The University of Queensland has installed Australia's largest and most powerful solar panel system at its St Lucia campus.
The $7.75 million project will save around 1750 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions each year - equivalent to taking 335 cars off the road.
Physicist Paul Meredith said the new solar field would cover a surface equal to one and a half rugby fields with state-of-the-art high efficiency panels.
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"The system will be part of a larger micro-grid strategy to use renewable energy across the university's other campuses over the next decade," he said.
Premier Anna Bligh, whose government invested $1.5 million in the project, said it would be a globally significant research facility to provide scientists with real life data on energy management and the impact of solar on the electricity network.
"Information from projects at a commercial scale is vital to improving the performance of solar energy and to encourage its uptake by both the private sector and the public," she said.
