We are pleased to announce that we have met our Zero Carbon Merri-bek council and community solar targets.
Our community has installed over 44 megawatts (MW) of solar power systems across 8,800 homes and businesses. Reaching our 2025 community solar target in April 2022! Four massive solar systems, totalling 1.3MW, have been installed at Barkly Square, Conga Foods, Basfoods and at Museum Victoria’s Merri-bek Annexe.
Alongside these, hundreds of new solar systems have been in installed on Merri-bek homes in the past six months alone.
More clean energy
We had a target of installing 1MW our our buildings. We have now installed 1.14MW of solar power systems across 40 council-owned sites.
This includes a 60kW solar system at Coburg Basketball Arena, a 5kW system at Coburg Velodrome and a 270kW system at the new state-of-the-art Glenroy Community Hub (open for Glenroy Festival, 15 May). We are also installing a 70kW solar system at Brunswick Baths by June this year.
Solar systems for leased Council buildings
Some of these solar systems are installed on Council-owned buildings leased by Merri-bek community groups, such as Brunswick Bowls Club and Barry Beckett Children’s Centre. Groups participating in the program have no upfront solar installation costs and benefit from reduced energy bills. Find out more.
Next steps
While our community continues to invest in solar and take advantage of the rebates and interest-free loans available, we are finalising a solar strategy for Council-owned sites.
This will help us prioritise further solar installs across our 176 Council sites so that we can continue to reduce bills and contribute to a clean energy future. We will also continue to monitor and maintain our solar systems to make sure they deliver value for money.
More information
Find out about solar for your business
Find out about solar if you are a tenant of a Council-owned building.
