Home » Cricket Australia & Cricket For Climate Drive Change With Major Solar Project

23 January, 2024

Cricket Australia & Cricket For Climate Drive Change With Major Solar Project

Cricket Australia (CA) and Cricket for Climate have collaborated to install solar power at the National Cricket Centre (NCC) in Brisbane.

Lead image: Pat Cummins At Launch Of Cricket For Climate last year

The plan will save $50,000 in energy costs in the first year and will also see a 398-tonne decrease in the amount of carbon generated by the facility each year.

Based on current energy pricing, this will convert to close to $1 million in savings over the 20-year lifespan of the project and will remove close to 8,000 tonnes of carbon. The NCC is Australian cricket’s home of world-leading training and playing facilities accessible year-round that allow preparation in a variety of conditions, and can be used by international, national, and state teams, pathway programs and community cricket clubs.

James Allsopp, CA executive manager of community and capability, joined Australian men’s captain Pat Cummins to launch the installation at the NCC today.

“Climate change is an issue for cricket, and we are in the initial stages of our journey toward improved sustainability and improving our environmental footprint,” said Allsopp. “Projects such as this, alongside the development this year of our Environmental Sustainability Action Plan that will outline our emissions baseline and our roadmap for reducing them will help us create some real momentum in this area”.

“The partnership with Cricket Australia, State Associations, as well as local cricket clubs and councils, is fundamental to achieving meaningful progress,” said Cummins. “We are also fortunate to have incredible industry partners such as Longi, Solis and OSW, who have generously donated 150kW of solar and inverter infrastructure across our projects to date”.

“Through their generous donations, we’ve been able to install solar power to all club projects to date at zero cost to them. We’ve learned much in the initial phase of energy upgrades across five clubs, and that the engagement from these clubs and their councils has been amazing” Cummins said.

The system will provide a massive 285kW of power (nearly half of the NCC’s total energy requirements) and was made available through an initial provision of 60kW of solar panels (as well as mounting systems and inverters) through Cricket for Climate, with Cricket Australia investing $226,000 to provide the additional 220kW of capacity.

Started in 2021, Cricket for Climate is a collective movement that is seeing benefits and real momentum already. In collaboration with cricket clubs, renewable energy infrastructure providers, councils and broader cricket ecosystem, Cricket for Climate’s ambition is to build on this solid foundation and get as many of the 3,700 cricket clubs as possible (and Australian Cricket) to net zero through carbon reduction and nature positive solutions, whilst providing economic benefits to local clubs and communities.

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