from the Gippsland Climate Change Network (GCCN) winter newsletter
GCCN under the guidance of Chris Barfoot, our Energise Gippsland Project Officer, has successfully completed a solar installation at the 120 bed Margery Cole residential aged care facility as part of the Yallambee Village for the Aged in Traralgon.
Within the first 110 days of the successful installation of 276kW rooftop PV system by local company RACV Solar has produced 108,568kW of power, with (a revenue) cost saving of $27,809.29 and a CO2 reduction of 108.24 tonnes. The cost of the project was $355,200 ex GST with $317,368 being provided through funding from the Latrobe Valley Energy and Growth Program – Stage 2 through The Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning within the Victorian Government.
The facility is also expected to receive a Victorian Energy Efficiency Certificate (VEEC) rebate of approximately $105,000 after 12 months of operation for CO2 savings due to solar and energy efficiency measures. Taken without the grant funding and rebates, the installation would be expected to pay for itself after approximately 7.4 years with the VEEC rebates the installation should pay for itself after 5.2 years.
This project is a template for solar installations for approximately 57 other aged care facilities within Gippsland that are looking to develop renewable solutions and for further investigations at Yallambee around the Independent living units on site. The full Yallambee Aged Care Services Solar Installation report can be found on the Gippsland Climate Change Network ‘Resources’ page.