More Solar Panels For City Of South Perth

Four more City of South Perth council buildings have had solar panels installed, helping to further slash Council’s emissions and providing significant savings on energy costs.

Council says the four systems, collectively totalling a whisker over 127kW, are expected to save $47,000 annually and avoid 144 tonnes of carbon emissions each year.

“By reducing the City’s reliance on electricity from the grid, we are looking out for future generations,” said Mayor Greg Milner. “This project will deliver significant long term cost savings and limit the impact electricity price rises could have on us in years to come.”

The rollout is expected to achieve simple payback in  five years. The solar power system installations are located at:

• Manning Community Centre  – 30kW
• Civic Centre – 33.67kW
• Operations Centre – 30kW
• South Perth Library – 33.67kW

“Increasing our use of cost-effective renewable energy is just one of the ways the City is delivering sustainable and financially responsible services to our community,” said Mayor Milner.

The announcement made reference to previous PV installations, but I wasn’t able to find any detail on those systems. It also mentions Council is a member of the Climate Council’s Cities Power Partnership (CPP). While there is record of a decision to join back in 2019, a search of  Council’s and the CPP web site didn’t turn up anything indicating it has done so and made its pledges as part of that partnership.

Regardless, there may be more solar energy on the way for Council over the next couple of years as its Corporate Business Plan 2020-2024 indicates a “stage 2” solar project for this financial year and a “stage 3” for FY22/23.

Also in the works is a Greenhouse Gas Forecast and Carbon Reduction Roadmap Report that will set clear carbon reduction targets and see a plan in place to achieve them.

Solar Energy In South Perth

The South Perth local government area, population ~44,100, incorporates the suburbs of Como, Karawara, Manning, Salter Point, South Perth, Waterford and part of Kensington.

Solar panels in South Perth are a fairly common sight on homes and businesses, with more than 1,448 small-scale PV systems installed just in the 6151 postcode area as at the end of April this year. While solar capacity per capita isn’t as high as some Perth metropolitan local government areas, more than half of dwellings in the South Perth LGA are semi-detached, flats or apartments.

As is the case across Western Australia’s capital city, going solar in South Perth is a no-brainer in spite of the rather crappy feed-in tariff in WA these days. The reason is Perth has the cheapest solar in Australia.

For example, the SolarQuotes Australian Solar Price Index – WA indicates a 6.6kW system can be acquired for around $4,600 at the moment. Plugging that figure into SQ’s solar calculator with the other settings left at default estimates a simple payback time of approximately 4 years, 2 months.

Related: Solar installers in Perth.