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In operating the Australia Telescope National Facility,
CSIRO has several
initiatives in place to reduce energy usage and carbon
emissions. These include the use of a hybrid solar-diesel power
station (1.85 MW in solar) at the Murchison Radio-astronomy
Observatory (MRO) in Western Australia; this is supported by one of
Australia’s largest off-grid lithium battery storage facilities to
store and use solar-generated power once the Sun goes down.
Having a power station at an observatory is complicated by the need
to protect the radio telescopes from radio frequency interference
generated by the power station itself. For the MRO, CSIRO developed
innovative, low-cost shielding solutions for the hybrid solar-diesel
power station. Renewable power technologies are being planned for the
international Square Kilometre Array project, whose low frequency
telescope and power station will be built at the MRO.
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