Solar Alliance: Brookvale’s rooftop powerhouse

Fly over Brookvale and what do you see? Rooftops, lots of them! And volunteers with the recently formed Solar Alliance – a collaboration between local community groups Clean Energy for Eternity Northern Beaches, and Zero Emissions Sydney North – have measured every single one.

“35% of the total 1.5 square kilometres of the commercial area is rooftop,” reports Harriet Cunningham, a Solar Alliance member. “Take away 25% as unsuitable for solar panels due to shading, slope or orientation, and you’re left with a massive 390,000 square metres just waiting to generate power from the sun.” 

That’s the equivalent of 30 Brookie Ovals, or 30 “4 Pines Parks”, a veritable rooftop urban utopia, tailor made for transforming abundant sunlight to electricity. But let’s not forget, Brookvale is a visionary locale. Several local businesses have seized the opportunity to utilise rooftop solar, making the region a powerhouse for renewable energy already, with 10,000 solar panels producing 3MW. Leading the pack are Col Crawford Cars, Lifestyle Working, and Hardware & General, each with some  1,000 panels, around 300kW. Then Bill Buckle Service, East West Engineering, Colormaker Industries, Travelodge, 4 Pines Brewery and Aldi follow with around 300-400 panels, some 100kW. 

The commercial reasoning is obvious, as Harriet says, “With a payback as short as 4 years, it’s obvious why these businesses have made this investment in their future, but also in the future of our environment through helping decarbonise our electricity system. Customers are also increas-ingly choosing to patronise businesses that are actively pursuing a carbon neutral future.”

Looking to the future, by taking the total rooftop solar panels from 10,000 to 60,000 – 50% of Brookvale’s suitable roofs – will boost energy production capacity from 3 to 18MW, the size of a small power station. Imagine this; a clean, green, power plant in Brookvale, where local businesses get paid for energy they collect from their roof; where cars and trucks are powered by the sun; where residences and businesses share energy storage; where having solar panels on your roof is not just smart, it’s normal. 

Imagine no longer. It’s nearly here and is precisely why the Solar Alliance was formed. “We want to get people talking about solar and talking to each other,” Harriet explains. “And instead of the solar hard sell, we’re all about setting up trusted peer-to-peer support, whereby early adopters – Solar Champions, we call them – are put together with skilled volunteers – Solar Ambassadors. They can start their conversations and explain the benefits and challenges earnestly and practically. All businesses need is a roof.

“Brookvale can be Australia’s first ‘urban renewable energy zone’, with locally generated renewable energy supporting growing demand, including the fleet of electric buses which bus operator Keolis Downer, now managing the Northern Beaches bus fleet and the major Brookvale depot, has committed to introduce. Another great example is Colormaker, showing the way with their EV delivery vehicle, charged with their own solar energy and planned battery.”