Solar City Australia

The Australian Government's $94 million Solar City program is a partnership between all levels of government, industry, business and local communities to trial sustainable energy solutions.
The Solar City program was launched in 2004 to showcase sustainable energy models that help consumers and retailers to monitor their energy use and use energy more wisely.
This innovative Australian Government program has been conducting trials of business models and energy solutions since 2007 to inform public policy and the Solar City program is designed to trial new sustainable models for electricity supply and use, and is being done in seven separate electricity grid-connected areas around Australia:: Adelaide, Blacktown, Townsville, Central Victoria, Alice Springs, Moreland and Perth.
These cities are shown in figure below.

The seven Solar Cities were selected because of their diverse cultural, climatic and lifestyle characteristics. Successful elements of the trials have the potential for replication around Australia.
Over the past four years, the program has been gathering data and lessons from a unique mix of solar technologies and energy-efficiency initiatives. The initiatives have included solar technologies, such as photovoltaic (PV) and solar thermal technologies, cost-reflective pricing, load management, smart meters, in-house displays and energy audits of large grid-connected urban sites.
With the Government’s recent announcement of its comprehensive long-term plan for tackling climate change, there is an opportunity to use the data and lessons from the trials to design and implement new complementary measures ahead of an emissions trading scheme. The results of the trials have the potential to assist governments, householders, businesses and industries to identify effective action that will minimize both emissions and costs and provide a valuable educational resource for schools, colleges and universities.



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Goals of the Solar Cities program?

• direct home energy assessments
• Installing low-emissions technologies, such as solar PV and solar hot water units, smart meters and in-home displays
• Offering cost-reflective pricing to establish appropriate price signals and reward energy efficiency
• Tailoring financing packages to encourage solar power generation
• Providing tips and information on how to reduce energy bills

Some Solar cities have also commissioned highly visible large-scale ‘iconic’ PV installations, which not only make public spaces more enjoyable for the community, but also demonstrate the ingenuity of the technologies and their benefits as sustainable alternative energy sources.
Through these practical trials across Australia, governments, industry, businesses and residents are working together to change the way we think about energy and how we use it.
After colleting  information from the Solar Cities trials:

• Consumers and businesses will understand their energy use better and be rewarded with lower energy bills for managing energy wisely
• Electricity companies will be able to gauge cost savings in servicing peak electricity demand periods and investing in infrastructure, and build new client relationships
• Industries will be able to test new sustainable energy options in a low-risk environment, strengthen their corporate citizenship and improve their market position
• Governments will be able to base future energy and climate change policy on better information about the environmental and economic costs and benefits of the various energy options
• Teachers and students will have access to real-world trials, working technologies and hard data to deepen their understanding of the way energy is used and saved
• Successful, sustainable long-term strategies can be replicated in other Australian towns and cities, showcasing the nation’s ingenuity to the rest of the world.

Source : Australia Solar Cities