Springwood-Winmalee Girl Guides go green: solar panels installed

Federal MP for Macquarie Susan Templeman and Dean Edmonds from Esmart Solar, joined the guide leaders to celebrate the installation of the panels and the compact Tesla panel battery at their Yellow Rock hall shortly before Christmas. The project was funded by the Solar Communities Grant.

Minister Hunt made the announcement back in June 2016 at their Yellow Rock site, alongside the former MP for Macquarie Louise Markus. The guide leaders say it will cut their electricity bill by $1200 annually.

Springwood-Winmalee Girl Guides lost their fully outfitted storage shed during the 2013 bushfires, complete with thousands of dollars in new camping tents. They were allocated $15,000 to go towardsa new awning and $10,000 towards installing solar and battery storage systems.

“It’s an important cause,” Mr Hunt told the guide leaders at the time. “Hopefully it will give you a chance to reduce your power bills.”

The Springwood-Winmalee Girl Guides district manager Dianne Strahan, thanked the Department of Environment and Energy for the opportunity to access the grant and Dean Edmonds from E-Smart Solar for the professionalism during installation.

“Dean worked hard to give us the right mix of panels and battery storage and we estimate the solar system will save us $1,200 in electricity costs each year,” Mrs Strahan said.

She said having the batteries meant they could use the stored energy from the solar panels for their night-time meetings.

Ms Templeman said “as electricity costs rise, this is one less thing for the Springwood-Winmalee Guides to have to worry about. The energy that is captured in the day isn’t wasted”.

Mrs Strahan said the guides were in the process of getting quotes for the awning on the back of the guides hall and it will be erected soon. “It will mean the guides can still be outside in wet weather.” she said.