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Powering Vinnies to help people and the planet

To ensure Vinnies can keep doing what they do best, we’re honoured to play a small role in helping to reduce their everyday operating costs.
5 min read
Last updated 14 Feb, 2024

With the savings they’ll make from solar, Vinnies Victoria can re-invest money back into the community to help those in need.

Much of the great work Vinnies does is funded in part by proceeds from their shops that sell clothing, household items and other donated items. But revenue from the shops alone isn’t enough to cover the massive costs of state-wide assistance – about $20 million a year. 

In 2021, we partnered with the not-for-profit St Vincent de Paul Society to install solar across 87 of its Victorian retail shops. Vinnies Victoria needed an energy partner with the capability and experience to deliver a large multi-site solar rollout. They also wanted to reduce the impact on the environment as a certified Carbon Neutral business. 

A sustainable contribution

By mid-2023, our solar panel installation will generate an estimated 1992 MWh each year across 87 sites – the equivalent of powering about 415 average Aussie homes.1 This is estimated to help Vinnies save up to $1.26 million in energy costs over the next 10 years.2

The solar system was installed under a Power Purchase Agreement model, so Vinnies Victoria didn’t have to pay for the system upfront. That's extra money going towards providing support to hundreds of thousands of vulnerable Australians every year.

Kevin McMahon, St Vincent de Paul Society Victorian State President, says he expects the partnership to save Vinnies more money on energy costs long after the first decade.

“Long-term savings from solar will have an enormous impact and enable us to dream about developing new projects and figuring out even more great ways to help Victorians.”

Bringing smiles to those who need it 

Imeleta is one of the many people who Vinnies has helped. She is one of ten children – and now a mother of 10 of her own. She knows a thing or two about how it takes a village to raise a child. And she’s seen just how big of an impact Vinnies can have, with a connection that goes back to her childhood.

“Growing up in Samoa, we were fed and clothed by Vinnies,” she says. “Then, when we moved here to Australia, I saw Vinnies as an extension of my family – they helped us when we first arrived.”

With her children grown up, Imeleta thought it was time to give back to the organisation that played such a big role in her life and started volunteering eight months ago.

“The most rewarding part of being a volunteer is just making people smile,” she says. “If they walk out with a smile and their spirits are a bit higher than they were when they came in, that’s the best feeling you can have.”

The rewards are paying off 

Kevin says he’s proud of helping people not only today, but also setting them up for the future.

“It’s always rewarding to help somebody who needs that extra bit of help,” he says.

He says our partnership with Vinnies will help the organisation continue to do so.

“We were very happy to partner with a company with the scale and expertise of AGL. We needed a partner that could cope with the size of our network.

“We’re very grateful for this partnership in this important work. It will help the environment and help us divert money into practical resources for people who need it.”

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1This is an estimate based on AGL’s modelling of the solar system’s expected annual energy output at the premises at the time of proposal.

2This is an estimate of the difference in energy costs payable by the customer over the relevant period, before and after installation of the solar system. This estimate is based on various assumptions at the time of AGL’s proposal, including in relation to the customer’s annual energy consumption at the premises, modelled solar energy generation and export at the premises, the customer’s retail tariff structure and feed-in tariff, and the price payable for solar energy.

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