Sometimes it’s the simple things that work the best.
One of the highest operational costs in community stores is power. It is expensive to run cool rooms, air conditioners and hot water systems. For an average sized community store, power costs are around $50,000 per year. For larger stores like the Wirib Store in Timber Creek, the power bill can be as high as $90,000 per year.
Our Energy Efficiency Project began in early 2019 as an analysis of how power costs could be reduced in the stores managed by AIG. Solar quickly became the solution, and since the start of the project, the Aboriginal Benefit Account (ABA) has funded systems for the Wirib Store in Timber Creek and Bagala Community Store in Barunga.
Timber Creek
After successfully securing an ABA funding grant of $104,959 in mid-2019, AIG started the process of buying and installing solar panels on the roof of the store as well as replacing outdated air conditioners in the park for better cooling efficiency.
The solar panel system is a 25kW fronius inverter to power the store, and a PV direct solar hot water system to service the ablution blocks in the Wirib Tourism Park and the Store.
The dollar savings per month since the system was installed is around $1,500. Overall, it is estimated to give 22% saving to the power costs.
Barunga
In 2020 Bagala Aboriginal Corporation was successful in an ABA grant application of $88,889 and in June 2020, a 40KW microgrid system with battery storage capacity was installed on the Bagala Community Store roof.
The Barunga grant was different to Timber Creek in that it was only supplying the battery and solar panels. We estimate the savings to be as high as 65% of the power needs of the store.
Cheaper electricity = cheaper food in store
Store running costs heavily influence the price of products. By reducing running costs, we can reduce the cost of products in the stores. Our Energy Efficiency Project has been a simple yet effective way of make essential groceries more affordable in communities and more aligned with our mandate of improving food security for people living in remote communities in the NT.
Commonwealth support is vital
Solar energy is an industry evolving very quickly, particularly invertors, battery prices and functionality. What was state of the art 12 months, is now outdated which is why savings achieved in the Bagala Community Store are better than the Wirib Store. AIG is committed to using solar and updating the systems as the technology improves but support from the Commonwealth through grants for the systems is vital at this stage.
Next steps
The Energy Efficiency Project is a good example of how the government can support innovative projects that make real, positive changes in community. As AIG grows our store management portfolio, we intend to continue using solar power technology to ideally facilitate power self-sufficiency for all the stores we manage.
