Canterbury Bankstown Council eyes solar power on all its buildings
Thousands of solar panels on council-owned buildings and facilities could be the new look for Canterbury Bankstown, potentially saving rate payers thousands of dollars each year.
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The rooftops of all buildings owned by Canterbury Bankstown Council could be covered with solar panels in the future to maximise the renewable energy possible in this massive LGA.
Canterbury Bankstown is the largest LGAs population wise in NSW with more than 350,000 residents and according to councillor Bilal El-Hayek, the rate payers will benefit too from the solar plans.
Cr El-Hayek’s motion to “maximise all opportunities to increase its ability to capture, store
and use solar energy, using its facilities,” was unanimously approved at council’s recent meeting.
Canterbury Bankstown, which prides itself on being a smart city, already having large solar photovoltaic (PV) panels on 13 buildings.
The idea builds on the plans envisaged by Mayor Khal Asfour last year when he said they have plans for a solar farm in the city while adding more solar panels on their buildings.
“It will be fantastic if we can get this going because it will mean a lot of savings for the rate payers while helping the environment,” El-Hayel told The Express.
“Any facility owned by the council, including libraries, community centres and halls, could have solar panels and batteries installed.
“This will power these facilities and reduce overall energy costs for the council.
“Belmore Sports Ground could be a good space to install them and maybe we could sell the extra power generated from here.
“We have no costing yet but we plan to start the feasibility studies soon.”
Cr El-Hayek said there will be more than 100 buildings the council can install the solar panels, from toilet blocks and clubhouses right up to larger rooftops like depots and sports centres.
“From small to large there is opportunity and the feasibility of solar is getting better all the time so when we look again after a year or so what was not feasible last year might be good value for money this year,” he said.
The council’s general manager Matthew Stewart in his reply to Cr Bilal’s motion, said they had established a Revolving Energy Fund in 2018 to support energy efficiency retrofits and solar PV installations.
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“This fund, along with previous investments, has seen solar PV (photovoltaic) installed on 13 large, council-owned rooftops with installed generation capacity of 273kW,” he said.
“By the end of this calendar year, it is anticipated this will grow to 22 rooftop installations and 462kW installed generation capacity.”
Last October, the council signed a Program for Energy and Environmental Risk Solutions contract, which guarantees around 20 per cent of the city’s annual electricity load will be renewable energy.
The contract with Origin Energy is expected to save the council more than $90,000 in the first three years.
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