Powered by the sun

Anglicare is using solar panels to reduce operating costs and make use of a renewable energy source.

More than 100 solar panels are installed on the roof of our office building in Collins St Hobart and these are generating enough electricity to meet most of our daily demand for power.

The project has been such a success we are now in the process of installing solar panels at our Glenorchy, Watchorn Street (Hobart), Devonport and Launceston offices.

“Anglicare will soon be largely sun powered,” said Tim Dornan, Anglicare’s Manager- Infrastructure.

“Installing solar panels will reduce our power bills into the longer term as well as being kind to the environment”.

“We are seeing a clear return on our investment and are on track to have fully paid out the installation costs within five years,” he said.

Currently there is no economically feasible way of storing the excess power generated by the solar panels. “Battery technology isn’t quite there yet,” said Tim. “So for now, our offices still rely on power from the grid at night time and during the winter months”.

“But hopefully in the future this will change with developments in technology,” he said.

Along with the roll out of solar panels, Anglicare has also replaced fluorescent light fittings with LED lights. We have also upgraded our air-conditioning to a more energy efficient system.