The Brimbank Aquatic and Wellness Centre (BAWC) is Australia's first 100 per cent renewable energy powered, zero greenhouse gas emissions aquatic centre. This is a significant milestone in the advancement of sustainability in aquatic centres in Australia.
This project was a recipient of an Advancing Renewables Program grant from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA).
What is a 100% renewable aquatic centre?
What is a 100% renewable aquatic centre?
Our Climate Emergency Plan 2020-25 commits our operations to reaching net-zero emissions by 2030, and by 2040 for the whole municipality.
Aquatic centres are by far the most energy and emission intensive of all council managed facilities due to gas boilers heating large volumes of water. The Brimbank Aquatic and Wellness Centre showcases the commercial viability of transitioning to all-electric renewable energy powered centres.
This is enabled by the following features:
- A four pipe heat pump for simultaneous use in pool, domestic water, space heating and cooling throughout the centre
- An integrated heat recovery system
- A high quality thermal building envelope
- A 500kW onsite rooftop solar PV system
- A thermal energy storage system with a capacity of 88,000L to store excess energy generated by the PV system
- Remaining electricity needs for the centre purchased from wind farms in regional Victoria via the long term Victorian Energy Collaboration power purchase agreement contract.
The heat pumps and energy storage system plant at our aquatic and wellness centre.
BAWC operations - Monthly data dashboards
BAWC operations - Monthly data dashboards
June 2024 - Facility Overview
Full dashboard and source data:
BAWC Operations Full Dashboard - June 2024 (PDF 7.9MB)
BAWC Operations Data Source - June 2024 (XSL 24KB)
What is a 100% renewable aquatic centre?
What is a 100% renewable aquatic centre?
Brimbank City Council’s Climate Emergency Plan 2020-2025 commits Council to reaching net-zero emissions by 2030 for Council operations, and by 2040 for the Brimbank municipality as a whole.
Aquatic centres are by far the most energy and emission intensive of all council managed facilities due to gas boilers heating large volumes of water. The Brimbank Aquatic and Wellness Centre (BAWC) showcases the commercial viability of transitioning to all-electric renewable energy powered centres.
This is enabled by the following features:
- A four pipe heat pump for simultaneous use in pool, domestic water, space heating and cooling throughout the centre
- An integrated heat recovery system
- A high quality thermal building envelope
- A 500kW onsite rooftop solar PV system
- A thermal energy storage system with a capacity of 88,000L to store excess energy generated by the PV system
- Remaining electricity needs for the centre purchased from wind farms in regional Victoria via the long term Victorian Energy Collaboration (VECO) power purchase agreement contract.
Heat Pumps and Energy Storage System in BAWC Plant
Monthly data dashboards
Monthly data dashboards
Operations Dashboard Facility Overview - June 2024
Full dashboard and source data download links
BAWC PDF
BAWC XLSX
Contact us
For further enquiries email our Environment at environment@brimbank.vic.gov.au.