'Solar gardens' allow more Aussies to tap green energy

Those living in apartments and homes not suited for solar panels can rent them

- Jonathan Pearlman

SYDNEY For years, Ms Emma Dortins, who lives in an inner-city suburb of Sydney, had wanted to join the millions of other households across Australia which have solar panels on their rooftops.

Australia, which has a dry and sunny climate, has the world's highest per-capita take-up of solar panels. About 3.3 million households have solar panels, producing about 8 per cent of the nation's electricity.

The difficulty for Ms Dortins, a 45-year-old civil servant who lives with her husband and nine-yearold son, was that their house, which was built more than 120 years ago, has an old roof that would not be able to handle the weight of solar panels.

But Ms Dortins has taken part in a new project that will allow her to finally join Australia's solar transformation - a "solar garden" being built on farmland in New South Wales (NSW) which allows residents of densely populated cities to access panels even if they cannot have them on their rooftop.

The Haystacks Solar Garden, the first such project in Australia, enables people in apartments and houses not suited for solar panels to tap the energy.

"We were keen to get into solar more quickly than we could otherwise," Ms Dortins told The Straits Times.