New solar panels at Cowra Council’s Materials Recycling Facility (MRF) is a way of re-using sunshine at a facility that already has a 90 percent recycling rate, Waste Operations Supervisor, Craig Lynch said.
The 80-panel, 20 kilowatt system will reduce energy costs at the MRF by thousands of dollars each year and pay for itself in about three years.
“We should cut our bills by about two-thirds,” Lynch said.
“We currently pay about $15,000 a year, we hope to cut that to about $5000 per annum.”
While the system has only just been installed, Lynch said the big savings will come in Cowra’s hot, radiant summers:
“On a good day, we should get about 120–140 kilowatt hours; and we only use about 90 kilowatt hours here a day.
“Any excess power we produce goes back into the grid.
“In the summertime, it should be providing most of our power, in the wintertime, about half.
“I can look at the computer anytime and see how much we are using.”
During this financial year, Council will also be investigating the installation of solar panels at Council’s Customer Service Centre, the Civic Centre, the Regional Art Gallery, and the Cowra Library, General Manager, Paul Devery said.
“Council has a long-term plan to reduce our energy costs and the use of scarce resources; projects like this help the environment as well as our bottom line.”
Lynch added that the MRF is already making world-class savings in recycling waste and reducing landfill, catching the attention of other councils in the region.
“We’ve reduced waste to land-fill by 30 per cent over the past five years, we’re licensed for 10,000 tonnes per annum; we’re putting-down just under 5000 tonnes which is substantially increasing the life of the site.
“We’ve even got other councils coming over to see how we operate.”
