North East Water unveils $9 million solar farm to help absorb costs of sewage treatment

The $9 million, 6500-panel solar farm on Old Barnawartha Road is already generating enough electricity to power the plant during the day, with surplus energy fed into the electricity grid to offset power used at other sites across North East Water's 20,000-square kilometre network, such as Wangaratta.

It is expected to save between $300,000 to $400,000 per year at the Wodonga wastewater plant alone, with the panels able to rotate and track the sun for maximum exposure.

North East Water's general manager of environment, systems and operations John Day said it was the largest supply of energy to a wastewater plant in regional Victoria and second only to Melbourne Water's operation across the state.

"Obviously when there is more sunlight and the daylight hours are longer, we can put more power back into the grid, and then run our water treatment plants during the day. Those water treatment plants can be turned off at night and then we run off storages," he said.

"We use around about one to 1.5 megawatts here, so about 1.5 will go back into the grid. There's seven other water treatment plants sites that will then use that power.

"It aligns really well to have a site to utilise our buffer zones around wastewater treatment plants to build solar. At our other sites where we don't have that land availability, we can put into the grid and extract and use it through a virtual metering network."

Mr Day said North East Water currently generates around 25,000 tonnes of carbon emissions a year from gases released through treating wastewater and energy use, with the solar farm to help its push to reach net zero emissions by 2035.

All 18 of Victoria's water corporations are formally committed to achieve the feat by 2035 under a statement of obligations (emission reduction), implemented by the state government.

Managing director Jo Murdoch said solar power was a "significant piece of the puzzle" to keep operating costs down, and, in turn, keep customer bills affordable.

"We're no longer talking about waste, we're talking about turning waste into energy, the circular economy and helping to improve the environment, but also keeping costs down for customers," she said.

"Treating water and wastewater is very energy intensive. It's the first piece of the puzzle for what would be a major upgrade to the site in the future."

In June 2023, Australian Gas Infrastructure Group announced a $53 million hydrogen plant was Wodonga bound to further cut carbon emissions.

"In terms of the circular economy, what we're looking at is also creating energy that we could share with commercial partners, that we can share with the hydrogen facility, potentially down the track providing recycled water to the hydrogen plant and us receiving oxygen back from the hydrogen plant," Ms Murdoch said.

"This whole site will become a circular economy hub in the future."

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