We have told German multi-national Siemens we are not prepared to use its electronic equipment in their project because of its support for the Adani coal mine.
Even though Siemens have the right equipment for our particular application, we can’t see any point in trying to reduce the Goulburn community’s carbon footprint while using equipment from a company which is helping Adani cancel out all our efforts.
We needed an inverter for the Goulburn project that was able to combine solar and battery within a very specific output mandated by Essential Energy, and the Siemens inverter was the only one that fitted the specs. So we have been forced to redesign the project because we are simply not prepared to support a company that is deeply involved with the Adani mine.
Siemens have contracted to supply signalling equipment for the rail line being built from the Adani mine to the Adani owned port facilities in Queensland. CEO Joe Kaeser said that in signing the agreement with Adani in December 2019, at least part of the justification was that if Siemens didn’t supply the equipment some other company would have done so.
But there’s always a silver lining and it looks like we will be able to redesign the project with an all-in-one battery / inverter solution. It might mean reducing the amount of solar panels by a small amount but increase the size of the battery, allowing us to sell more power in the afternoons when there is a premium on energy prices.
Be that as it may, we think Siemens needs to get on side with communities instead of large polluting companies like Adani and use their considerable clout to help us all transition to a clean energy economy.
We’ve had lots of positive coverage and commentary since issuing this story in early September.
You can read the full story HERE.