AUSTRALIA: Melbourne’s Yarra Trams has commissioned 100 kW of solar panels installed on the roof of its Southbank depot, the first of seven depots to be equipped with a total of 200 solar panels to produce over 550 MWh/year.
Installed with funding support from the Victorian government’s Greener Government Buildings programme, the solar panels at the seven depots are expected to cut CO2 emissions by up to 350 tonnes and save approximately $370 000 on energy costs each year. Excess power will be fed back into the network.
Yarra Trams is also installing skylights and energy efficient LED lighting at five depots, which is expected to reduce emissions by a further 700 tonnes/year.
‘Working with the government to install hundreds of solar panels on our depots was a natural next step after the 2019 agreement to offset the power required by all our trams with solar generated power’, said CEO Julien Dehornoy on July 25. ‘We’re incredibly proud to have solar depots housing our solar trams.’
