Warrnambool electric vehicle stations get supercharged

It is almost five years since the council installed its first and only charging points in Liebig Street and chief executive Peter Schneider said it would help Warrnambool achieve its green ambitions.

"This will help the community move towards its goal for the municipality... of zero net greenhouse gas emissions," he said.

The funding forms part of the state government's $5 million Destination Charging Across Victoria Program, which will also fund new 50kW charging stations in Camperdown, Port Fairy, Portland and Hamilton.

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The new Warrnambool charger will be more than twice as powerful as the existing 22kW chargers, meaning a motorist could charge their car in under an hour.

Meanwhile, Tesla has partnered with Dan Murphy's to install three supercharger electric vehicle stations at the Gateway Plaza store.

The new stations went live last month and at 250kW are five times more powerful than the planned council charger, fully charging a car in just 15 minutes.

The Victorian government also announced a $3 million EV Charging for Council Fleets program to help local councils change their vehicles to electric power.

In its Green Warrnambool plan, WCC committed to making 20 per cent of its fleet "low emission vehicles" by 2026 and 100 per cent by 2040.

"Council will consider applying for funding under the EV Charging for Council Fleets initiative announced recently by the Victorian Government," Mr Schneider said.

He called the program "a great initiative", saying it would help the council, which hasn't yet transitioned any of its fleet to electric vehicles, achieve its 2026 and 2040 targets.

Mr Schneider said while WCC had room for growth in its electric vehicle infrastructure, it was making progress in other renewables projects.

The council recently completed a solar energy project at Warrnambool Stadium, funded by the RACV, to make the facility self-powered.

Mr Schneider said the idea was to edify the stadium's power supply in case it had to be used as an emergency relief centre, but it was already producing enough power to pump electricity back out into the grid.

"Thanks to this RACV initiative - and some long, sunny days - the solar and battery installation is already powering the stadium, so along with having an emergency back-up power supply the system is delivering energy savings for ratepayers," he said.

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