Sunshine lights up path to lower NPDC power bills

New Plymouth’s reputation as New Zealand’s sunshine capital is paying off as solar energy takes the load of NPDC’s power bills.​

Two new solar power systems installed this year are already cutting bills by thousands of dollars and are expected to have paid for themselves within six years.​

An array of 100 solar panels was installed on the roof of NPDC’s climate-controlled Archives building, in Hobson Street, in March and is expected to generate around 80,000 kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity per year, equivalent to powering about 10 four-person households.​

During its first month of operation, the system generated savings of over $1,000 on the monthly power bill.​

Another solar panel array installed on the TSB Showplace last month ((JUNE)) is expected to generate more than 30,000 kWh per year. ​

Both systems supply about 35 per cent of each building’s power over the year and are expected to pay for themselves within six years.​

Around half of NPDC’s electricity – 6.2 gigawatt hours, about the same as 885 average four-person households – has come from the New Plymouth Airport solar farm since November last year, and the rest comes from renewable supplies.​

“Like every household, we want to get the best deal possible on our power bills and what could be better than harnessing one of our district’s most plentiful resources -- sunshine. Solar power promises to save money for ratepayers and it’s a benefit to the environment. It also makes sense for our local economy too because we employ local contractors,” said NPDC Climate Change Response Lead Greg Stephens. ​

“We’ll keep looking at opportunities to harness the sun and make savings because electricity powers our core services such as street and traffic lights, keeps our water and wastewater pumping, charges our electric vehicle fleet, our pools, libraries and venues, not to mention keeping the lights on at the TSB Festival of Lights and our summer gigs at the Bowl of Brooklands.”​

At a glance​

• NPDC’s average monthly power bill is about $280,000, excluding GST.​
• The Archives building solar array cost $63,000 and the TSB Showplace $33,000​
• Solar power from New Plymouth Airport has enabled NPDC to get a discount of about 20 per cent on the general market rate for electricity.​
• The Airport solar farm has about 14,400 solar panels over 15 hectares and is funded from Airport revenues. ​
• NPDC has about 110 vehicles, including nine electric vehicles, 22 hybrids, and two plug-in hybrid electric vehicles.​​
• We operate about 11,167 street lights, almost all of them have been energy-efficient LED lights since 2019.​
• Since 2018, NPDC emissions from natural gas use have fallen 24 per cent to 2,013 tonnes of CO2 equivalent, and emissions from electricity by 22 per cent to 1,249.​

Caption: NPDC Energy and Infrastructure Adviser Mat Sycamore, left, and Climate Change Response Lead Greg Strephens inspect the new solar panels on the TSB Showplace.