{"id":63496,"date":"2022-07-18T06:03:01","date_gmt":"2022-07-17T19:33:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/?p=63496"},"modified":"2022-07-18T06:03:01","modified_gmt":"2022-07-17T19:33:01","slug":"somerset-solar-panels-mb2556","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/somerset-solar-panels-mb2556\/","title":{"rendered":"Somerset Council To Power Up More Solar Panels"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-63497\" src=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/somerset-solar.jpg\" alt=\"Somerset Regional Council - solar energy\" width=\"1200\" height=\"630\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/somerset-solar.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/somerset-solar-300x158.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/somerset-solar-1024x538.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/somerset-solar-768x403.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Another Queensland Government grant will help Somerset Regional Council crank even more clean power from atop its buildings.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Located\u00a0 in the West Moreton area of South East Queensland, the Somerset Regional Council area has a population of around 25,000. Council is pretty keen on solar energy, with 17 installations on various buildings to date that it says will provide around\u00a0 $2.1 million in savings over the systems&#8217; service lives.<\/p>\n<p>And when you&#8217;re on a good thing &#8230;<\/p>\n<p>In March this year, Council submitted an application for a grant under Queensland&#8217;s 2022-24 Local Government Grants and Subsidies Program (LGGSP). <a href=\"https:\/\/www.statedevelopment.qld.gov.au\/local-government\/grants\/current-programs\/2022-24-local-government-grants-and-subsidies-program\">The LGGSP<\/a> supports councils in delivering priority infrastructure and essential services that meet the identified needs of their communities.<\/p>\n<p>The application was successful and will enable a total of 65.2kW of additional solar power capacity at the following facilities.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Lowood depot\/SES<\/li>\n<li>Esk landfill and animal shelter<\/li>\n<li>Toogoolawah pool and community gym<\/li>\n<li>Esk Visitor Information Centre<\/li>\n<li>Esk SES<\/li>\n<li>Fernvale Community Hall<\/li>\n<li>Kay Avery Place community centre in Kilcoy<\/li>\n<li>Toogoolawah library<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The value of the projects in total is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.somerset.qld.gov.au\/downloads\/file\/3198\/2022-07-20-ordinary-agenda\">put at $156,954<\/a>; with the Queensland Government kicking in $88,924 and the SES $6,560 for the Lowood SES depot 6kW installation. $157,000 seems pretty pricey for eleven small systems, but perhaps that figure is before the national &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/panels\/rebate\/\">solar rebate<\/a>&#8220;. Even with that taken into consideration it&#8217;s still quite a sum\u00a0 &#8211; there may be various installation complexities involved and\/or the systems could be comprised of top-end kit; adding to the cost.<\/p>\n<p>There wasn&#8217;t any mention of battery storage in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.somerset.qld.gov.au\/news\/article\/3056\/grant-secured-to-progress-somerset-solar-install\">Council&#8217;s announcement<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Under the terms of the LGGSP all projects need to be completed by 30 June 2024, but it looks like these systems will be installed by the end of this year.<\/p>\n<h2>Solar Energy Across The Somerset Community<\/h2>\n<p>Council says the new solar systems won&#8217;t just facilitate sustainable growth in its services to the community, but also promote the benefits of rooftop solar PV to local residents and business. Many in the community have already received that message loud and clear.<\/p>\n<p>When we <a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/somerset-council-solar-mb1232\/\">checked back in 2019<\/a>, approximately 47.2% of dwellings in the region had solar panels installed for a collective 20MW capacity, which was already very impressive. By the following year that had crept up to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/somerset-council-solar-mb1374\/\">a whisker over 48%<\/a>. By the end of March this year, it had jumped to 58% and approximately 36.5MW capacity. This is all small scale PV, i.e. solar systems less than 100kW.<\/p>\n<p>Based on Australian Photovoltaic Institute <a href=\"https:\/\/pv-map.apvi.org.au\/historical#9\/-27.0102\/152.5122\">(APVI) data<\/a>, Council says the Somerset local government area has the highest percentage of households with rooftop solar panels of any council area in Queensland, and the second-highest percentage in Australia.<\/p>\n<h2>Solar Power Lighting The Way In Toogoolawah<\/h2>\n<p>In other recent solar-related news from Council, last month the organisation announced completion of installation of 51 solar lights along the new shared concrete pathway through <a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/location\/toogoolawah-4313-qld\/\"> Toogoolawah<\/a>, which was partly funded under the 2019 Queensland Bushfires Local Economic Recovery Program.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cThe new path gives all-abilities, solar-lit access through town, facilitating tourism and providing marshalling area and evacuation opportunities in the event of fire or other emergencies,&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.somerset.qld.gov.au\/news\/article\/3039\/lights-shine-on-toogoolawah\">said<\/a> Deputy Mayor Helen Brieschke.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Another Queensland Government grant will help Somerset Regional Council crank even more clean power from atop its buildings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":63497,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[678],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-63496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-solar-battery-news","entry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.2 (Yoast SEO v27.2) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Somerset Council To Power Up More Solar Panels - SolarQuotes Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Another Queensland Government grant will help Somerset Regional Council crank even more clean power from atop its buildings.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/somerset-solar-panels-mb2556\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Somerset Council To Power Up More Solar Panels\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Another Queensland Government grant will help Somerset Regional Council crank even more clean power from atop its buildings.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/somerset-solar-panels-mb2556\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"SolarQuotes Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SolarQuotes\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-07-17T19:33:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/somerset-solar.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Michael Bloch\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@solar_quotes\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@solar_quotes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/somerset-solar-panels-mb2556\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/somerset-solar-panels-mb2556\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Michael Bloch\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/66afd571aa00c2e442f0192ebac2f6f1\"},\"headline\":\"Somerset Council To Power Up More Solar Panels\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-07-17T19:33:01+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/somerset-solar-panels-mb2556\/\"},\"wordCount\":519,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/somerset-solar-panels-mb2556\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/somerset-solar.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"General Solar &amp; 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It has a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General Solar &amp; Storage News&quot;","block_context":{"text":"General Solar &amp; Storage News","link":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/category\/solar-battery-news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Somerset Regional Council - solar panels","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/somerset-council-solar-2.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/somerset-council-solar-2.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/somerset-council-solar-2.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/somerset-council-solar-2.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/somerset-council-solar-2.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":33859,"url":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/somerset-council-solar-mb1232\/","url_meta":{"origin":63496,"position":1},"title":"Somerset Regional Council Cranking Up Solar Deployment","author":"Michael Bloch","date":"September 30, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Queensland's Somerset Regional Council is embracing solar power and will expand its capacity significantly in the near future. The Somerset Regional Council Local Government Area (LGA) is located in the West Moreton region of South East Queensland; around 100 kilometres northwest of Brisbane. Major population centres include Lowood, Esk and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General Solar &amp; Storage News&quot;","block_context":{"text":"General Solar &amp; Storage News","link":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/category\/solar-battery-news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Solar energy - Somerset Regional Council","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/solar-energy-somerset.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/solar-energy-somerset.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/solar-energy-somerset.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/solar-energy-somerset.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/solar-energy-somerset.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":28195,"url":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/sunshine-energy-solar-stoush-mb0950\/","url_meta":{"origin":63496,"position":2},"title":"Not All Sunshine For QLD 1,500MW Solar + 500MW Storage Project","author":"Michael Bloch","date":"February 25, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Image: Glen Butcher An \"early groundbreaking ceremony\" for a huge solar power and battery storage facility in Queensland was accompanied by very little fanfare - and probably for good reason. The Sunshine Energy project is to be constructed on a number of parcels of land located between Harlin and Kilcoy\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General Solar &amp; Storage News&quot;","block_context":{"text":"General Solar &amp; Storage News","link":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/category\/solar-battery-news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Sunshine Energy solar farm","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/sunshine-solar-energy.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/sunshine-solar-energy.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/sunshine-solar-energy.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/sunshine-solar-energy.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":25986,"url":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/sunshine-solar-storage-qld-mb0832\/","url_meta":{"origin":63496,"position":3},"title":"Green Light For 1.5GW Solar + 500MW Battery Storage Project In Queensland","author":"Michael Bloch","date":"November 21, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"A development application for a 1,500MW solar farm boasting 500MW of battery storage[1. MWh info not available at time of publishing] has been given the go-ahead by Queensland's Somerset Council. The project, which we first mentioned back in May, will be situated on a site of approximately 5000 acres located\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General Solar &amp; Storage News&quot;","block_context":{"text":"General Solar &amp; Storage News","link":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/category\/solar-battery-news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Sunshine Energy solar + battery project","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/solar-storage-sunshine.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/solar-storage-sunshine.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/solar-storage-sunshine.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/solar-storage-sunshine.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":21245,"url":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/harlin-queensland-solar-farm-mb0574\/","url_meta":{"origin":63496,"position":4},"title":"Application Lodged For 1,500 MW Solar Farm In Queensland","author":"Michael Bloch","date":"May 7, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Queensland's Somerset Regional Council has acknowledged it has received a development application for a 1,500 megawatt solar farm to be built east of Harlin. Harlin is a small town in south east Queensland, approximately 130 kilometres north west of Brisbane. Somerset Mayor Graeme Lehmann says the development application includes two\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General Solar &amp; Storage News&quot;","block_context":{"text":"General Solar &amp; Storage News","link":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/category\/solar-battery-news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"1,500 megawatt solar farm - Queensland","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/solar-farm-harlin.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/solar-farm-harlin.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/solar-farm-harlin.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/solar-farm-harlin.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":43261,"url":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/solar-project-diamantina-mb1687\/","url_meta":{"origin":63496,"position":5},"title":"Solar Project For Bedourie And Birdsville Progresses","author":"Michael Bloch","date":"September 17, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Queensland's Diamantina Shire Council is getting ready to spend its Building Our Regions cash on dozens of solar power systems. The Shire of Diamantina is a local government area (LGA) in Central West Queensland, bordering South Australia and the Northern Territory. Covering an area of 94,731 square kilometres, it is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General Solar &amp; Storage News&quot;","block_context":{"text":"General Solar &amp; Storage News","link":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/category\/solar-battery-news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Solar power in Birdsville and Bedourie","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/birdsville-bedourie-solar.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/birdsville-bedourie-solar.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/birdsville-bedourie-solar.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/birdsville-bedourie-solar.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/birdsville-bedourie-solar.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63496","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63496"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63496\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63499,"href":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63496\/revisions\/63499"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}