Sydney’s Inner West Council Racking Up More Solar Installations

Inner West Council is in the midst of having its 36th solar power system installed; another step towards Council’s 100% renewable energy goal.

The latest installation is a 250kW system atop the pool hall at the new Ashfield Aquatic Centre. It follows the recent installation of a 22kW solar array at Fanny Durack Aquatic Centre in Petersham.

Solar panels have been appearing on aquatic centres all over the country. Another very recent example we mentioned earlier today is the installation of 180kW of PV capacity at Moree Artesian Aquatic Centre in New South Wales.

It looks like Inner West Council scored a pretty good deal on the Ashfield system, mentioning an investment of approximately $300,000. The cost of commercial solar in Australia has dropped to the point that if a business (or council) can afford to pay its electricity bills, it can afford to go solar.

Inner West Council says the Ashfield installation will roughly double Council’s solar power generation capacity. Not quite – this page mentions 370kW of capacity currently installed. To this point systems have been in the range of 1kW to 35.5kW, so the Ashfield Aquatic Centre project will certainly be the largest though and by a huge margin.

More PV In The Pipeline

Council isn’t stopping here, with more solar installations to come. Its recently adopted budget notes $1.3 million earmarked for retrofitting more Council buildings with solar panels and energy efficient lighting.

“We want the Inner West to punch above our weight in the national environmental debate,” said Inner West Mayor Darcy Byrne.

It has already landed a significant blow in the fossil fuel fight. In June last year Inner West Council announced it was the first council in New South Wales to be totally divested from fossil fuels, considering the move not only a “moral act but also a financially prudent one”.

Council has a goal of sourcing 100% of its own electricity consumption from renewables and achieving carbon neutrality by 2025. Contributing to these goals is an agreement to buy energy from Moree Solar Farm in northern NSW. The supply began on 1 July 2019 and covers 4 million kilowatt-hours a year – around half of Council’s annual daytime electricity use.

Inner West Council is also looking to lift the profile of PV across its entire community. In February this year, it set its sights on boosting solar energy generation from residential, commercial, industrial and community buildings by 1,000%. Solar uptake on private properties in the local government area has been lacklustre due to the region’s high proportion of renters, strata units and low daytime household electricity consumption.