Busselton is a city in Western Australia, about 230 kilometres south of Perth, with a population of nearly 40,000. The Busselton City Council is also one of the many local governments in Australia pushing for more solar energy production in its area.
In its latest series of rooftop photovoltaic (PV) array installations, the city council is looking at a return on investment in two to three years. Four council buildings are at the forefront of this project, namely:
- Busselton Library
- Busselton Depot
- Geographe Leisure Centre
- Naturaliste Community Centre
Boosting Energy Production
The solar installations on these facilities will generate a total of 208 kilowatts (kW) of energy. These go hand-in-hand with the 100kW PV system installed last year on the Busselton City Council main administration building.
Through these solar panel installations, the Council states that Busselton can produce nearly 400,000 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of energy per year, translating to about 11% of the city’s demand for electricity.
In the future, the Council also plans to expand these PV arrays to generate more power from solar energy.
The Council is also considering the installation of batteries for energy storage in the future. When it becomes a financially sound option, battery storage will allow solar-powered buildings to operate off-grid for longer hours – especially at night and during cloudy days.
Going Fully Renewable
The Busselton City Council aims for renewable energy sources to power 100% of the city’s electricity demand by 2030. A considerable part of this strategy is constructing a ‘mid-scale’ array of PV panels at Lot 27 Rendezvous Road.
The Council is looking into waste-to-energy solutions and utilising more energy-efficient street lamps. They also expressed support for the Cities Power Partnership in September of last year. This, along with other measures, is part of the initiatives the Council has joined to reduce Busselton’s carbon footprint and energy use.
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