Clean Energy Council Industry Awards announced

The 2014 Clean Energy Council Industry Awards were presented at the GE Australia Gala Dinner last night, held as part of Clean Energy Week. Acting Clean Energy Council Chief Executive Kane Thornton said all the 2014 entries to the awards reflected the passion of the industry to constantly innovate and improve.

“All entrants this year are worthy of high praise,” he said, “whether we are talking about ZEN Energy’s locally developed energy storage unit for solar power systems, Infigen Energy’s Run With the Wind event at its Woodlawn Wind Farm or the Solar Wikipedia developed by LG Electronics.”

The Clean Energy Council Community Engagement Award was won by CWP Renewables for its efforts with the community in the development of the Boco Rock Wind Farm in NSW. Thornton noted that building a wind farm is challenging, and it’s important to keep people informed of developments in order to keep their support.

“The judges found that CWP Renewables had followed industry-leading best practice when engaging with the local community living and working near the Boco Rock Wind Farm,” he said.

The Clean Energy Council Innovation Award was meanwhile won by Ergon Energy for the Doomadgee Solar Farm, an off-grid solar-diesel hybrid project in Queensland. Thornton stated that the solar farm “combined more than 1000 solar panels with an existing diesel power plant in a town located off the power grid, helping the remote community save more than 100,000 litres of diesel every year”.

Clean Energy Week 2014, running from 22-25 July, is sponsored by Trina Solar and NAB. It is being held across two venues in Sydney and incorporates the ATRAA solar conference and dinner, a trade show, a policy and finance conference, and a professional development day for solar installers.