Wagga company Solar Professionals leads nation with Blacktown council rooftop panels deal

Solar Professionals, a company with headquarters in East Wagga is installing nearly 1900 panels on top of buildings across Sydney's Blacktown City Council, including leisure and aquatic centres, libraries, childcare and community centres.

The Wagga company will sell the 707 kilowatts of power to the council, allowing it to save save $170,000 in energy costs per year.

"We own and maintain the solar systems and Blacktown buy the electricity from the solar systems for a deduced rate from us, over a 10-year contract," Solar Professionals managing director Daniel Kimber said.

"The solar panels are on a mix of council buildings. Probably the most significant on is the Stanhope Leisure Centre, which is a 250 kilowatt system."

Blacktown mayor Tony Bleasdale said the solar power deal was part of a target of 100 per cent renewable electricity for council operations by 2025.

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

IN OTHER NEWS:

Blacktown described the Solar Professionals deal as Australia's largest rooftop solar Power Price Agreement installation whereby the system is paid, installed and operated by a single solar provider.

Mr Kimber said the Wagga-owned company installed solar panels for government and commercial buildings across NSW, Victoria and Queensland.

"It's all behind-the-meter installs, it's specific to each site. The key benefit is that you are not paying for transmission of the power to another site," he said.

"We are doing Power Price Agreements quite regularly, but [Blacktown] is a significant project for us, as it is with a large council in Sydney."