Sutherland Court Serving Up Solar Powered Justice

Sydney’s Sutherland Courthouse is cranking and storing clean electricity to help power its operations. It’s among a bunch of courthouses in NSW now doing so and there should be more to come.

80’s built Sutherland Courthouse, located on the corner of Flora and Belmont Street, is a pretty busy place. 13,700 local court matters were finalised at Sutherland Local Court last year, making it the third busiest in the metro area. But that fun fact probably won’t appear on any local tourism brochures.

But as part of a recently completed $1.7 million transformation of the facility, court proceedings will be significantly greener – thanks largely to a 100kW solar power installation and a battery system (capacity not known).

“The installation of the 100 kilowatt rooftop solar system will help reduce the building’s energy consumption by up to 40% which means less impact on the environment,’ said NSW Attorney General Mark Speakman. “The new energy storage system will store solar energy from the panels, which can be used when the sun isn’t shining, further reducing the building’s carbon footprint.

A 100kW system installed in Sutherland can be expected to generate approximately 149,000 kilowatt-hours of clean electricity a year. Member for Heathcote Lee Evans said the system will provide savings of up to $170,000 on energy costs over the next five years.

NSW Courthouse Solar Panel Rollout

In December last year, the NSW State Government announced thousands of solar panels were to be installed on courthouses across the state.  Stage 1 of the initiative funded PV installations on 23 courthouses in metropolitan and regional areas; with projects intended to be completed by the end of June this year. These systems were forecast to collectively generate an estimated 2,311 MWh of electricity annually.

As part of the program buildings were to also have energy- saving LED lighting installed, motion sensors in non-court areas and in some cases battery storage and/or EV chargers. There was to be another round of solar rollouts this financial year; but there’s been no further news I could find on that. The Sutherland installation was part of Stage 1.

Solar Energy In Sutherland

The courthouse system joins a bunch of other solar panels installed across Sutherland and within the suburb’s postcode area. Among them, more than 2,100 small-scale (<100kW) systems with a collective capacity of 11,852 kW had been installed in the 2232 postcode on the rooftops of homes, businesses and community buildings as at October 31, 2022.

This works out to 352 watts of small-scale solar per person, which is well below the Australian average. But some of this comparatively low uptake can be attributed to 36.2% of the local population living in flats or apartments (source: Census 2021), compared to 21.7% across New South Wales and 14.2% across Australia.

For Sutherland residents who can take advantage of their rooftop, solar power is a great way to save on electricity bills. A 6.6kW system installed in Sutherland can achieve simple payback in around 5.25 years according to the SolarQuotes solar calculator and based on its default settings.