Frequently Asked Questions

What if our community wants to find out further information as a group prior to submitting an application?
Our Project Manager, Ross Egleton, is happy to discuss our program .

What money needs to be raised by my community? What is the financial and time commitment from my community? Who will pay for the energy assessment booklets, desk space, phone and marketing collateral?
The success of the project will depend on community volunteerism to support the project. Whole of community support is required for energy assessments, marketing and administration.

To allow for success, each stage of the model is staggered to support the community to build up the necessary social and financial capital to progress to the next stage. For example, the capital raising stage will only proceed if the pledge campaign provides confidence that people are willing to invest money into their renewable energy asset.

SRA has funding to cover certain aspects of the project. Specific allocation of funding will be determined in the Establishment stage (Stage 1 ).

The community, in collaboration with SRA, will raise money and seek in kind support where necessary.

What if my community has already completed parts of the model?
Thats great. It will not impact on our selection process but may possibly fast track your community to the next stage.

Can the community engagement officer and the energy assessor be the same person?
Yes, preferably.

Who pays for the energy assessor and the training?
Sustainable Regional Australia

What is ‘governance’?
The process of decision-making and the process by which decisions are implemented or not implemented

What kind of formal business knowledge do the community leaders require?
A cross section skill base is required as well as a willingness to learn formal ‘business’ or ‘corporate’ language and models.

Who undertakes marketing and administration on the project?
SRA have resource templates and established processes for all marketing and administration that the community can draw upon. It is important that the community manages the marketing as they are in the best position to know what channels to pursue and how their community responds. It is imperative that the community can access the appropriate skills to undertake marketing and administration.

Will there be a product suite to offer householders taking up energy assessments?
It is SRA’s preference that the Energy Assessments are complemented with package offers to support community participation. Initial discussions in project establishment phase will ascertain the most effective way to attract people to a home assessment and to value add to the home assessment as offered by SRA. If a product is offered, preference will be given to quality, local suppliers. The community will appoint the most suitable supplier/s .

What if people have already had assessments?
Previous assessments will be judged on their merit to see how they can contribute to the current project. It is possible that people who have already conducted assessments also have a visit to validate previous assessment

Why does SRA do this?
The more communities we work with the more we refine our model to ensure it’s effectiveness and adaptability for future communities in order to reduce energy consumption and provide renewable energy generation in regional Australia.

What is renewable energy?
Renewable energy is sourced from the natural environment, harnessing the winds, sun, waves, rivers, ground temperature and other natural elements and substances.

What are examples of renewable energy assets?
Renewable energy types include:

• Solar energy: Solar radiation is used for hot water production and electricity generation, sourced through:
  • Photovoltaic cells
  • Solar thermal electric plants
  • Passive solar energy used for direct heating

• Wind energy: Wind’s kinetic energy exploited by turbines for electricity generation
• Hydropower: Electricity created from turbines fed by the potential and kinetic energy of rivers. Some projects are run-of-the-river hydropower projects with or without dam construction.
• Geothermal energy: Heat from within the Earth’s crust, usually turned into hot water or steam to produce electricity.
• Biogas: Gas produced by anaerobic digestion of biomass from landfills, sewage, or animal waste.
• Biomass: Electricity or heat produced by burning organic, non-fossil biological materials.
• Wave/tidal: Mechanical energy derived from tidal movement or wave motion exploited for electricity generation.

What is community owned renewable energy?
This refers to renewable energy distributed on a local scale with community involvement.

‘Community’ is a term that has different meanings for different people. In our model , a community is defined as a group of people who feel they are part of that community which usually includes a social group of any size whose members live in a specific geographic location . ‘Community energy’ includes the social process of establishing and distributing renewable energy technology locally, with social and economic benefits to that defined community. Community energy is therefore about the social arrangements around how an important technology that contributes to the sustainability solution is implemented and brings benefit to people.

Community owned renewable energy is where a community members own at least part of the asset and the community is closely involved in the renewable energy project and where the project ultimately strengthens the community in providing positive social, economic and environmental outcomes. The asset does not necessarily have to supply energy directly to the community and may supply energy directly to the national grid. The former would be the more appealing set up as it would gain additional benefits to the community such as energy through energy security and community pride. Supplying energy in a private (embedded) network through a behind the meter solution requires the necessary infrastructure and cooperation from the relevant power distributer.

What are the benefits of a community owned renewable energy asset?
Most energy generation is centralized, involving the production of electricity at a large, central facility, the transmission of high-voltage electricity over long distances through the power grid, and the conversion and distribution of that energy to a large number of consumers. Energy may travel many hundreds of kilometres from where it was produced before it reaches the user of the energy. Most centralized production facilities use non-renewable sources such as coal, oil or nuclear material to power their electrical generation. Significant wastage occurs during the transmission of high-voltage electricity over large distances.

Distributed energy is energy generated and distributed to consumers within a geographic locality. Distributed energy generation can be a continuum of energy generation from a household scale to a larger community scale. Benefits include:

• Lower costs of distribution and mostly there are no fuel costs.
• Greater energy security and an electricity grid that is more stable as energy does not solely rely on centralised generation as renewable energy power plants are normally smaller and more distributed through the electricity network. This makes the electricity grid more resilient to disruptions to infrastructure or peaks in demand.
• Less moving parts on many power plants also means renewable are easier maintain and operate.
• Their generation is Greenhouse pollution free

How can the community be confident that the renewable energy asset will make money?
Our Bendigo and Ballarat Solar Parks provide a sound basis for the viability of community-owned medium scale solar when considering the generation capability of the parks. If the price of solar panels continues to decrease at the current rate to between $3 and $6 of installed capacity in 2011, the case for community investment in medium scale solar becomes a viable option.

Can a metropolitan suburb or suburb of a regional city apply? Is the project limited to central Victoria?
Any regional community can apply that is outside the metropolitan area. Central Victoria Solar City is the name of the project under the federal government’s solar cities funding, where SRA is the lead proponent in the Central Victoria Solar City consortium. Applicants beyond central Victoria are encouraged to apply.

How many community leaders are required?
Minimum of four Community Leaders.

Can this project achieve reducing the whole environmental footprint of our community?
This project contributes to that goal as the project is focused on stationary electricity energy use and generation. The environmental footprint factors in electricity use and generation but also includes travel and food. If a community are using a model to measure their environmental footprint then our project can help them with the data associated with electricity energy use and generation.

Who are some of the partners that SRA have worked with?
Federal, State and local governments, Bendigo Bank, Powercor, Origin Energy.

Will there be future partnership rounds on offer?
Yes. All applications will be considered for future rounds.

What is the length of the project?
The completion of the model can take up to 3 – 5 years. Transition to zero net emissions is usually modelled in a 15 year transition time.