ACCIONA has partnered with Deakin University to bring together both industry and education to build an electric vehicle powered by the sun that will be used to compete in the World Solar Challenge. The project will bring Deakin's best and brightest students and academics together with ACCIONA's personnel and resources to design and build a solar vehicle capable of competing at the highest levels. The project involves students and staff from across the University. Currently there are more than 350 students from four different schools within Deakin, across three campuses, involved in the vehicle project. This includes investigating all facets from design to weather patterns, logistics, marketing, user experiences and the future of mobility. The World Solar Challenge race invites teams from around the world to Australia, to compete in 3,000km race from Darwin to Adelaide. The race requires students to build a vehicle that can endure the journey only using power from the energy of the sun. Together, both companies are committed to building a competitive challenger that will push the limits of creativity and technological innovation.

ACCIONA has engaged Deakin University to develop drone technology that will be used for wind turbine inspections and maintenance. Without drones, wind turbine inspections can be either dangerous for engineers or involve ground observations that do not capture high quality imaging for efficient inspections. However, current drone technologies require turbines to be switched off during inspections which limits potential energy production. Deakin University is working with ACCIONA through the educational partnership to design, implement and test an automated low-cost drone prototype platform that can be used to inspect turbines in low winds, without turning the turbine off. The development of this drone technology would benefit the renewable energy industry, improving wind farm operations and ensuring the safety of highly skilled engineers.

Deakin University has worked to develop a Virtual Reality tool for ACCIONA that will help members of the public experience new wind farms before they are built. The tool, developed by researchers in the CADET Virtual Reality Lab at Deakin’s School of Engineering, allows people to visualise and interact with different wind turbine configurations and layouts and to listen to any sounds they make. It will help members of the community visualise how wind farms interact with the surrounding landscape. The researchers at Deakin University produced a VR experience for our Mortlake South Wind Farm, which was one of six successful projects announced in September 2018 as part of the Victorian Government’s Renewable Energy Target (VRET) reverse auction. The 35-turbine wind farm will generate enough clean energy to power 115,000 homes a year and is scheduled to commence operation in the middle of 2022. The VR programming will be used in future projects to allow communities to become familiar with the renewable energy projects before they are built. The VR solution provides ACCIONA with a tool to take to schools, community meetings and events and show people first-hand how the project will look and feel.

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