The opening of the Banora Point solar array today by Tweed Shire Council (TSC) has seen Tweed Shire take out the top spot for solar energy uptake on the NSW North Coast.
‘Tweed homeowners, businesses and Council, it’s time to celebrate. We are the top adopters of solar energy on the North Coast of NSW,’ said Mayor of Tweed Shire Cr Chris Cherry.
‘Nearly 53 percent of Tweed houses now have solar panels. There have been nearly 2,500 commercial solar installations in our shire to date.
‘It’s estimated the roofs of more than 20,000 Tweed homes plus businesses and Council facilities have a combined solar energy capacity of 125 megawatts.
‘That’s the highest capacity of any local government area from Port Macquarie north to the Queensland border.’
Switched on
The Banora Point solar array covers the size of a football field with 1,208 high-efficiency solar panels with a capacity of 604 kilowatts that are now powering one of Council’s most power-hungry facilities, the Banora Point Wastewater Treatment Plant.
The solar array powers the Tweed’s largest wastewater plant, which processes the sewage of 55,000 people from Banora Point, Bilambil Heights, Terranora, Tweed Heads, Tweed Heads South and Tweed Heads West.
Tweed Shire Council’s water and wastewater facilities are some of its most power-consuming assets. Turning on the Banora Point solar array has increased Council’s renewable energy capacity by about 40 per cent, with more than 20 Council facilities now host to 1.6 megawatts of solar energy. Historically, the facilities have used about $3.4 million of grid-based electricity a year, which is about two-thirds of Council’s entire power bill. The cost of installing the solar array at the Banora Point plant was $1,050,000, which will pay for itself in energy savings in about eight years.
It’s the second major energy efficiency project for the plant this year. In June, Council replaced the plant’s aging blowers and Return Activated Sludge pumps with new high efficiency units.
Councillor Cherry said those assets were some of the biggest power consumers at the plant and their replacement had reduced their power consumption by up to seven per cent.
‘Together, these energy efficiency projects are set to cut Council’s greenhouse gas emissions by 747 tonnes a year, saving us at least $140,000 on electricity costs annually,’ Cr Cherry said.
‘This is great news for our environment and goes a long way towards achieving Council’s Renewable Energy Action Plan goal of cutting greenhouse gas emissions from our electricity use by 50 per cent by 2025.
‘Projects like these not only reduce our carbon emissions, but ultimately benefit ratepayers by saving money on power bills.’
Go to tweed.nsw.gov.au/SustainableOperations to find out more about Council’s Renewable Energy Action Plan.
Despoiling the environment to save the climate . . .
Exactly, imagine all that land planted with beautiful trees. Instead to go faux green, we are getting everything made in China, mining all the resources needed to make all this green tech. One things for sure it isn’t sustainable or green.
How is this despoiling the environment? That makes no sense
This is on already long-cleared land, with the power generated being used at the source to operate power intensive sewerage treatment.
Tweed Council has just announced they are constructing a Solar Panel Electricity Plant the size of a football field, of 1200 Solar Panels, on their sewerage plant site, at the cost of $M1 (they are also presently constructing a composting facility for their green waste, opening next year).
I.E. The $M1.5 Byron Council has already spent on the proposed Byron Greenhouse Gas Polluting Bioenergy Plant, could have constructed a Solar Panel Plant the size of 1 & 1/2 football fields, with 1800 solar panels, and that solar Plant could have been up and running in the time Council has been progressing the Bioenergy Plant proposal.
And Council now has access to the hard evidence from Tweed Council (that is part of the Regional Councils Forum on waste management), that the $M25 Council is proposing to spend on the Bioenergy Plant would construct a Solar Panel Electricity Plant the size of 25 football fields with 30,000 Solar panels.
And with no Greenhouse Pollution, no thousands of truck movements, lower staff and management costs, free solar input, no fire belching chimney in breach of twice the LEP height, no environmental degradation of our present Award Winning Integrated water management sewerage plant and the important bird life it supports, no particulate pollution spreading over a suburban area, and providing one of the cheapest electricity supplies to sell to the network.
And not to mention that almost 100% of community Submissions, and all Speakers to the Planning Panel, bar one, Opposed the Bioenergy Plant
Yes spot on. Tweed Council has demonstrated the folly & foolishness of Byron Council’s determinedly myopic mission
Sounds great, but no mention of how long it will last. If the panels only last say 12 years, the story is not so good.
Also what happens to the defunct panels. The story would be lots better with more details/truth about the long term sustainability of the project.
To be fully informed we should also know about the origins of the panels and their components. Hopefully slave labout wasn’t used in mining and construction.
Congratulations.