NSW’s Upper Lachlan Shire Council (ULSC) has jumped into solar power with the installation of a ground-mount system at the Crookwell water treatment plant.
Upper Lachlan Shire is a local government area in New South Wales’ Southern Tablelands region. Situated not far from Goulburn, the Shire covers an area of 7,102 km² and is home to just 8,500 people – so there’s plenty of elbow room.
As for any local government, electricity is a major expense for Council. As part of its commitment to cutting costs – and a sustainable future by reducing emissions – a 99.9 kW solar panel system has been installed at the plant. According to Council the clean power station will supply equivalent to around 80% of the energy needs for the facility and will act as a feasibility test for further installations in the future.
“This is a huge step forward for Council and will go a long way to reducing our emissions and energy consumption levels,” said Council’s Director of Environment and Planning, Alex Waldron. “It’s a great example of how small regional communities can still have an impact and do their bit to address climate change.”
ULSC And Renewables
This project appears to be the first significant solar installation for Council, but potential for more PV capacity has been identified. The Draft ULSC Energy Masterplan released in 2019 indicated 443 kW of solar PV + 430 kWh of battery storage potential. At the time the document was prepared, the simple payback period for these installations would have been just 6.2 years.
The report noted for solar PV, batteries and other measures including LED lighting upgrades:
“The financial return to Council from these measures is excellent and provides a strong case for investment.”
At the time the report was tabled, Council had no solar capacity. By implementing all the modelled solar PV opportunities in the masterplan, renewable energy would comprise 38% of Council’s total electricity requirements based on 2017/18 electricity consumption.
So, it seems there’s a pretty good motivation for the organisation to make greater use of solar energy and storage, and hopefully the Crookwell installation marks the start. It’s worth noting this project turned out to be twice the capacity recommended in the draft plan.
Upper Lachlan Shire And Solar Power
Elsewhere in the Upper Lachlan Shire local government area, PV is already widely embraced by households and businesses. In the major population centre of Crookwell, solar panels are a common sight. More than 777 small-scale systems had been installed in the Crookwell postcode area (2583) to the end of September, with a collective capacity of 4,308 kW.
Given a population of 4,203, this works out to 1,025 watts per person – pretty good going!
In Crookwell, a 6.6kW PV system can be expected to generate around 10,200 kilowatt-hours of electricity annually, and 10kW of solar ~15,548 kWh. To discover the simple payback period on systems of these sizes (or others), try the SolarQuotes solar calculator – it’s really easy to use.
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