WALGA, the peak body for all Local Governments in Western Australia, is leading the way for its members, having installed solar panels on its new, purpose-built office facility in West Leederville. The system generates 30 per cent of the building’s power requirements.
WALGA represents 139 Local Governments in Western Australia, with 1,300 elected members, more than 11,000 employees, 2.2 million constituents and a turnover of more than $3 billion per annum. It delivers business services, develops commercial ventures and procures high value aggregated supply contracts for goods and services for the local governments it serves.
“WALGA is now operating the largest office building solar power system in Perth,” said Nick Wood, Executive Manager, Business Solutions at WALGA. “This is a significant achievement, which supports our strategic commitment to best practice in environmental sustainability.”
There is a strong business case for implementing solar and other renewable energy projects, particularly in the face of rising electricity prices, but cost is a hurdle for many organisations. However, alternative capital solutions can often help.
For WALGA, the primary challenge was finding a way to finance the project which would meet its needs, while avoiding time-consuming, complex processes.
Maia Financial worked with WALGA to come up with a suitable way to finance its solar power system. Where some funders may try to sell in a ‘one size fits all’ solution, we try to understand what an organisation's challenges are and then build a solution to fix the problem.
The lease was structured to ensure energy savings achieved through the project funded the new, sustainable technology and made the project cash flow positive relatively early in the lease period. The lease was also structured to enable milestone payments to the supplier throughout the build phase.
The Maia Asset Finance team managed the project locally, which enabled the seamless integration of the WALGA project team, the supplier and the finance.