Taxpayers will soon be spending several hundred thousand dollars on rooftop solar at Parliament House in Canberra to save just $9500 a year in electricity costs.
Alan Thompson, secretary of the Department of Parliamentary Services, told a Senate estimates hearing the agency was trying to find ways to limit its electricity bills by installing solar cells on the Senate wing rooftops and landscaped areas.
“We currently pay well over $3 million a year for electricity and that is going up quite rapidly and we’re just looking at ways to mitigate that,” he said.
The department expects to finalise evaluation of the tenders this week. It put the estimated cost at several hundred thousand dollars for a return of $9500 in reduced electricity costs.
When challenged over the size of the outlay, Mr Thompson said the department had opted for the initial trial ” to see whether solar can be a viable part of our energy mix in the future”.
“At this stage I don’t think we know,” he said.
Liberal senator Helen Kroger told the hearing it didn’t appear to be value for the taxpayer dollar.
“I find it interesting we are advancing this project at a time where there is significant concern about implementing a flood levy and we are looking at a trial program of possible savings of $9500 a year,” she said.
“Energy would have to increase absolutely astronomically to get some return on your investment.”
