The Altona Civic Centre, Newport Hub and the Laverton building that houses social enterprise Mesh Mash are the latest Council-owned community facilities to host their new 'solar system', joining over 40 local buildings to be fitted out with solar panels as part of Council's large scale virtual power plant and solar panel roll out.
The rooftop panels will generate renewable energy required onsite, and surplus clean, green power will be moved from one building to another within the network, reducing Council's reliance on grid-supplied energy.
Partnering with Council on the project is Australian firm Enervest, who specialises in the design, delivery and operation of solar-energy generation and storage assets. Also partnering is Circle Energy who provide the technology to help move solar energy between buildings.
Once installation at all sites is complete in the coming months, Council will have the capacity to generate almost four megawatts of solar power across the network, which is enough energy required to power approximately 1,000 average Victorian households.
The system will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by almost 4,000 tonnes per year, which is up to 55 per cent of Council's total carbon emissions, the equivalent of taking almost 600 homes off the grid.
At the Altona Civic Centre, one of the network's high yield sites, the 402 kW system will supply about 80% of the building's energy needs, preventing the release of an estimated 642 tonnes of carbon dioxide into our environment annually. The 513,555 kW of estimated energy generated annually on site is enough energy to supply over 110 average Victorian households. Over 2,000 m2 of panel coverage is in place at the centre, which is over the size of four and a half standard basketball courts.
Council has future proofed the project by equipping it with capacity for batteries to make it a true virtual power plant. There will be a number of possible opportunities to use this battery stored energy, such as powering Council's electric vehicle fleet in the future.
Council's infrastructure investment in the project is expected to be repaid from energy savings within nine years.
