Coburg Solar Village a boost for Melbourne
November 14, 2007
MEFL has said the announcement by Mr Peter Garrett ALP Shadow Minister for the Environment that if elected a Rudd Labor Government would fund the Coburg Solar Village project means that the renewable energy hub dream will actually come into being if a Labor Government is elected.
Moreland Energy Foundation Chair, Mike Hill said:
'The Moreland community is dark green, it is itching to provide leadership on climate change, it will invest in energy efficiency and other environmental products and it has an enthusiastic local government and a range of active community groups. These are the ingredients needed for creating Australia's first solar suburb, the first large scale solar installation in Melbourne.'
Hill said that the application process for funding under the Howard Government's Solar Cities Project had been 'painful':
'It took over 3 years to develop the project and in spite of its quality it took several Ministers more than twelve months to finally notify MEFL that the project was not supported.
'Now Rudd has cut through all of that and shown that there will be serious dollars available to invest in communities that have done the hard work on climate change. It is hard to believe that there is likely to be national government support for local sustainability endeavour once again.
'This is a wonderful announcement. The Rudd team has signalled that in Government it will support innovative partnerships that involve National, State and local governments, local businesses, communities and social development agencies like the Brotherhood of St Laurence.
'Coburg Solar Village will feature solar installations that will be very visible and will provide a powerful indication to us all that solar and other renewable technologies can work today and are available now to help us all get into a more sustainable future. The profile of solar energy and energy efficiency will be given a significant boost in Melbourne
'Coburg Solar Village will involve solar installations on 400 houses, energy efficiency retrofits for over 900 households, the installation of 200 state of the art smart meters, research into air-conditioning use, solar installations at 4 schools and at civic facilities such as Coburg library, Coburg leisure centre and railway station.
'Coburg Solar Village has been designed to be part of the Coburg 2020 initiative which will see the reinvigoration of the Coburg area through the development of inner urban housing, shopping and civic facilities. This is due reward to Moreland Council for its long perseverance on sustainability.
'Finally I'd like to pay tribute to local MP Kelvin Thomson for his untiring commitment to the project. Convinced of its value, Kelvin tried to steer the project through the current government's processes and when he saw that this was failing, he has worked to convince the Opposition that Coburg Solar Village was the very sort of initiative it needed to support.'
