More Solar for Mildura Council

The Mildura Rural City Council recently released a draft of their zero-emissions strategy. This draft outlines their approach to achieving net-zero emissions by 2050, in line with Victoria state’s goals. Their strategy also contains an emissions inventory, which is based on the following key areas:

• Fleet
• Landfill
• Buildings and Facilities
• Street Lighting
• Scope 3 Emissions

While Mildura has made a dent in their emissions already, there’s still a ways to go for them. As of 2018-19, their scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions were estimated at 33,225 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent. The biggest emissions contributors were landfills for scope 1, buildings and facilities for scope 2, and urban and recycled water for scope 3. Scope 1 emissions were by far the biggest contributor to emissions at an estimated 26,008 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent.

Mildura’s Use of Solar Power

The city was already making strides towards emissions reductions years back when they installed the following solar power:

• 2011 – 54 kW of PV solar on council buildings, including 30 kW on the Madden Avenue Service Centre
• 2012 – 100 kW of solar on council buildings, including 35 kW on the Mildura Arts Centre
• 2015 – An additional 60 kW of solar on the Madden Avenue Service Centre, and 27 kW on the Deakin Avenue Service Centre

That isn’t all they’re doing in terms of solar power, as they’ve outlined plans to look into more solar options for the city. In particular, they’re intending to create a report prioritising solar PV and battery storage installations at council buildings, as well as an investigation into the opportunity of utilising excess solar energy with a virtual energy network. Both of these are listed as a focus for 2021-2022.

Mildura Residents Can Look Forward to More Renewable Energy

A virtual energy network would likely be great for the city. What they’re able to do is ‘virtually’ transfer energy from buildings that have more than they need to places that don’t have enough. This, along with extra storage, would mean that the city is less likely to end up wasting energy.

For the energy that Mildura is unable to produce itself, they’ll be turning to outside sources. They intend to enter power purchase agreements for 100% renewable energy. Once they can, they’ll be using this renewable energy for all their buildings, facilities, and public/street lighting.

Reduce Your Own Emissions with Solar Power

We can all make an effort to reduce our emissions and make our community a greener place to live. Solar Miner provides cost- and energy-efficient solar panels to Victorian residents. Contact our team today to learn more about how we can help you get your own solar panels installed!