The City of Melbourne has become hardcore in reducing carbon emissions from commerce and industry.
Businesses operating in the City of Melbourne can access finance to install solar panels using an innovative environmental upgrade agreement (EUA) funding model. This enables property owners to access environmental upgrade finance through the lenders participating in the program. The Sustainable Melbourne Fund can facilitate the environmental upgrade finance and assist applicants to understand the commercial opportunities of using an EUA.
Loans of up to $500,000 are also available for commercial business owners and owners corporations from the Sustainable Melbourne Fund for projects that minimise environmental impacts.
In Kensington
In the Melbourne suburb of Kensington, commercial cleaning equipment manufacturer, Polivac International, is one of the many businesses that has recently adopted solar.
“In three-and-a-half years we will have it paid off and then it is just 20 years of power from the sun,” says managing director Tony Antonius.
“When I go to Europe to the trade shows I see solar on every roof when I fly in. When I get back to Melbourne I hardly see any. When energy consumption is such a big cost, I don’t understand why more people don’t do it. Solar just makes business sense,” he says.
Scott Bocskay, CEO, Sustainable Melbourne Fund, says the industrial park in Kensington and areas just like this one across Melbourne are ideal locations for solar power, due to the standard building design in the precinct.
“We have capital available right now for business and property owners,” he says.
For more information on support and funding, visit the City of Melbourne’s solar web page.
Image: Tony Antonius with Councillor Arron Wood
