ONE of our greyest areas is also one of our greenest, as retirees rush to install solar panels and beat power price rises.
The Fleurieu Peninsula is the South Australia’s solar capital. Almost a third of all homes (31 per cent) in Port Elliot have panels. In Victor Harbor, Goolwa and Hindmarsh Island it’s almost a quarter (24 per cent). That’s almost 4000 homes with solar panels.
And the pace of installations has not slowed, with as many as 12 going in each day.
Victor Harbor Council has been instrumental in the conversion, arranging group discounts with Zen Home Energy.
In 2009, City of Victor Harbor’s Roy Ramage warned the council traditional energy suppliers would “double and treble power costs over the next three years”. He also predicted more costs would be passed on to ratepayers when emission trading schemes were introduced.
The scheme has spread right across the Fleurieu Peninsula because Victor Harbor encouraged neighbouring councils to get in on the deal.
“I’m hoping it makes my little community more resilient,” he said. “I know they have more money in their pockets now.”
At Rosetta Village, in Encounter Bay, retired couple Rosemary Horst, 68, and husband Kuske, 72, were among residents who challenged village management in court and won the right to install solar panels.
“We all should have rainwater tanks and solar panels,” Mrs Horst said.
