Staff from the Walgett Aboriginal Medical Service (WAMS) say they will be able to employ an extra nurse and improve their services thanks to savings achieved by installing 143kW of solar panels on its roof.

The installation of the solar panels - completed in June - have been spread out over the administration building, dental clinic and chronic disease building.

The new solar panels are the first of multiple renewable energy sources the local medical service plans for its facility, with additional panels and battery storage also under consideration.

WAMS finance manager Mathew Baker said the new panels will save the service more than $50,600 per year while taking their energy needs away from the coal-fired power on the town grid.

“The whole system will have paid for itself within five years, saving more than $1.25M over the life of the panels and we are preventing over 100 tonnes of emissions every year," Mr Baker said.

“WAMS provides a wide range of medical services, GP, and specialist health services to the Walgett community as well as to surrounding areas, so these savings can go straight back into improving our service deliver. It will allow us to put on another nursing staff member.”

The project was facilitated by local not-for-profit renewable energy organisation, Geni.Energy, which seeks to help the northwest region gain from renewable energy. 

Director of Geni.Energy Sally Hunter said she was thrilled to help facilitate the project for the WAMS.

"This is an awesome project - it’s great to be able to help WAMS employ more medical staff, reach their savings goals, and reduce carbon emissions - in such a sunny place like Walgett, this makes sense,” she said.

Another partner in the project was clean energy company Planet Ark Power. Planet Ark Power Executive Director, Richard Romanowski said they were also proud to be involved.

"We look forward to continuing working with WAMS and contributing to their sustainability journey," he said.

The WAMS installation is also proposed to feature Planet Ark Power's eleXsys product which, subject to approvals, would allow WAMS to export the energy from their system.

According to Mr Romanowski, this would create an extra income stream for WAMS and further improve the overall viability of the project by being a back-up power source for the local grid.