By Giles Parkinson of reneweconomy.com.au
Lismore has called for tenders for a “floating solar plant” that will be community owned, and located on top of one of the settling ponds in its sewage treatment plant.
The tender for the 99.9kW project went out on Wednesday. The plant will not be the first floating solar plant in Australia – that honours is held by a project in Jamestown, but it could be the biggest, and certainly the first community owned solar plant.
The Jamestown project (pictured above), while touted as a 4MW project, has only been built out to 30kW in its first stage, so if the Lismore project gets to 99kW before the Jamestown project is expanded, then it will be the biggest, at least for a while.
The Lismore project is part of a unique between the council and the community, where two 100kW projects are funded by the community, with the money lent to the council to build the project, and then repaid with interest at a commercial return to the investors.
Lismore is also pursuing a 100 per cent renewable energy target by 2023, and has launched a range of initiatives, including ownership of electric cars.
The tender for the floating solar project was launched at the same time as tenders for a 99.9kW solar project on theGoonellabah Sports & Aquatic Centre, and a total of 70kW of rooftop solar on the Lismore community Centre, the Lismore library, the Oakes Oval pavilion, and a council depot.
The highlight though is the call for “an innovative floating concept on the settling ponds at the East Lismore Sewage Treatment Plant.”
Floating solar has become popular in many countries. The world’s biggest floating solar array was recently installed in London, on a reservoir. Floating solar arrays are also being used on dams in China and India, in bays in Japan, and in Korea, the US, and Brazil.
Infratech, which built the Jamestown plant, has also sold its technology to US customers, and is building a 1MW floating solar project in the city of Holtville in California, also on a waste water treatment plant.
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