Brimbank City Council: 2023 Winner – Sustainable places
Brimbank City Council is the Community Champion award winner in the Premier's Sustainability Awards 2023 – Sustainable places category. Photo by Dianna Snape. The Brimbank Aquatic and Wellness Centre is a 100% renewable-energy powered, zero-greenhouse-gas emissions aquatic centre.
An integrated 4-pipe heat pump for simultaneous use in the pool, domestic water, space heating, and cooling is combined with a heat recovery system, a 500 kW onsite rooftop solar PV (photovoltaic) system, and a thermal energy storage system with a capacity of 88,000 L.
Compared to a conventional gas-powered design, the all-electric and renewable-energy-powered centre is 76% more energy-efficient and is modelled to avoid 1,192 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions per year. This is an approximately 17% reduction of council’s overall annual greenhouse gas emissions.
The project challenges the status quo of building and operating energy-intensive, gas-fuelled aquatic centres and provides a working example that can be replicated in Victoria and across Australia.
