UTS Signs 10-Year Deal With Flow Power To Source Solar And Wind Energy From NSW Farms, Cutting Emissions By 90% And Advancing Climate-Positive Goal By 2029

The University of Technology Sydney (UTS) has signed a new 10-year agreement with clean energy provider Flow Power to secure renewable electricity directly from solar and wind farms in New South Wales. This long-term arrangement is designed to closely align with the university’s electricity consumption and represents an important milestone in UTS’s commitment to achieving climate positivity by 2029.

According to Vice-Chancellor and President Professor Andrew Parfitt, UTS has a long history of leadership in clean energy and sustainability. He noted that UTS was the first university in Australia to enter into a power purchase agreement with a solar farm in 2015, and has since invested heavily in on-site solar systems. With the new agreement, UTS is taking another major step forward on its path to becoming the country’s first climate-positive university.

A key benefit of the deal is that it will significantly reduce the university’s carbon footprint. By sourcing renewable energy from Flow Power’s portfolio, UTS expects to cut its net carbon emissions by 90 percent. At the same time, the agreement will help reduce energy costs. The savings generated can be redirected toward the university’s core priorities, including education and research, which is especially important during a period of increasing financial pressure across the higher education sector.

UTS already sources part of its electricity from solar panels installed on buildings across the Broadway campus and at TechLab in Botany. Under the new arrangement, the remainder of its electricity supply will come through a retail power purchase agreement supported by renewable generation from two major projects: ACEN Australia’s New England Solar project in northern NSW and BJCE Australia’s Gullen Range Wind Farm southwest of Sydney. These projects were selected because their generation profile closely matches UTS’s annual electricity demand.

The agreement also includes the purchase of large-scale generation certificates, which will be retired annually. This ensures that every unit of renewable electricity claimed by UTS is backed by independently verified production from the specific solar and wind farms included in the partnership.In addition to sourcing renewable electricity, UTS is investing in new technologies to improve energy performance on campus.

This includes installing battery storage systems and implementing initiatives to reduce peak energy demand and increase efficiency across its facilities. Professor Parfitt emphasized that while the agreement represents a major achievement, it is only one part of the university’s broader sustainability strategy. UTS remains committed to reaching net-zero emissions by the end of this year and becoming climate positive within the next four years.