Available now: the second webinar in our series of four on the theme of designing community owned energy projects with strong community participation.

The first of four free webinars kicked off last week on Thursday, thanks to support from Sustainability Victoria and the Community Power Hubs. The first webinar was an introduction to designing community owned energy projects with strong community participation and the recording is available online.

The Coalition for Community Energy will be hosting recordings of the webinars on their website and YouTube channel.

The second webinar will take place this week on Thursday and will dive into the detail of how the economic arrangements can facilitate engagement of the sort you’re looking for in your project.

WEBINAR 2: Facilitating participation through economic arrangements.
Thursday 26 September 2019, 6:00–7:30 PM

WEBINAR 3: Facilitating participation through governance structures.
Thursday 3 October 2019, 6:00–7:30 PM

WEBINAR 4: Facilitating participation through community engagement practices.
Thursday 10 October 2019, 6:00–7:30 PM

Register here for upcoming webinars.

North East Victoria continues to be one of the hottest spots in Australia for community energy. Energy democracy was the rallying cry earlier this year when independent Helen Haines won the seat of Indi at the Federal election – helped by a strong community energy and climate action movement in the area.

This last week has seen a flurry of activity in the region. The Clean Energy Council awarded their Community Engagement Award to Mondo Power for their work with Totally Renewable Yackandandah in establishing a community micro grid that has already saved the community more than $160,000 in energy costs and will ultimately allow the town to source 100% of it’s electricity from renewables sources by 2022. The Victorian Government celebrated the launch of the Hume Renewable Energy Roadmap, a comprehensive guide to ensuring the communities in the region are able to take advantage of the opportunities that will come with the clean energy transition, while also ensuring public support remains high and community values are respected. Finally, Indigo Shire Council officially declared a climate emergency at an ordinary Council meeting.

This is all possible because of the work and commitment of the community energy and climate action groups in the area and their supporters. Community energy initiatives and meaningful action on climate change appears to be ramping up in this region and we think this is testament to the fact that collaboration is the approach taken by so many people, groups and businesses in the area.

The first community energy project by a Queensland community energy group

Energetic Communities announced today their successful completion of their first project – an investor driven solar project on the roof of Food Connect. The project is closely based on the Repower Shoalhaven model, which we already know is highly replicable.

We look forward to more and more community energy projects coming out of Queensland, the sunshine state.

Leading ethical bank, Bank Australia, announced today their biggest ever round of grant funding, including a new category just for community energy projects. Five organisations will receive $25,000 from the Bank to develop their community energy projects.

The full list of grant recipients can be found on their website, but the five community energy winners are worth us listing here:

• Bendigo Sustainability Group
• Central Victorian Greenhouse Alliance
• Gippsland Climate Change Network
• Pingala
• Community Power Agency

Yes, that’s right – we’re one of the recipients. We’re using the funds to help Inner West Council in Sydney further develop their plans for creating a solar garden for those residents who are ‘locked out’ of owning their own rooftop solar system.

The project will determine the best solar gardens model to use for residents in the Inner West Council are and commence planning for the future implementation stage.

Our heartfelt congratulations to all the successful applicants. We look forward to seeing your community energy projects unfold and flourish with this generous support from Bank Australia.