The Coal Mining Past and the Solar Powered Future of Walloon
A suburb of the City of Ipswich, Walloon lies about 5 miles from the city center. At 33 miles from the Brisbane Central Business District, Walloon is a fairly well settled suburb. This place was named after inhabitants of Belgium known as the Walloons who were a Romanic language speaking people. This study tries to enumerate the possibilities for solar power in the locality of Walloon.
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Location – As mentioned earlier, Walloon is one of the closer suburbs of Ipswich. It is bordered by Haigslea, Ironbark, Pine Mountain, Amberley and Thagoona. Walloon has a railway station with regular electric train services to Ipswich and to Brisbane via the Rosewood line. Its northernmost border runs along the Warrego Highway along the boundary with Ironbark. Just south east of it is the Amberley Royal Australian Air Force Aviation heritage center and military airport.
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Population – According to the 2011 census, Walloon has a total population of about 1500 individuals. Most of the inhabitants of this area are people working in the big cities of Ipswich and Brisbane who commute daily to work, but would like to stay in a peaceful and quit suburban area. The area is littered with scenic houses with front and backyards.
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Area – Walloon was primarily grassland dotted with trees. There are a few scrubland type areas towards west and southwest. This has led to an increased interest from real estate. Both commercial and residential real estate is available here.
There are small patches of cleared land which are up for sale for individual house owners who would want to build houses to their own specifications. This is a great opportunity for Solar Power in Walloon as this would enable its growth right from the get go. Older houses tend to have built in power connections from the grid and hence are more difficult to change or convert to solar power. With newer houses integration is a little easier given the compliance and willingness of the owners.
Houses in this area go over 350,000 Australian Dollars and vacant plots of land go regularly above 200,000 to 250,000 Australian Dollars. This is already a well sought after area for suburban residential living. With neighboring Ipswich set to grow exponentially over the next decade, Walloon is geared up for a property rush as well.
There are a few industrial acres planned to the south and south west of Walloon. It remains to be seen how well the response is going to be. With solar arrays in nearby areas, their dependence on thermal power can definitely be reduced. Overwhelmingly, the real estate development in Walloon is residential.
Solar power in Walloon will primarily revolve around residential houses. The challenge would be to get them of the conventional power grid as much as possible. The power needs in this area will grow rapidly and if solar power can start filling the requirement as it grows, there will be little or no need for thermal power.
It is an imperative to develop solar power in this area and encourage both newer and older home owners to take up solar power and cut down conventional power, which will in turn cut down emissions.