If you’ve ever embarked on a cruise to New Zealand or island-hopped around the Pacific, chances are your ship departed from the Brisbane International Cruise Terminal (BICT) — a world-class terminal boasting a state-of-the-art car park.
While the terminal’s car park may not have been at the top of your sightseeing list, it's worth a peek. If you’d glanced up between pulling on the hand break and wrenching your luggage from the boot, you might have noticed an 800kW rooftop solar system forming the roof above your head.
Generating around 1400MWh annually, this giant system produces enough energy to power the International Cruise Terminal and then some.
With more solar energy being produced than being used, this was where Momentum’s Virtual Energy Network (VEN) entered the picture.
Using the Enosi Powertracer Platform, the VEN facilitates the virtual transfer of the benefits of solar energy from one site to another. So, instead of accepting a small feed-in tariff, the solar generated is helping lower the Port’s costs by financially offsetting their energy consumption from the grid.
Beyond the Port, the VEN also enables other commercial and industrial customers to share the benefit of solar between sites. It also recently became available to small-medium business customers too, who prefer to trade their own solar than purchase and transfer Large Scale Generation Certificates (LGCs).
But back to where the real action is - the car park. The combination of rooftop solar system and VEN has proven so successful, the Port of Brisbane is extending its VEN contract for a further 33 months!
Port of Brisbane Executive General Manager Sustainability & Corporate Relations, Brendan Connell, couldn’t be happier with how it’s working out, ‘The Virtual Energy Network is an innovative but easy to use tool to more effectively utilise our onsite solar assets.’
Now the VEN is established, we’re sharing the benefits of that solar power across our own facilities. It’s supporting our Net Zero ambitions and demonstrating our sustainability commitment to our customers and stakeholders.
The VEN has been great news for the Port’s bottom line, a win for the environment, and a great incentive for business to invest more in solar. Who’d have thought a car park could have such as role in the energy transition.
*Important side note: Participation in the VEN is currently open to eligible multi-site businesses who have an energy contract with Momentum.
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