“A bit of a no-brainer”: Bayswater industrial businesses beginning to make the transition to solar

In a factory in Bayswater’s industrial estates, you can hear the whirring of saws and the humming of giant heaters making about 3,000 guitars a year for amateur and professionals across the world.

However, a new player has helped Cole Clark Guitars with their bottom line: around 400 solar panels on the roof of their Clare Street warehouse installed in 2020.

Cole Clark Guitars is just one of many companies in Bayswater’s more industrial areas that have installed solar panels.

❓What happened: Production manager and co-founder Bill Pizzey has been with Cole Clark Guitars since it started producing instruments in only one factory in 2001.

• Now, the business covers three buildings across the various stages of guitar making.

🪙 Cost benefit: While guitar making is a careful art, it is also an expensive one. Currently, the annual power bill is between $60,000 and $70,000 – a significant reduction from about $100,000 a year before Pizzey had installed the solar system.

• Pizzey said most of that comes from the winter time, with the sun and the panels driving everything down close to zero.

• “We've probably paid it off in about three years.”

☀️ Seven years of solar: Electronics manufacturer Dyne Industries managing director Justin Smit said the company installed solar panels on their roof on their factory in Barry Street in Bayswater – about 314 panels driving a 99.9-kilowatt system – in 2018.

✅ Multiple benefits: Unlike other installations, Smit said he wanted the benefits to be two-fold: to create power the business could use in its operations and for the panels to block the roof from the sun and keep the factory cooler in summer. For this reason, panels now cover about 90 percent of the roof.

✂️ Cutting the bills: Smit said the benefits have been significant, cutting the factory’s power bill in heating and other things from $1,200 a month to about $1,000 a year.

• “It's a bit of a no-brainer,” said Smit. “I sort of sit here and wonder why every decent sized building doesn't have solar panels on it.”

💲Discounts made available: Earlier this month, the State Government announced the Victorian Energy Upgrades (VEU) program. It offers discounts for commercial and industrial businesses and community organisations to install solar systems between 30 and 200 kilowatts in size.

💰How much can businesses save? Discounts range from $4,550 for a 50-kilowatt system and up to $34,300 for a 200-kilowatt system.

• Businesses are also eligible for Commonwealth Government rebates on solar systems between 30 and 200 kilowatts size range - reducing up to a further $50,000 off the cost.

⏭️ What’s next: Smit said he was looking forward to the day when the State Government fully rolled out the Virtual Power Plant program, which will allow his business to share excess energy stored in batteries they would be soon acquiring to the homes of their employees or to the general community.

• 🗣️“If I can generate electricity and sell it off to other people, that's when you're going to find people really jumping on board,” said Smit.

• Smit said he was currently working out quotes for the factory’s roof to be replaced and was also seeking a rebate through the new program to install about 240 solar panels to deliver the same output.

• Pizzey said he was also advocating for the VPP system to be put into place, as the business pays about $10,000 in network charges annually to have the power created by the power panels in their front building sent to their back building.