Leading the charge on local renewable energy

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://ecogeneration.com.au/news/leading_the_charge_on_local_renewable_energy/034421/

Leading the charge on local renewable energy

EcoGeneration — March/April 2010

The Central Victoria Solar City Project has now officially been launched and the project’s two 300 kilowatt solar parks in Bendigo and Ballarat have begun feeding clean energy to the grid. EcoGeneration takes a closer look at these projects and the community-driven forces that have propelled them forward.

Like the other Solar Cities projects across Australia, as part of the Australian Government’s $94 million Solar Cities program, the Central Victoria Solar City Project offers incentives to local residents and businesses to participate in a trial range of energy efficiency, local energy generation and demand management products and services.

Unique to the Central Victoria project is the trial of two 300 kilowatt (kW) photovoltaic (PV) solar parks, which will test infrastructure funding ideas for renewable energy, ascertaining whether – with the right price – people will invest in a local energy power station as a community company, much like investment in community banks. Most significantly, the project will build a retail transaction directly with customers.

“Building a solar park and selling the power into the grid is a sensible concept. The bit that is special is that we are trying to weave the customer into (the model) rather than treating the solar park trial like a wholesale market,” says Project Director Michael McCartney.

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[Statistical]

1. Interesting concept. If I am understanding it right it is like a solar co-op. Right?

[OKIsItJustMe]

2. That's my understanding

Just the sort of thing I think should be widely done.

[Chemisse]

3. It would be so nice if we bipassed the whole political inertia on clean energy

And just built it on a grass-roots level - like this project.