Council said last week that 15 of its facilities now have panels installed after Bathurst Memorial Entertainment Centre became the latest.

The roof-mounted, grid-connected system at BMEC will supplement the grid electricity used by the centre, according to council.

"The installation of the 90kW system will produce approximately 137 MWh [megawatt-hours] of solar generated electricity per year, which is about 45 per cent of the total electricity used at BMEC," mayor Bobby Bourke said.

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Cr Fry said he would like to see a tenfold increase in the solar energy capability at the filtration plant at Gormans Hill and the waste water plant on Morrisset Street to protect their functioning in the event of a long loss of power due to a natural disaster.

"The conditions are perfect [for an investment to have more energy produced at the facilities]," he said.

"Funding is available, the technology is there; it's just a case of getting council to make that commitment."

He said the swing to solar was being made inevitable by the financials.

"I think people, regardless of their feelings on renewable energy, can see the economics speak for themselves," he said.

"You can't argue with the very quick payback period on solar."

The next step, he said, would be to make more widespread use of batteries, which are becoming more efficient and less expensive.

"Then we could get into buying and selling power in a more competitive way," he said.

Cr Fry said he would also like to see Bathurst become one of the NSW Government's renewable energy zones, where new grid infrastructure is developed.

"We could become the renewable energy centre for NSW because of where we are positioned on the grid," he said.

Since 2009, solar panels have been installed at council facilities including Pit Paddock, the Works Depot, Small Animal Pound, Bathurst Visitor Information Centre, Scallywags, Rail Museum and Manning Aquatic Centre.