Energise Gloucester Update April 2021

Energise Gloucester Update April 2021
Apr 20, 2021

EG Update April 2021

Dear Members,

Behind the scenes, your Energise Gloucester Committee has been busy!

Being part of the Community Energy network in Australia is important as it helps us keep up to date with ideas and developments. It also helps us to publicise our activities. As part of this over the last month we have:

  • Participated in a podcast by the Newcastle Herald. We thank James Hooke and Stefanie Garland for also contributing to this with us. You can listen to what we said and to information from other groups below.

 

  • As chairperson, David participated in a Repower our Communities webinar organised by the Community Power Agency and Farmers for Climate Action. The topic was "How to harness the renewable energy boom". You can watch this below.

 

  • David and Di Montague joined leaders of the other Regional Community Energy Funded projects to discuss progress and share experiences. While the report of this is not available, the information shared and discussion about their experiences in community funding, technical design and tendering is proving to be very useful for us.

Development of the Solar Farm is progressing with a call for tenders to "design and construct" the facility. On expert advice, we have combined these two stages to assist us in getting the most appropriate design for the site and the budget. Six tenders have been received and together with Komo Energy, we will be evaluating them over the next month.

At the same time, we have contracted with Essential Energy to undertake the final design for connection approval. Preparation of a Development Application to MidCoast Council is also in the pipeline. Next month we will start the process of tendering for the sale of the electricity generated by the Solar Farm.

With all this background work almost completed we hope to be offering shares in the Gloucester Community Solar Co-op Ltd early in the next financial year

Regards,

David Marston
Chair
Energise Gloucester Inc