Energise Gloucester Newsletter No 4

Chairman’s Note

The Gloucester Sustainability Convention was a great opportunity to chat with a number of you and to attend some great sessions about Community Energy and related topics. We welcome a number of new members who signed up after I Energise Gloucester at the convention. Abbie Allen from Powershop was also there and spoke about their grant to Energise Gloucester as well as their other grants to Community Energy around Australia.

I have had another meeting with the Board of the Bucketts Way Neighbourhood Group to explain the latest details of the solar PV project that we are proposing for the Center’s roof. We are now in a position to negotiate a Heads of Agreement with them and this will enable us to proceed to the final design and tendering for the project. The next step will be to determine the financial model, pricings and the basis for community investment in the project. It’s at an exciting stage

Looking forward to seeing you at the Information Night,
David Marston (Chairperson)

Ideas for EG from the Sustainability Convention

What a great convention it was last weekend. David came away buzzing with ideas, but two in particular that he would like to share with you.

Tom Knockolds from Community Power Agency spoke about Community Energy opportunities and benefits. He spoke about the growth of groups like Energise Gloucester in Australia (now about 90 groups) and praised the work that we are doing. Tom teamed with Mike Ramsden from Newcastle in a workshop that explored the concept of a public solar energy farm in Gloucester that would supply electricity to the grid. Mike is keen to work with us to develop plans and approvals for a mid-size system (100kW – 1000kW) that would be community funded and connected to the grid.

In a great workshop by the Z-NET Uralla team we heard about their overall project – A renewable energy future for Uralla and zero net carbon emissions. Specifically, we learnt about the development and implementation of a program of energy efficiency audits for households and businesses. They are using these audits to recommend actions for energy users (Electricity, gas and wood) to reduce total usage. Their other initial program is education about and support for rooftop solar generation. These two actions came from a comprehensive blueprint for Z-NET Uralla as a government pilot.

The EG Committee will be following up on both of those ideas

Report

Community Energy Congress

Powering The Future Together

The Community Energy Congress was held in Melbourne earlier this year from 27—28 February 2017 and organised by the C4CE Coalition for Community Energy. C4CE was launched three years ago. Their vision is to create a vibrant community energy sector, where communities across and throughout Australia are hubs of sustainable innovation and collaborative action between residents, business, industry, and all tiers of government. Approximately 600 people attended the Congress representing all States f Australia. Pat Burrows and Dianne Montague, two of our committee members, spent four days in Melbourne at this very exciting congress.

Pat and Di also presented at a Breakout Session titled, ‘Community Energy and Fossil Fuel-Affected Communities’. Energise Gloucester was delighted to receive partial funding for the event from the NSW Department of Environment and Heritage to enable the two of them to participate. The aims for the congress were to:

• Inspire participants to (continue to) create change in their communities,
• Support people to learn from successful examples of community energy,
• Foster new networks, relationships and collaborations,
• Identify key opportunities and barriers facing the sector, and
• Facilitate sharing of information and strategies about overcoming the barriers and realising opportunities.

There was a wide range of speakers including some from others countries such as Denmark, Japan and USA. The speaker from the USA is the Senior Policy Advisor for Energy and Climate Change at the White House Domestic Policy Council. It is important to note that one of the speakers was Ben Franklin MLC, Parliamtary Secretary, for Renewable Energy, NSW and PS for Renewable Energy and Northern NSW. He is a Nationals MP with a passion for spreading community energy throughout NSW. So what is Community Energy did I hear you ask? The National Community Energy Strategy defines community energy as “The wide range of ways that communities can develop, deliver and benefit from sustainable energy. It can involve supply-side projects such as renewable energy installations and storage, and demand-side projects such as community education, energy efficiency and demand management. Community energy can even include community-based approaches to selling or distributing energy”. To make the most of the experience Pat and Di attended the ‘Business Model Training’ workshop prior to the congress and separate workshops during the congress. It is impossible to squash four days into one article so these are the highlights.

Information was gained on many subjects, which will be extremely useful for Energise Gloucester in our community. These include Business Model Innovation, Solar Farms, Working with Network Companies, Working with Retailers, Models of Community Solar, Delivering 100% Local Renewables and Stories of successful community projects in Australia.

Pat and Di enjoyed the four days and came back to Gloucester with minds overflowing with information. They both agreed that the opportunity to liaise with people from all parts of Australia and overseas, and from all walks of life was the high point of the congress.

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