SOLAR power is on the agenda for communities in the New England region.
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Farming the Sun began in 2008 and was Australia’s largest community solar power bulk-buy and it has now been made available to the community in Armidale.
Project director Adam Blakester said it’s important for local business to get behind solar power and sustainability.
"It’s possible for someone to reduce their electricity bill to almost nothing if they’re using battery storage, if they’re just producing their daytime power then they could reduce their bill by half to two-thirds,” he said.
Mr Blakester said the bulk-buy should see businesses save more than 20 to 30 per cent on solar.
“I expected around 10 to 15 per cent discount but to get 20 to 30 per cent off is just amazing, and it’s very high quality gear,” he said.
“That’s one of the key elements for doing this as a community project is that we have a number of partner organisations that help us do this cost-effectively and we only use the best quality equipment.”
To realise the savings a shipping container of solar panels will need to be purchased at around 200kW in total.
Mr Blakester said the goal is to install solar for an additional 1 per cent of residentces throughout the region, similar to the first bulk-buy in 2008.
“Business uptake will be in addition to this target,” he said.
The program has been re-launched in New England before the government begins to phase out the solar power credit program in early January 2017.
Mr Blakester believes the program is being phased out because solar energy has become far more affordable.
“Solar power has become so much more affordable in the last ten years, today it’s come down 99.5 per cent in price in 30 years, so in terms of small scale solar, federal government is of the view that it doesn’t need to be subsidised financially anymore,” he said.
The bulk-buy offer is available to people in the Tamworth, Liverpool Plains, Gunnedah, Armidale, Uralla and Walcha regions.