar power.

“This is a reflection of the State Government’s belief that Yungngora is a stable community – the solar facility is of huge benefit to the community and adds to our profile,” he said.

“It adds to our long-term independence. We are happy that Yungngora can be an example to other Kimberley communities and hopefully in the future we can be almost solely powered by solar.”