Completed in April 2022, Origin and the NSW government installed solar systems at 121 local Aboriginal Land Council owned properties in Dareton and Toomelah. Known for their bush landscapes and tight-knit communities, these outback towns also have a significant Indigenous population, with Aboriginal household’s being larger than non-Indigenous households in the area. Historically, social housing has often not been constructed with energy-efficiency front of mind. As a result of this lack of focus, energy use and bills for households in remote communities, such as Dareton and Toomelah, are often high.
With disconnection rates rising in remote communities, this has created an urgent need to achieve energy savings through improved efficiency and affordability by utilising smarter energy solutions, like solar.
What’s the impact of this project?
Already switched on, the solar systems are designed to provide a welcome relief to help ease the financial stress for customers in energy hardship by making their energy more affordable and sustainable. In fact, it’s estimated that these 121 upgraded sites will save these local communities an estimated total* of more than $140,000 per year –approximately $1,165 per household.
When asked about the impacts of such investment in their community, Pam Handy, Chief Executive Officer, Dareton Local Aboriginal Land Council said, “this has made a significant improvement on energy bills for residents already and has impacted their living conditions dramatically.”
“The residents have been very happy to see this great initiative and are looking forward to cost saving benefits from their solar systems. A big, huge thank you to all those who were involved right from the beginning through to the completion of installations who made this all possible.”
Toomelah Local Aboriginal Land Council, Chief Executive Officer Rex Weribone agreed, saying “This project will greatly assist all residents in providing clean energy while reducing costs for each individual household. This program is an excellent example of an on the ground project that can directly help communities.”
This initiative extends the impact of the work Origin does supporting vulnerable customers in NSW through our Power On hardship program and our participation in the NSW government’s Solar for Low Income Households program.
This project is funded under the NSW Climate Change Fund, this project forms part of the Energy Affordability Package announced by the NSW Premier on 3 September 2017 being delivered by the Sustainability Programs Branch, Office of Energy and Climate Change.
*based on an estimated energy savings across both communities at approximately 670MWh/yr.
