POST-COMMUNITY POWER CONFERENCE REPORT

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It was like a meeting of the tribes as delegates from community –owned renewable energy projects around the nation climbed the steps and gathered beneath the historic columns of The Capitol Theatre in Bendigo recently.

The Community Power Conference: Australian Communities Taking Charge of Their Energy Use brought together a vibrant mix of 130 representatives from what conference convener, Professor John Martin referred to as, some of the nation’s most innovative, community-owned and driven, small-to-medium scale, renewable energy generation and energy reduction programs. Professor Martin, from La Trobe University’s Centre for Sustainable Regional Communities, congratulated conference attendees for highlighting what could be done and for leading the way with renewable energy production.

What we learned from each other?

• Regional development and sustainability go hand in hand with the development of community renewable energy solutions.
• The City of Sydney’s energy overhaul by Allan Jones, MBE was recognised as a blueprint for energy, water and waste systems in communities of the future.
• Economic benefits from local energy generation projects are flowing back to the community in the form of dividends to energy project shareholders, community grant schemes and discounted energy prices.
• Local energy generation can smooth peak demand in the grid, preventing brown-outs
• Localised renewable energy solutions can work for both large and small communities using a range of business models to suit each community’s needs. Different examples of community-owned and driven renewable energy projects already exist, both in Australia and overseas.
• Supportive government policy at the state and federal level is necessary to enable communities to develop localised renewable energy solutions. So far government policy, including feed-in tariffs (such as the simulated feed-in tariff for Bendigo and Ballarat Solar Parks), has enabled community-owned projects to get underway and remain viable. Internationally government policy has been crucial in bringing down the unit costs of renewable energy generation and making it a more affordable option.

What happened next?

• Delegates unanimously supported a motion that expressed disappointment with the recent wind farm legislation handed down by the Baillieu Government in Victoria.
• Delegates noted a recent statement from a custodian of fossil-fuel based industries – the International Energy Agency (IEA). Faith Birol, IEA Chief Economist said, ‘Without a bold change of policy direction, the world will lock itself into an insecure, inefficient and high-carbon energy system. Governments need to introduce stronger measures to drive investment in efficient and low-carbon technologies. As each year passes without clear signals to drive investment in clean energy, the “lock-in” of high-carbon infrastructure is making it harder and more expensive to meet our energy security and climate goals. Delaying action is a false economy: for every $1 of investment in cleaner technology that is avoided in the power sector before 2020, an additional $4.30 would need to be spent after 2020 to compensate for the increased emissions.”

The Value of the Conference

• Communities who were interested in developing renewable energy projects could talk to communities who had already done it and could coach each other about stakeholder engagement
• Through the sharing of first class presentations the conference raised the bar as to what can be achieved in renewable energy
• The conference highlighted how communities, such as Hepburn through their wind project, can deliver successful renewable energy solutions. It was an opportunity to share successful blueprints.
• Strong desire to keep working together as a region. Delegates really valued the support they got from each other and are interested in staying in touch.
• Delegates heard from a wide range of technology products about quality and choice to both produce renewable energy and reduce overall energy use

Where to from here?

1. Convey conference communiqué to participants, press, state and federal governments, regional development MPS and leaders nationally

2. Conference convenors to write to Victorian Government , on behalf of delegates, to express disappointment at the recent wind farm bans

3. Conference convenors to write to Federal Government and the head of the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (Jillian Broadbent) urging that $100million be ear marked for community-owned renewable energy projects in order to encourage regional development and localise renewable energy generation profits.

4. Conference convenors to approach partners such as Central Victoria Solar City, Bankmecu, Bendigo and Adelaide Bank, City of Greater Bendigo, ATA, ReNew and others to fund a formal submission, along the Clean Energy Fund guidelines, in accordance with point (3).

Central Victoria Solar City pledged to:

1. Convene an online discussion group regarding large scale community solar

2. Create a Linked In Community for interested conference participants to keep in touch and update each other on what they’re doing

3. Send a monthly eNews to conference participants

4. Convene two forums for local government in 2012 to explore opportunities for increased energy efficiency and local renewable energy generation