Under the program, grants of up to AUD$50,000 (AUD$100,000 for multi-campus schools) are awarded to eligible primary and secondary schools to install solar and other renewable power systems, rainwater tanks and a range of energy efficiency measures. The Minister for Climate Change, Energy Efficiency and Water, Senator Penny Wong, announced that AUD$51 million in funding would be available in 2010-11.
More than 1,000 schools across the nation have already installed solar systems under this program, and another 1,500 have projects underway to become solar schools, Senator Wong said. Since the program began in 2008, about six megawatts (MW) of renewable solar power has been installed in schools the equivalent of meeting the electricity needs of 1,200 average households each day. This program has been highly successful as it gives school students first-hand experience in renewable energy, and helps students to become more energy and water wise.
The National Solar Schools Program was temporarily suspended in October 2009 when high demand for the program meant that annual funding targets were met earlier than anticipated. It is hoped the AUD$420 million program will help schools across Australia to become more energy efficient.
This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.
By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.
Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.
You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.
Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.