Flinders University will power all of its SA campuses and facilities with 100% renewable energy sources from 2021 through a new electricity supply agreement with ENGIE.

The five-year PPA, delivered through the company’s retail arm Simply Energy, guarantees the supply of electricity from the ENGIE Willogoleche Wind Farm in South Australia’s mid-north for the Bedford Park, Tonsley and regional SA campuses.

It will see 92,000MWh of electricity delivered over five years – reducing the university’s carbon footprint by 40 megatonnes.

The deal with ENGIE forms part of a range of renewable energy initiatives set out in Flinders University’s 2025 Sustainability Plan.

The supply announcement complements existing investments in solar carpark and rooftop systems already generating over 20% of electricity needs at the Bedford Park Campus, construction of solar shelters for students and 13 new EV charging stations in the past year, with the University fleet transitioning to electric vehicles.

A Memorandum of Understanding between Flinders University and ENGIE Australia & New Zealand will also explore options for future collaboration. Specific projects under consideration between the two parties are a new solar carpark to bolster direct energy generation and potential battery storage systems as part of a Virtual Power Plant on campus.

The Flinders University PPA and the plans for further collaboration build on a series of exciting carbon-neutral transition projects ENGIE launched in 2020, most notably the Zero Net Energy Roadmap for Springfield. The road map will establish Greater Springfield in Queensland as the world’s greenest city by 2038.