Sunshift Takes Out 2017 Fire Award

Laing O’Rourke subsidiary SunSHIFT has been confirmed as a winner of the 2017 Fire Awards at the prestigious Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) Future of Energy Summit being held in New York.

The Fire Awards are presented by the Global Innovation Lab for Climate Finance which selects and supports initiatives that are already “on fire” and have potential to unlock finance for clean energy and green growth.

The Awards are targeted at emerging businesses and SunSHIFT was one of two winners confirmed overnight. Read more about why SunSHIFT was successful here.

SunSHIFT’s General Manager Dr Will Rayward-Smith, who represented SunSHIFT in New York, said he was extremely proud to accept the award on behalf of SunSHIFT and Laing O’Rourke.

“SunSHIFT was one of four finalists this year and the competition was fierce,” Dr Rayward-Smith said.

“For more than three years we have been working hard to deliver a cleaner and more cost effective alternative to diesel generators for off-grid users such as mines, construction sites and remote communities.”

SunSHIFT is the world’s first large-scale, fully redeployable, solar-diesel hybrid power system for off-grid areas. The innovative system was developed with funding support from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) and will enable the transition towards renewable energy supplies.

“There are diesel generators churning away right now, across the world, burning over 100 billion dollars of diesel and producing 300 million tonnes of CO2 every year that are suitable for solar hybridization,” Dr Rayward-Smith added.

“Conventional solar farms don’t match the requirements of the typical diesel power consumer. The solution is SunSHIFT.”

SunSHIFT recently received an additional $2.1 million grant from the Australian Government, through the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) that will allow SunSHIFT to complete a pre-commercial deployment of its modular and moveable 1 MW Block solar PV product.