The City of Darwin’s Shoal Bay Waste Management Facility has recently installed 260 solar panels on the roof of the Recycling and Resource Recovery Centre, allowing the facility to run completely on solar power.
The new solar system will provide a saving of around $34,000 per year – more than 50 per cent of the site’s energy bill – and will reduce its carbon footprint by almost 97 tonnes per year – the equivalent to planting 156 trees.
Lord Mayor Kon Vatskalis said, “The installation of solar at our Shoal Bay Waste Management Facility is a fantastic initiative and will assist Council to meet its commitment to zero net emissions from Council Operations by 2030.
“It will also reduce our operating costs significantly and help us to achieve the NTG target of 50 per cent renewable energy by 2030.
“Climate change is the greatest challenge of our time and I declared a climate emergency in May 2019.
“Our first ever Climate Emergency Strategy is currently in development and Council will embrace emerging opportunities associated with a zero-net transition that can achieve economic prosperity and improve quality of life to help reduce the impacts of climate change across Darwin.”
The 99KW system is made up of 260 solar panels each producing up to 390W.
