❓ The Minister for Housing outlines a pilot program to install solar panels on 400 public housing properties to improve sustainability and reduce cost of living for tenants, particularly larger families and households with disabilities.
AnsweredQoN 287Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
PUBLIC
HOUSING — SUSTAINABILITY
287. Mr I.M. BRITZA to the Minister for Housing:
Can the minister outline to the house what the Liberal–National
government is doing to improve the sustainability of the state's public
housing stock?
HOUSING — SUSTAINABILITY
287. Mr I.M. BRITZA to the Minister for Housing:
Can the minister outline to the house what the Liberal–National
government is doing to improve the sustainability of the state's public
housing stock?
AnswerView source ↗
I thank the member for Morley for the question. This side of
the house recognises the cost of living for public housing tenants and also
that the sustainability of our housing stock is an important issue. I am very
pleased to announce in the house today that we are undertaking a solar panel
installation pilot program that will install 400 photovoltaic systems on 400 public
houses. It started in March this year and will finish in July.
The pilot program will take advantage of the fact that the
cost of solar panels has come down considerably in recent times. Hence, the
timing is right. The important thing is that this $1 million program will
ascertain whether this is a better method to assist people in hardship in terms
of the cost of living rather than other programs. We are trialling this program
in 400 public houses. The systems will be one kilowatt. The successful tenderer
was Solargain PV. It will roll out 400 PV cells to householders. The properties
we have selected are family houses comprising three or more bedrooms because
they are higher energy users. We made sure that about 15 per cent of the homes
are households with disabilities. Those households with disabilities spend a
bit more time in their houses and often have appliances that use a lot of electricity.
We are trialling that side as well.
Mr Speaker and member for Morley, we anticipate that the
expected savings could be anywhere between $250 to $350 per year per household
depending on usage and also the orientation of the panel on the roof. This is
an innovative program undertaken by the Department of Housing in conjunction
with the Public Utilities Office. I look forward to the results. If the results
are satisfactory, we could consider rolling out in due course more of these PV
systems both in the metropolitan and regional areas.
the house recognises the cost of living for public housing tenants and also
that the sustainability of our housing stock is an important issue. I am very
pleased to announce in the house today that we are undertaking a solar panel
installation pilot program that will install 400 photovoltaic systems on 400 public
houses. It started in March this year and will finish in July.
The pilot program will take advantage of the fact that the
cost of solar panels has come down considerably in recent times. Hence, the
timing is right. The important thing is that this $1 million program will
ascertain whether this is a better method to assist people in hardship in terms
of the cost of living rather than other programs. We are trialling this program
in 400 public houses. The systems will be one kilowatt. The successful tenderer
was Solargain PV. It will roll out 400 PV cells to householders. The properties
we have selected are family houses comprising three or more bedrooms because
they are higher energy users. We made sure that about 15 per cent of the homes
are households with disabilities. Those households with disabilities spend a
bit more time in their houses and often have appliances that use a lot of electricity.
We are trialling that side as well.
Mr Speaker and member for Morley, we anticipate that the
expected savings could be anywhere between $250 to $350 per year per household
depending on usage and also the orientation of the panel on the roof. This is
an innovative program undertaken by the Department of Housing in conjunction
with the Public Utilities Office. I look forward to the results. If the results
are satisfactory, we could consider rolling out in due course more of these PV
systems both in the metropolitan and regional areas.
Explore WA Government Data
Search the full archive in the free dashboard, or query programmatically via API.
Explore more
Government Gazette
Appointments, regulatory notices, planning changes.
Hansard
Debates, questions, speeches and sentiment.
Tabled Papers
Reports and documents tabled in Parliament.
Committees
Committee profiles and recent reports.
Regulations
Subsidiary legislation with filters and summaries.
Bills
Proposed laws and parliamentary progress.
Acts
Current WA legislation and summaries.
Explanatory Memoranda
Bills with EMs (text/PDF) available.
Members
MP profiles, party breakdown and rankings.
Pollie Rankings
Data-driven rankings across 19 categories.
Amendment Chains
Track how schemes and regulations evolve over time.