The McLaren Vale District War Memorial Hospital is a community-owned, not–for-profit hospital, providing services to public patients through a contract with SA Health. This community hospital in the heart of McLaren Vale, operates for the benefit of the community.

Late last year AGL awarded numerous community grants for the installation of $1 rooftop solar panels. These grants were specifically for community groups and businesses that embodied AGL’s value of ‘inclusive of all’ with a focus on social and economic inclusion.

In recognition of their community ethos, the McLaren Vale District War Memorial Hospital was one of the recipients of these grants.

"A knock-on effect of the AGL solar panel grant was that state funding previously slated for rooftop solar panels could now be repurposed for additional benefits to the hospital." 

In a recent media statement, the South Australian Minister for Health and Wellbeing, Stephen Wade said it was up to management to determine the best use for the funding.

Board Chair of McLaren Vale Hospital, Mr William Dollman said our grant means the state government funding could now be used for future upgrades and equipment as well as looking at opportunities to enhance services for the local population.

How did the hospital receive the solar panels from AGL?

The solar panel grant received by the hospital was part of AGL’s ‘Powering our Community’ initiative. This initiative was designed to give our employees a chance to show their community support.

We asked our people to nominate local community groups for rooftop solar panels and installation, for a one-off cost of $1 to the community group and encouraged applications for community groups that embodied AGL’s value of ‘inclusive of all’ and focus on social and economic inclusion.

Our people had three months to apply on behalf of their chosen community group and after that three-month period, we had 20 nominations. All applications were given to our solar team to ascertain whether the applications met the technical criteria for the solar panels.

After this phase of the project, a judging panel was created, made up of people from all parts of AGL to decide which of the community groups best displayed AGL’s value of ‘inclusive of all’ in their application.

The judging panel came up with 14 community groups across New South Wales, South Australia, Victoria and Queensland who are set to receive the solar panel offer (pending an on-site solar inspection).

And of course, The McClaren Vale War Memorial Hospital was one of the groups selected.

We’re proud to be part of the community

At AGL, we are committed to making a positive social, economic and environmental contribution to the communities in which we live and operate in.

"Through our community engagement activities, we seek to be a trusted and respected part of the community and this is just one of the ways we can help."

The Energy for Life team is so proud of this initiative and we hope that when the next round of nominations comes up in July 2019, we receive many more applications.