Brisbane Council to Build Solar Power Plant
A very interesting article published in The Courier Mail on July 5th states that the Brisbane City Council is pushing ahead with plans to build a solar plant to power everything from council buildings to traffic lights, council documents reveal.
On December 7 last year, Councillor Peter Matic was directed by Brisbane City Council’s civic cabinet to investigate possible sites for a green energy plant.
According to the minutes of the meeting, which are usually secret but were made public last week after a ruling by the State Ombudsman, Lord Mayor Campbell Newman called for an investigation into the viability of a two-to-10 megawatt renewable energy project.
Yesterday, he revealed that the council expected to begin calling for tenders in October, but said there was no firm decision on a location.
Cr Newman said it would not be built directly within the Brisbane City Council boundaries but could be placed in southern Queensland.
Queensland may also be in the running to house a large-scale solar plant, with four companies shortlisted to win a slice of the Federal Government’s $1.5 billion Solar Flagships program.
When the idea was first floated, the council considered funding the plant itself. Now, the council is hoping to use its huge power usage as a carrot.
“Essentially what we’d like to be able to do is to actually justify or help facilitate the construction of a new green energy plant,” Cr Newman said.
“We are paying for it through the energy market now but it would be great to help the private sector justify a plant that we could point to and say to the people of Brisbane that’s where the electricity is coming from that powers your street lights, your traffic lights, powers council’s operations in the city.”
“If and when the carbon reduction scheme comes in, there will be a cost anyway, so this is insulating the city of Brisbane and its ratepayers from a carbon shock,” Cr Newman said.
