Blacktown City Council is undertaking a massive solar energy project by installing more than 1,800 solar panels across 16 sites.

The 1,876 panels will be installed on a range of Council buildings including leisure and aquatic centres, libraries, childcare and community centres.

A further 627 solar panels will be installed on the roof of the Blacktown Leisure Centre at Stanhope Gardens.

The additional 707kW solar generation will more than double Blacktown Council’s current capacity of rooftop solar on its buildings and save $170,000 in energy costs per year.

Blacktown City mayor Tony Bleasdale says, “In February, Council acknowledged that we are in a state of climate emergency and we committed to a target of 100 percent renewable electricity for Council operations by 2025.

“Council is also committed to working towards an aspirational target of net zero carbon emissions for the community by 2040.”

“Doubling our solar generation capacity will contribute greatly to meeting those targets by increasing our use of solar electricity and reducing emissions,” he says.

The project is currently Australia’s largest rooftop solar Power Price Agreement (PPA) installation whereby the system is paid, installed and operated by a single solar provider, in this case ‘Solar Professionals’.

Image: Supplied