The Albury Waste Management Centre isn’t something I’d normally cover on techAU, but when they pull off an Australian first, it’s worth talking about.
Australia’s first solar plant built on a reclaimed landfill site, features 4,000 solar panels that will produce enough energy to power around 400 homes.
There’s actually another use for that power that’s pretty exciting for regional NSW. Recently appearing on Plugshare in a seemingly random location, a new electric vehicle fast charger, directly connected to the renewable generation at the site, suddenly makes sense.
The charger is a Tritium Veefil-RT which supports both CSS2 and CHAdeMO connectors, making it great for EVs like the Jaguar i-Pace, the Nissan Leaf and even the Tesla Model 3. To charge there, it’ll cost you a fairly cheap rate of just $0.25 per kWh (at all times). The maximum charging rate available at the site is 50kW.
The whole project was developed as a partnership between AlburyCity, LMS Energy and Joule Energy and is known as the Albury Renewable Energy Hub. The site also includes a methane gas-to-energy system to provide even more power to consumers.
AlburyCity Councillor Henk van de Ven said council was proud to have helped deliver a renewable energy system for the future.
“As a community, we’re leading the way in Albury towards a more sustainable future so embracing alternative energy is obviously a fantastic way of growing our clean energy generation for the decades ahead.
By harnessing the power of the sun and landfill gases that would otherwise leak into the atmosphere we’re beginning to make a real difference at a local level and it’s very exciting to see this new plant come on line.”
AlburyCity Councillor Henk van de Ven
The general manager of LMS Energy, Matthew Falzon, said the hub would be Australia’s first large-scale solar farm situated on top of a capped landfill.
“This project showcases how a well-managed waste management facility can be a reliable and significant source of renewable energy generation, which can benefit the local community and environment alike.”
AlburyCity Councillor Henk van de Ven
