Carinity makes the switch to solar

Queensland aged care provider Carinity has switched three of its aged care communities to solar power as part of a $1.1million sustainability strategy.

Posted October 26th 2015

by Margot White

Providers

<p>Resident Beattie Clark enjoying a cup of tea made from hot water heated by the new solar panels.</p> — Resident Beattie Clark enjoying a cup of tea made from hot water heated by the new solar panels.

Another five sites will transition across within the next seven months, which makes Carinity the first aged care provider in Queensland to switch all its care communities to solar energy.

Carinity Aged Care – Shalom in Rockhampton, Carinity Aged Care – Kepnock Grove in Bundaberg and Carinity Aged Care – Clifford in Brisbane are now operating predominately solar power.

Carinity Executive Manager Business and Development Peter Lamberth says the initiative was part of an organisational-wide campaign to be more sustainable.

“Aged care is one of the biggest growing sectors in Australia and the move to sustainable energy makes financial and environmental sense. It also helps Australia reach its renewable energy goals,” Mr Lamberth says.

“As a non-for-profit organisation, our commitment to care not only encompasses the people we assist but also the wider community. We want to ensure as an organisation we are playing our part in ensuring the health of our planet to future generations.”

“Our first step in our sustainability plan is to have five of our aged care communities being run predominantly on solar energy by the end of the year.”

Mr Lamberth explains that the panels are positioned at different orientations and pitches to increase the production of solar energy from the middle of the day to morning and afternoon.

The panels will not be returning power to the grid but the systems are designed to provide sufficient power based on daily consumption to meet the majority of demand needs of the facilities.

“All the electricity generated will be used in the facility to power all, if not the vast majority, of energy use,” Mr Lamberth says.

The total 1460 solar panels are estimated to generate a total peak capacity of 528.50 MWh across the sites.

The estimated greenhouse gas emission savings from switching Carinity’s current eight aged care communities to solar is equivalent to 165 tonnes of landfill.

The change to renewable energy should save the organisation around 459.8 tonnes of greenhouse gases annually.