Wollongong MP Paul Scully, Wests Illawarra Chief Financial Officer Renata Garnero, Wests Strategic Leader for Facilities, Projects, and Port Kembla Golf Club Matt Demos, and Cunningham MP Alison Byrnes at the ribbon cutting for the club’s solar shade carpark. They were joined by some of the builders and contractors. Photo: Jen White.
It was left to Wollongong MP Paul Scully to perfectly sum up the benefits of Wests Illawarra’s new solar carpark shade project.
“When Wests Illawarra opened in 1959, I don’t think you could have told anyone at that time that their beer in the future was going to be cooled by the sun – everyone knows the beer gets warm in the sun,” he told a crowd at the project’s official opening.
“Right now, as a result of 590 kilowatts of solar energy generation here, the beer, the food, is going to be kept fresh, the lights are going to run, the PA system is going to work all because of solar energy.”
The recently completed project involved a complete makeover of the Unanderra club’s carpark, including three solar shade structures providing 100 undercover parking spaces and for the first time, four EV charging stations.
Combined with the club’s existing rooftop solar, Wests Illawarra now boasts a 590 kilowatt system which will generate the equivalent clean energy to power around 150 homes, or take 130 petrol cars off the road each year, according to the club’s Strategic Leader for Facilities, Projects, and Port Kembla Golf Club Matt Demos.
“By producing 30 per cent of its annual electricity needs onsite, the club will significantly reduce reliance on the grid, lower operational costs, and generate savings to reinvest into the community,” he said.
“This project is a game-changer for us and the broader industry.
“We hope this inspires other organisations to think beyond traditional rooftop solar and embrace large-scale sustainability solutions.”
Matt said it was the largest installation of its kind in the Illawarra and one of the largest of any club in Australia.
It follows the rollout of carpark shade solar at Fairy Meadow Woolworths late last year, the brainchild of Mittagong’s Canyon Solar.
The company’s founder, Will Beaumont told Region Illawarra last October that following the Fairy Meadow trial, he was in discussions with Woolworths about a much larger rollout.
The Wests Illawarra project is more than double the size of the Fairy Meadow installation and there is provision for two more structures to be installed which would increase the system size by another 200 kilowatts.
“When we first started planning this project, it was really just going to be a bitumen reseal of our deteriorating carpark, but during that early planning, we started to think about some other big issues that we could incorporate within the project,” Matt said.
“We had no covered parking for our customers, we had pretty poor lighting, poor accessibility to the club, some drainage issues, and also, as everyone knows, rising energy costs.
“So it’s fair to say that the project grew in size and scope pretty rapidly from there.
“Fast forward to today, and I think we’ve ended up with a project that all of our members and our staff can be really proud of.
“We’ve done a lot of projects over the last 10 years, and I would say that this one, in terms of positive customer feedback, is by far the most positive project that we’ve done.”
Wests Illawarra, which has about 18,000 members, has also installed four EV charging stations at its Port Kembla Golf Club.
“We really wanted to introduce these as a growing need and want for electric vehicles, and we thought this would be a good addition for our members and hopefully it attracts some new customers as well,” Matt said.
