Special Feature
Ensuring that energy surplus O
Colormaker Commissions New ReVolve Battery and wins three Sustainability Awards. P&P reports…
n Wednesday, 11th October, Sydney’s Northern Beaches sustainable paint and ink
manufacturer Colormaker Industries, took another step forward in commissioning their new 144 kWh ReVolve battery.
Two years in the making, this was a major milestone on Colormaker’s pathway to Net Zero. This battery is groundbreaking technology, made from nine second-life Nissan Leaf EV batteries. The following Thursday and Friday mornings, Colormaker’s morning paint production was completed entirely with electricity produced the day before by their solar array and stored in the ReVolve overnight.
The above followed just two weeks after Colormaker passed the milestone of saving 600 tonnes of greenhouse gases through the electricity produced from its 100-kW solar array, installed four years earlier. Since then, despite first the Black Summer bushfires and three successive years of La Niña rainfall, Colormaker’s solar array has pumped out clean electricity every day.
The array was designed to produce twice as much electricity as the business used, but once they became a solar electricity generator, Colormaker also became a lot more conscious of their own use. A new compressor was the biggest factor in getting overall electricity usage down by 23% across the entire site, making them much more energy efficient. “Having such a huge energy surplus has been a great enabler for Colormaker” said MD, David Stuart. “We produce 2.2 times as much electricity as we use, but until recently, we’ve only been 65% self- sufficient. Since our small battery was installed, for every kWh that we’ve taken from the grid, we’ve put 5 kWh back in. The battery and solar has also enabled us to reduce Demand, a measure of strain on the grid, by 85%.” said Stuart. “The ReVolve battery will assist us in eliminating buying any power during the evening peak, thus taking more strain off the grid, whilst also improving our self-sufficiency. The first battery moved us in that direction, so we’re very
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David Stuart concluded “We’re still struggling to comprehend the enormity of what we’ve achieved. Just imagine what could happen if this technology was deployed not at one small business, but across thousands of businesses and communities across our wide brown land and indeed our South pacific neighbours.
This is the future that we want, that we deserve and, given our abundant sunshine, that we have an obligation to demonstrate to the rest of the world.”
Winner of Three Sustainability Awards
confident of big things from the new ReVolve,” Stuart said.
The solar installation proved to be a jumping off point for Colormaker. They also have three EVs for deliveries and staff commutes, an electric forklift (no LPG on site), an energy efficient air compressor, a smaller battery, a mega shredder to give cardboard a 2nd life as packing material, a new reverse cycle air conditioner in their carbon abatement assets.
The ReVolve storage units are “end of life” batteries from Nissan LEAFs….so this new Australian designed and built technology is a fantastic story on at least 2 fronts.
Once finally approved, the ReVolve (144 kWh battery) on Colormaker’s Brookvale site will be the first in the world to be fully certified, commissioned and operating commercially, in this case, as a solar sponge.
The last four months has been big for Colormaker. The boutique paint manufacturer was awarded the Solar Champion award by the Solar Alliance Brookvale in April. They won the Northern Beaches Sustainability Award in July, then in October were announced as the Winner, Excellence in Sustainability for Sydney Metro region by Business NSW. Colormaker Industries was also announced as a Finalist for the NSW State Award for Excellence in Sustainability.
Net Zero by 2025
While the paint and ink manufacturer’s objective is to achieve net zero by 2025, until their new EV arrives, Colormaker is powering on with business, putting a little bit of Northern Beaches sunshine into every drop they make and making the world a better place through colour.
December 2023 | 63 |
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