Australia to provide solar power savings to those without rooftop solar
Author: Devdiscourse News Desk Date Posted:18 May 2018
Trials of solar gardens will help renters, low-income households and those living in apartments to save on their energy bills.
The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) is providing funding for trials of ‘solar gardens’, which could allow up to a third of Australians who are unable to install their own solar panels save money with solar power.
Solar gardens are essentially small-scale solar farms where people can buy or rent solar panels, with the electricity generated credited to their power bills.
The trials will be carried out in Blacktown, Shoalhaven, Byron Bay in New South Wales (NSW), Townsville in Queensland, and Swan Hill in Victoria, with around USD 550,000 provided in funding from ARENA and other participants.
The New South Wales government is also one of the major contributors, providing around USD 155,000 in funds for the trials.
“We are trialing solar gardens with the aim of helping renters, low-income households and those living in apartments save on their energy bills,” says Dr. Liz Develin the NSW Department of Planning and Environment’s deputy secretary of energy, water, and portfolio strategy.
Blacktown is the fourth largest ‘solar postcode’ in Sydney, with more than 3000 installations across its postcode area. While the size of the gardens to be built is not yet known, they are generally just under 100 kilowatts.
This will allow investors to keep the small-scale renewable energy generation certificates for resale to non-renewable energy generators such as coal- or gas-fired power stations, which need to have a certain proportion of 'renewable energy', providing a further investment discount.
The project is being led by the University of Technology Sydney’s Institute for Sustainable Futures and the Community Power Agency.
