Page 5557 - Week 15 - Wednesday, 9 December 2009
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MR CORBELL: I thank Ms Porter for the question.
Mrs Dunne: I think he answered that during estimates last week, didn’t he?
MR CORBELL: I know Mrs Dunne hates this question because it is good news. It is good news for the ACT; it is good news for the community. We all know there is one thing Mrs Dunne hates in this place and that is good news. She hates good news. She recoils from the light whenever there is good news. She starts thinking about that job in the security industry that she is writing up. The good news is here when it comes to solar power in the ACT.
I was delighted last week to launch 72 solar PV panels at Canberra Stadium as part of a showcase project on the part of the ACT government to highlight solar power as a real alternative to drive our energy needs into the future. This new facility will generate almost 23 megawatt hours of electricity per year, and that is enough to provide power for 16 night games at the Canberra Stadium each and every year. When you are watching the Brumbies or the Raiders in the next 12 months you will know that, for a lot of those matches, the power is being provided by those solar panels through the generation they contribute throughout the year.
This is just one part of the government’s initiative to highlight solar in the ACT. In 2008, we installed 19 panels on the roof of the Tidbinbilla visitors centre, creating a total capacity of 3.3 kilowatts. This solar array generates approximately seven megawatts of clean electricity into the grid every year.
Of course we have seen other installations in areas such as the Canberra Seniors Club in Turner, in the city, and at the Kippax Community Centre, which has also installed a significant array. As at the end of November, ActewAGL advised that there are 1,126 solar PV installations in the ACT, an increase of over 116 per cent in the first nine months of the feed-in tariff scheme’s operation.
If there can ever be an endorsement of a progressive policy that is achieving the ends that it is meant to achieve, which is to encourage the uptake of renewable energy, this policy is it. It is about time that the Liberal Party stepped away from their criticism of this scheme, backed it and backed those many thousands of Canberrans now who are taking the step to install solar generation in their homes, in their businesses, in their workplaces.
MR SPEAKER: Ms Porter, a supplementary question?
MS PORTER: Yes, thank you, Mr Speaker. Minister, what has the private sector said about the importance of the ACT feed-in tariff in establishing solar generation in the ACT?
MR CORBELL: I thank Ms Porter for the question. I was very pleased last week to hear from Woolworths that they had chosen Canberra as their first location for the installation of renewable energy generation in relation to their service station sites. Mr Andrew Hall, the Director of Corporate and Public Affairs for Woolworths, issued a statement last week in which he said:
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