Sunday Mail Brisbane
Sunday 14/9/2008 Page: 25
FEDERAL Environment Minister Peter Garrett has launched what he hopes will be the catalyst for the country's first fully integrated solar city at Magnetic Island off Townsville. The Smart Lifestyle Centre is part of the $32 million Townsville Solar City program and is a major education tool for the community. Mr Garrett said north Queensland was an obvious place to promote solar energy to feed back into the main power grid, particularly Townsville where there's an average of 300 days of sunshine each year.
The Magnetic Island project is the only one of its type in Queensland and one of seven nationally which it's estimated will reduce carbon pollution by 76,000 tonnes annually. It's the first of several projects to be rolled out across Townsville's suburbs during the next three years. Ian Cruickshank, manager of the Solar Cities project, said Magnetic Island residents had embraced the project and already there had been 100 energy audits of homes on the island and 31 photovoltaic systems installed on the roofs of homes.
"We're starting to get some traction," Mr Cruickshank said. "It's early days yet, but we are getting feedback that people are saving money on their electricity and on days like this we are generating a lot of solar energy. "We've already taken the equivalent of 22 houses off the grid with the solar energy and efficient light globes."
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