Jeff has been loving his swimming training this year, and his team has been smashing it in the under 10s squad competition. His coach says he’s got a lot of potential to take it in a serious direction. I don’t know about all that at this point, but if Jeff wants to do that in the future I’ll support him.
Anyway, the big fundraising carnival is on this weekend. A while back, the swim school announced that it’s going solar, and now it’s crunch time for maximising their available funds. I’m pretty into the idea – I mean, I don’t imagine that running a heated indoor pool would go easy on the energy use front. It’s good for everyone concerned to be aware of that, I think.
One suggestion I have for them is that they start by installing commercial LED lighting. Melbourne has been getting more and more into this, I’ve noticed. I figure that since the pool operates mainly in the evenings, lighting makes up a significant part of its energy use, so introducing lighting infrastructure that uses relatively minimal energy seems like an ideal way to support their overall movement towards generating their own energy.
The report about it in the monthly newsletter mentioned that acquiring an energy storage system is a goal that will come into effect if they manage to exceed their fundraising targets. As far as I understand, installing a commercial powerwall isn’t cheap. But it would be ideal in this situation. Again, this is because the pool’s primary operating hours are in the evenings, when the solar panels can’t generate power.
Still, if they can get the solar system up and running, they’ll be on their way. Even if they can’t use the power generated directly, they can sell it into the grid and use that money to support their energy bills. That, in turn could supplement the cost of installing the battery system, which might eventually enable them to move away from reliance on the grid.