The Solar Panel Project

Solar Powering Sydney Town Hall

The City of Sydney leads by example in its Sustainable Sydney 2030 vision by converting the historic Sydney Town Hall into the largest solar power installation in the central business district. The onsite solar generator provides enough energy to supply the council chambers and the Town Hall offices next door. Special fixtures and installation methods were used to carefully place the solar panels and avoid damaging the building’s slate roof.

Environmental Benefits
The solar power system not only saves electricity, but also reduces Town Hall’s dependency on fossil-fuel energy sources, thereby avoiding greenhouse gas emissions. In total the 48 kilowatt-peak system is expected to generate over 60,000 kilowatt-hours of renewable electricity each year, equivalent to powering 300 laptop computers. The table below shows the predicted environmental performance of the Town Hall solar system.

System Capacity	48 kw-peak
No. of Solar Panels	240
Annual Solar Generation	60,000 kw-hours
No. of Laptop Computers Equivalent	300
Lifetime CO2 Emissions Avoided	1,620 tonnes

Solar Power Technology
Solar power systems use the photoelectric effect to convert energy from the sun into electricity compatible with the grid. The Sydney Town Hall system features a highly efficient and lower cost “Pluto” technology developed by the University of New South Wales, which is the first of their kind to be installed in Australia.

For more information about our vision, Sustainable Sydney 2030, visit our website.