2017 Fire Awards Winner
Champion
Dr. Will Rayward-Smith, General Manager, SunSHIFT

About
Many of today’s and tomorrow’s energy users are not in a position to provide long-term bankable commitments required by permanent power infrastructure. Historically, these users have ended up with the most temporary power solution, the containerized and moveable diesel generator, locking them into dirty and expensive power. Conventional solar farms have struggled to reach these energy users due to its permanent nature and requirement for long amortization periods to be competitive.

SunSHIFT is a company aiming to deliver megawatt-scale solar assets into markets currently locked out of solar by providing modular and moveable solar farms, as either stand-alone, on-grid systems, or integrated hybrid, off-grid power plants.

Barriers Addressed
• Stranded asset risk
• Customer creditworthiness
• Contract duration
• Logistics and construction cost and complexity

Approach
SunSHIFT is the world’s first pre-fabricated modular and moveable solar power plant for large-scale, on-grid and off-grid electricity generation. This approach aims to unlock capital into new markets and start diverting some of the >USD100bn annual diesel power bill towards solar assets while reducing the 300 million tonnes of CO2 currently produced by diesel every year. The initial focus is the hybridization of existing diesel infrastructure, used by emerging nation utilities, off-grid industry and remote communities. By 2020, SunSHIFT aims to have at least 100MW of SunSHIFT Systems held within at least 4 leasing pools and an identified pipeline to grow this to 500MW by 2030.

SunSHIFT is a subsidiary of Laing O’Rourke, an international engineering enterprise, and has been developed in collaboration with technology partners SunPower and ABB, with the support of the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA). For more information, watch a video about SunSHIFT here.

BNEF On-Stage Pitch