The Australian Government will invest $47.3 million to ensure solar energy and the nation's largest direct heat geothermal facility power Australia's bid to host the SKA.
Two key pieces of infrastructure being built to support the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) program will now have full-scale, clean energy generation systems.
- The Pawsey High-Performance Computing Centre in Kensington, Perth, will now use hot sedimentary aquifers to provide cooling and ventilation in the largest direct heat geothermal demonstrator in Australia at 10 MWth; and
- The Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory, the Australia-New Zealand candidate core site for the SKA, will now use a full scale solar/storage/diesel energy generation system.
This investment has the potential to cut energy costs by $5 million per year, and reduce Australia's carbon emissions by 12,000 tonnes per year - the equivalent of taking 6,000 cars off the road.
The projects will also help the CSIRO achieve its goal to be carbon neutral by 2015 and help to ensure that the SKA is powered by sustainable energy.
The $47.3 million investment is part of the Sustainability Round of the Education Investment Fund, which is seeing a $4 billion investment in world-leading, strategic tertiary education and research infrastructure.
Image: An innovative solar/storage/diesel power plant will power CSIRO's ASKAP radio telescope at the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory (artist's impression).
Credit: Swinburne Astronomy Productions, design data provided by CSIRO.