RENEWABLES won’t stop despite the barriers created by the federal government’s ideology, says Singleton Solar Farm owner Andrew Thaler.
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“We need to invest in the longer term future and this is just a hiccup,” he said.
Mr Thaler was in Singleton to switch the solar farm back on at a public ceremony last Friday morning.
“I have had a lot of people ask me if they could come out and have a look at it, so I thought I would open the site to the public,” he told The Argus.
Despite inviting every serving federal and state politician, related to the field of energy and beyond, to the event, he received no responses.
The former Hunter Valley electrician’s aim is to achieve five megawatts output (the limit of the high voltage power lines) at the site by allowing people to purchase their own solar panels adjacent to the current location.
“The final community model hasn’t been decided yet,” he said.
“But, ultimately, anyone will be able to invest in the project; it doesn’t matter if they’re living in Norway, they’ll be able to buy into it and view what is happening with their allocation online.”
Mr Thaler said having solar on the roof wasn’t getting you the most out of the sun.
“You can run out of space on the roof and there are other factors like the shade from trees and other structures limiting the ability of your solar panels,” he said.
The 2.75-hectare Singleton Solar Farm was created 17 years ago in the lead up to the Sydney Olympics and has a maximum 470 kilowatt output.
Replacement of half of the solar panels’ invertors is the next step for Mr Thaler to return it to its maximum output before starting the community model.