Castlemaine-based solar installer, Universal Power and Light, is taking on more staff to cope with high levels of demand for solar PV installations as a result of the MASH2 project. Universal Power and Light has been appointed to carry out home visits and solar installations for MASH2, the community solar bulk-buy launched in June for people in Mount Alexander Shire and neighbouring shires. Universal Power and Light is working on MASH2 under contract to SunEdison Australia, the supplier for MASH2.
“The Hub Foundation wants to support local business as much as we can”, said Jo Kaptein, Project Officer at the Hub Foundation. “Already we’re employing five people to get the message out. With potentially 200 solar installations to complete before Christmas this year, we needed a major solar player with strong processes and administration to manage the complex process involved in solar installation. That’s why we appointed SunEdison Australia as our supplier. SunEdison has been involved in many local government bulk-buys, the most recent being around 500 systems for the Darebin Council solar project in 2014 (operating under the name Energy Matters at the time).
“But there was no reason why we couldn’t get a local solar installer involved to actually carry out the home visits and installations. Having worked with Morgan Kurrajong and his team at Universal Power and Light on MASH stage 1, we were impressed with their work ethic and customer focus. That’s why we contacted Morgan to see he’d like to play a much bigger role with MASH2.”
This way of working fitted well into the way SunEdison want to do business in regional Victoria. “Our approach is to use local solar installers in regional Victoria, rather than do the work ourselves, said Rory Allen, Community Solar Consultant at SunEdison. As we didn’t have an installer in the Castlemaine area, we were delighted when the MASH2 project recommended that we work with Universal Power and Light. We hope that our relationship with Morgan and his team will continue well beyond the MASH2 project.”
“We were pleased when the Hub Foundation asked us if we’d like to work on the MASH2 project”, said Morgan. “The MASH project has ambitious goals which should mean lots of solar installations for us to do. I employ three people from Castlemaine and I am looking to put on more because of the work coming the MASH2 project. If it gets too much for us to handle by ourselves we understand that other installers will be employed as well. It’s all good news for solar”.
The MASH2 project has got off to a strong start with over 125 households registering within the first three weeks as well as around 120 people attending the first four community information meetings. “This is very encouraging”, says Jo Kaptein, “particularly as Mount Alexander Shire already has one in four households with solar PV systems.”
For more information about MASH2, visit www.mash.org.au or call 0455 589 065.
