Australia’s first 100% sustainable school

<h2>Atlantis Beach Baptist College is a creative and innovative coeducational private Baptist College which celebrated its first day with students on February 1&comma; 2017&period;<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p><iframe style&equals;"border&colon; none&semi; overflow&colon; hidden&semi;" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;facebook&period;com&sol;plugins&sol;video&period;php&quest;href&equals;https&percnt;3A&percnt;2F&percnt;2Fwww&period;facebook&period;com&percnt;2FUpstreamEnergy&percnt;2Fvideos&percnt;2F1965006020466672&percnt;2F&amp&semi;show&lowbar;text&equals;0&amp&semi;width&equals;560" width&equals;"560" height&equals;"315" frameborder&equals;"0" scrolling&equals;"no" allowfullscreen&equals;"allowfullscreen"><&sol;iframe><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Newly constructed and situated an hour north of Perth&comma; the college is rapidly expanding to meet the needs of the growing community in Two Rocks&comma; Yanchep and surrounds&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Faced with unfeasible grid connection costs&comma; ABBC had been operating solely on diesel generators since the start of 2017&period; Upstream was engaged to provide a nil capital solution for ABBC&comma; one that would cease their reliance on diesel generators forever&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote>&NewLine;<p>Principal Brendon Donaldson said that &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;designing a system is key so having good experienced people is critical”&period; He noted that they were able to carry out the installation over the school holidays so the process felt &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;seamless”&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p>Upstream’s design includes&colon;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3>20kWp rooftop PV solar to generate the required power<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<ul>&NewLine;<li>30kWh battery storage to store and deliver the power 24 hours a day&comma; seven days a week<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>self-sufficient carpark lighting to separate the lighting loads from the campus<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>solar heat pumps to replace diesel based hot water systems&period;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<&sol;ul>&NewLine;<p>Upstream provided all capital funds for the project to allow ABBC to best manage their internal costs&period; ABBC purchases the solar power from Upstream each month just like a normal electricity retailer&period; The system will grow in-line with the campus&semi; as more students enrol and more buildings are constructed&comma; so too will the solar generation and storage capacity expand to meet their requirements&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;"aligncenter size-full wp-image-12960" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;school-news&period;com&period;au&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2019&sol;03&sol;PROP-Solar-Upstream-Energy-2&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"680" height&equals;"510" &sol;><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Brendon added that he has been able to integrate solar into student projects&colon; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;We have a very environmentally strong curriculum and with the solar&comma; our students can monitor our system with apps&comma; plan targets&comma; etc&period;&comma; they can watch it in real-time as we have set up our facility for students to see the batteries and system working&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Upgrades are implemented for ABBC at nil capital cost&period; Upstream’s solution for ABBC is cash flow neutral – meaning they were able to switch to 100 percent sustainability with no change in their energy costs&period; Atlantis Beach Baptist College is the first school in Australia to become 100 percent carbon free&comma; self-sufficient and disconnected from the grid&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;"aligncenter size-full wp-image-12962" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;school-news&period;com&period;au&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2019&sol;03&sol;PROP-Solar-Upstream-Energy-9&period;png" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"680" height&equals;"358" &sol;><&sol;p>&NewLine;

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Rosie Clarke

Rosie is the managing editor here at Multimedia Pty Ltd, working across School News New Zealand and School News Australia. She has spent 10+ years in B2B journalism, and has spent some time over the last couple of years teaching as a sessional academic. Feel free to contact her at any time with editorial or magazine content enquiries.

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