THE costs of running Myall Creek’s community hall are about to fall, after the community Trust was awarded $3000 to install solar photovoltaic panels on the hall roof, Northern Tablelands MP Adam Marshall announced Wednesday.
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“This grant will help the community offset ongoing electricity costs at the hall,” said Mr Marshall, on his hall visit to announce the NSW funding.
“There are very few options for generating revenue from these community assets, so the only alternative is to minimise costs. “I applaud the foresight of the Myall Creek Public Hall and Recreation Reserve Trust on its decision to install solar panels, because that should cut one cost in perpetuity.”
Trustee Mike Partridge, who researched the solar panel option for the hall, said the Trust will still have to pay a power access fee, but the panels would greatly reduce their usage charges for functions and events.
Mr Marshall indicated to the Trust that he’d like to use his new role as Renewable Energy Parliamentary Secretary investigate a scheme whereby energy generated by the panels on the hall could be sold and transferred to other local customers on the grid when the hall wasn’t in use.
“It seems a waste that for most of the year, the solar panels on Myall Creek hall will be trickling energy back onto the grid, but the current tariff system delivers so little return on that energy,” he said.
“If they could trade that energy at a price agreed to by another customer on the grid, it could be a neat little revenue earner for the Trust and completely off-set their electricity usage and grid connection costs.”
“That’s an issue that needs to be looked at on behalf of all consumers.”
The 2016/17 funding allocation from the Public Reserves Management Fund (PRMF) is part of an $18 million annual program of grants and loans from the NSW Government to support the development, maintenance and protection of the public reserves.
