Horsham Rural City Council Harvesting The Sun

Horsham Town Hall is now reaping the benefits of solar energy, with more solar panel installations for Horsham Rural City Council assets on the way.

Horsham, around 300 kilometres from Melbourne, is a regional city in the Wimmera region of western Victoria and is home to a population of around 16,500.

A 70kW solar system was installed on the Town Hall last month, which will soon be followed by a 28kW installation along with LED lighting retrofit for Mibus Centre Library, and a 100kW PV array at Horsham Aquatic Centre.

The Aquatic Centre project will be among the biggest rooftop systems in the local government area. According to the Australian Photovoltaic Institute (APVI), there were an estimated 1,971 PV installations in the Horsham LGA as at 30 September last year, with none over 100kW capacity at that time. 1,895 systems were under 10kW (approximately 21% of homes in Horsham have solar panels installed) and 76 installations are noted as being in the 10kW – 100kW capacity range..

Other community buildings that are to benefit from either LED lighting upgrades or solar power installations in the Horsham Rural City Council LGA in the near future are Dadswells Bridge, Mitre and Taylors Lake community halls.

“Council is pleased that we can look to offset the power costs of three significant community assets, as well as support three community halls to run their operations more cost effectively,” said Horsham Rural City Infrastructure Director John Martin. “Local contractors are being used to carry out the installation and the public will be informed of additional installations as they occur.”

The rollout is occurring in partnership with Sustainability Victoria under its Local Government Energy Saver Program.

About The  Energy Saver Program

Sustainability Victoria’s Energy Saver Program  has been helping councils in reducing costs and greenhouse gas emissions through energy efficiency upgrades. It commenced in 2017 and will be completed in June this year.

The program is assisting or has assisted 22 resource-constrained regional councils across the state, chosen based on their comparatively small populations, highest municipal expenses per capita and indicators relating to social and economic disadvantage. In terms of funding the projects, cash co-contributions have been required from councils where retrofit works are implemented.

As well as solar and LED installations and retrofits, the program provides other energy efficiency related upgrades including those related to heating, cooling, ventilation, hot water and building management systems, and has supported upgrades for  172 community buildings to date.