Thursday 10 September 2009

Solar power boost for hardware warehouse

Canberra Times
Wednesday 9/9/2009 Page: 6

A cluster of 132 solar panels will be installed on Bunnings Warehouse in Belconnen in the trial of a new electricity micro generation program. Microgeneration is the process of producing renewable energy on site. Bunning's national support office spokesman John McGregor said it was a great opportunity to try the technology because of the size of Bunnings' roofs.

The solar panels on the Belconnen store's 7860sgm roof are part of Bunnings' plan to become carbon neutral by 2015. The $260,000 project will provide 4% of the store's total electricity consumption. The Belconnen store was chosen because "the ACT has initiated support mechanisms to encourage large companies like ours to support microgeneration," Mr McGregor said.

The ACT Government has a solar feed-in tariff that allows homes using solar panels to be paid for the energy they generate. The Government is considering extending the tariff to allow businesses to be paid for the solar energy they generate. While there is no official data on which companies are using renewable energy, the chief executive of the ACT Chamber of Commerce, Chris Peters, said there was a trend for companies to move toward those technologies.

0 comments: