Sunshine will be the new way to deal with sewerage waste from Wodonga, when North East Water builds a three megawatt solar farm to power its plant.
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Tenders are expected to be issued in the coming months for the multi-million dollar project to be built on land owned by NEW between Old Barnawartha Road and Hume Freeway at West Wodonga.
The solar farm will have about 10,000 panels and use a single-axis tracking system to ensure it can capture as much solar power as possible.
NEW managing director Craig Heiner said it was part of the company's commitment to reduce its carbon footprint.
"The farm will generate enough electricity to power the nearby sewage treatment plant during daylight hours," he said.
"Wodonga's sewage treatment plant consumes 25 per cent of the corporation's total energy requirements, so the solar installation will significantly reduce our expenses and carbon emissions.
"Any excess electricity generated by the farm will be fed into the grid to help offset power usage at other water and sewage treatment plants across the North East.
"We've been investing significantly at the plant over the past few years to increase its efficiency and the solar farm is another step in that journey."
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"We currently source around 20 per cent of our electricity from wind generated power from Ararat," Mr Heiner said.
"When the solar farm comes online, 50 per cent of the corporation's total daytime power consumption will come from green energy.
"This is all part of our commitment to cutting carbon emissions by 42 per cent within six years and our pledge to achieve net-zero emissions before 2050."
Construction of the solar farm is expected to start in late 2019 and take about 18 months to complete.
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