Sydney Hindu temple installs 26kW solar system, plans to add batteries

A Sydney community group has installed a 26kW rooftop solar system on the roof of a Hindu temple in the city’s west, an investment it says part of its energy generation policy, while also meeting its community’s environmental expectations.

The group – the Shree Swaminarayan Community – said the 100 260W Trina Solar PV panels installed on the temple in Kings Park were designed to cater for a future system upgrade, as well as the possible addition of battery storage.
“Our energy consumption is quite high as the buildings are centrally air-conditioned and every weekend we cook food for our members, as well as the lighting we need to spotlight statures and paintings,” said Dhanji Varsani, a founder of the Sydney Shree Swaminarayan Community.

“Our community hall was purpose built in 2013 and is used every day from 6am to 10pm and comprises of two halls and as the solar panels are now on one roof, we plan to increase our generating capacity by installing panels on the second roof.”
The installer of the $26,000 system – RK Solar & Consulting Services – said they completed the installation in two days and that they expected it to have a return on investment of three and a half to four and a half years.
“As the temple plans to have batteries installed at a future date this would also reduce their evening and night time usage of grid power,” said RK Solar’s Kunal Kapoor.
“They are committed to a solar future and plan to install solar at their other locations in Adelaide and Perth.”