Ararat sun goes to water

Age
Monday 1/10/2007 Page: 2

SOLAR hot water systems, which can cut a household's energy usage by up to 30 per cent, are to become available with no upfront costs under a new business model. Earth Utility offers households a subscription-style service where the system is purchased and installed through the renewable energy company, which charges the customer a quarterly fee for it.

The new service is poised to take advantage of a large niche in the energy market, said the managing director of Earth Utility, Koovashni Reddy. "What we noticed is that solar hot water is a proven product: it reduces 30 per cent of your household energy usage. "There's over 7.5 million hot water systems in Australia, yet less than 5 per cent are solar and over 6 million are electric - the market seems totally under serviced and over-priced," Ms Reddy said.

Earth Utility is staging the first roll out of its service in the northern Victorian town of Ararat, due to a partnership forged with the Ararat Rural City Council. The council has also signed on with Earth Utility and is planning to install the systems in public buildings. The systems are also set to be used in a local property development, Ararat Hills Estate. The decision to install the units in the new homes was made on both environmental and economic grounds, said developer Max Perovich. The systems will be supplied, installed and maintained by Chromagen Solar Australia through Earth Utility at a standard cost of $88 a quarter per household.

The Earth Utility project is the latest in a range of environmentally sustainable projects to be pursued by the Ararat council. This has followed community concern about climate change, exacerbated by the drought, which has caused the region's water levels to drop to just 8 per cent, according to the council's manager of development, Mark Hogan. The region also hosts a 35-turbine wind farm and the council hopes to establish a renewable energy park.

Link: www.earthutility.com