Melbourne tram network will be powered by a new large scale solar plant to be built in regional Victoria. The Government will run a tender to help build 75MW of new large scale solar farms, delivering USD 113 million in new capital investment and 300 new jobs. Around 35MW of the new solar farms will be linked to Melbourne’s tram network. The Government will voluntarily surrender renewable energy certificates matching the amount of electricity used by all of Melbourne’s trams.
This will result in a reduction of more than 80,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions every year, reducing CO2 emissions by the same amount as taking 17,000 cars off the road for a year. “This is a world first to power Melbourne’s tram network on clean energy,” Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change, Lily D’Ambrosio said.
An open tender will be run in the first half of 2017 to build Victoria’s first large scale solar farms by the end of 2018.
This initiative keeps Victoria on track to meet its target of net-zero emissions by 2050.
The Melbourne’s operator, Yarra Trams, is committed to operating our network sustainably, and support the government with this initiative to power our network with renewable energy.
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