Renewable Newstead Case Study

Renewable Newstead – Achievements

As of November 2011, 100% Renewable Newstead has proved successful in the first 3 stages of the model .

Stage one allowed the project to become established and over 100 people attended the public launch.

Stage two has seen community engagement through workshops and the completion of 170 energy assessments and take up of product suite offers including retrofit, solar hot water and solar electricity.

Stage three completed and presented the feasibility study and social survey.
“I feel lucky to have had the opportunity.. to pull together with my neighbours and community to be part of something important.”
Newstead resident, Oct 2011

Social survey summary

A community survey was conducted in August-September 2011 to find out what Newstead residents think about energy. The majority of the 74 survey participants supported the building of a renewable energy generator (see figure 1), and for this to be located within the Newstead district.  A solar park was the preferred option for this generation. However per cent of respondents supported investing in both community-owned (e.g. solar park or wind farm) and home-based (e.g. solar panels on a house roof) renewable energy resources if the return on the investment was the same. Over half of all respondents were very interested (41%) or extremely interested (21%) in spending money on their home to make it more energy efficient.

Figure 1
The top three most important considerations for a Renewable Newstead energy project were environmental, financial benefits to householders and ensuring energy security for Newstead residents.

One of the things that particularly resonated with survey respondents was the idea that the ‘100% Renewable Newstead project will show that small towns can produce great projects and inspire others’.

Social survey quotes:

“Most houses have wood for heating so a cheap supply of wood would be great and that would provide local employment”

“I would contribute money to improve energy efficiency of home if the cost/benefit stacked up”

“I have never lived in a town as cohesive and actve as Newstead. This is the perfect town for such a project as large part of the community already has a huge interest in sustainability, environmental preservaton and sharing resources.”
Renewable Newstead Community Survey, Sept 2011

Success factors for Newstead:

The variety of things on offer allowed the community to engage in the project in lots of ways – from joining the steering committee, attending local workshops to learn more about retrofitting or hot water systems, or having a free home or business energy assessment.  It was a bonus having these events, workshops and assessments free, so cost was eliminated as a barrier from the start.

The steering committee, community engagement worker and energy assessors were able to tap into different motivations to get people involved in the project, whether they were financial, environmental, community connectedness or a combination of these.

The local community engagement worker drew on her local knowledge, shared trust and connections to encourage people to have home and business energy assessments, and become involved in the project. She was able to tap into individuals and households that that may have been reluctant to be involved in the project. Overall, the Community Engagement worker significantly increased community awareness of the project. Many in the community appreciated having a local they could ring up or approach to ask questions or who would advocate on their behalf. This ‘approachability’ and the community worker’s high recognition rate was a key to improving people’s engagement. She was able to address misconceptions or suspicions about the project, and  promoted the individual, financial, environmental and whole-of-community benefits of becoming involved in the project.

Karly Smith – Community Engagement Officer
Ross Egleton – Renewable Community Project Manager
As with many communities, sporting clubs are extremely important to Newstead.  Renewable Newstead sponsored the local football team, which increased the profile of the project to a large segment of the community.
The community workshops and talks were popular with locals and were well attended. The launch of the project filled the large community centre, and a tribe of local children was entertained by a balloon-wielding entertainer. Making these events fun and socially engaging was an important way of encouraging people to attend and stay motivated. The feasibility launch had over 50 people attend. These events were successful in terms of engaging different people and regularly informing them of what Renewable Newstead and CVSC were doing.

Launch of the Renewable Newstead Project, October 2010

The steering committee regularly communicates with the wider Newstead community about the project. Monthly updates in the local community newspaper, The Echo, as well as regular updates appear on the Renewable Newstead website as well as a video (http://renewable.newstead.vic.au/).
Events are well publicised around town.

The steering committee is committed to not go beyond what the local community wants. This project is as much about improving social capital and community connections as it is about  renewable  energy options.  The support and trust of the community for this project has and will continue to be crucial to its success.  The committee is continually ensuring it has the support of the local community and the ‘social licence’ to continue.

People are more energy literate, and ask more sophisticated questions about energy since the project began. There are lots more conversations about energy and what we can do about it in our community.

The feasibility study has opened up the way for the next stage of the project, and will guide the community in what is possible for renewable energy for our community. The study confirmed the important role that energy assessments, retrofitting and behaviour changes have in reducing energy consumption.

Case study:  The McBeans

Star and Fraser McBean live on 40 acres to the south of Newstead with their five daughters (3 teenagers and 2 primary school-aged). They have lived in the district for 4 ½ years in a relocated weatherboard house.

They requested a HEA to increase their knowledge of how to save energy and make improvements to their home. They found the experience “really positive”. It was friendly, informative and very affirming, ”we learnt that we were already being good about our energy use”. Star commented that the HEA “encouraged us to look at the smaller things more closely, like turning off computers and other appliances”. It also helped the McBeans learn more about their electricity bills, “for the first time we came to understand our energy bills. The [assessor] taught us how to read our energy bills”.

The HEA “definitely gave us the incentive to keep going, within our budget, to make changes and reduce our energy use” said Star. They have installed improved window coverings, and become more conscious about turning off things like lights and computers, and changed appliances to more efficient ones.  They have completed draft stopping, “plugging every gap”.  As Star said, “it is the small things that are making a big difference. It has saved us hundreds of dollars on each bill”.

The McBeans think that the Renewable Newstead project is “bloody marvellous.  It shows the impact of a small community working together can make a difference”.  Their family learnt to work together and all became more aware together through the Renewable Newstead workshops and conversations about the project. The kids learnt the importance of communities working together. “We sat around the dinner table, thought about what we needed to do and how we could do it. We had lots of conversations. The project has really raised the energy consciousness of our whole family. And we feel like we are doing our bit to help the environment”.

Renewable Newstead – Community Leaders

Newstead community leaders were interested in building on the existing social capital of their community through a project that would allow their households and community to use energy more efficiently and develop local energy. This would allow money to be reinjected into the community to deliver other socially valuable pursuits and provide a model that could be emulated elsewhere.

The project’s Community Engagement Officer has been integral to gain the local support.

The Renewable Newstead Steering Committee brings a broad range of skills and experience to the project. We have farmers, tradesmen, designers, artists, musicians, journalists, academics, consultants, business people, teachers and technicians – all passionate about the project and our community. They have expertise in design, communication, technology, social connections, building, research, project management, IT, and business. There is a good mix of new, established and long-term residents, and ages and gender which makes it easier to engage with different segments of the community.

One reason this steering committee works so well is that everyone routinely gets involved and wants to engage with each other. There is a lot of cooperative goodwill, plus the desire to make the project work in the best way for our community. The committee is fairly flexible – people contribute when and if the need arises.

Renewable Newstead Committee Leader in Action

There are a variety of reasons why people joined the steering committee including:

• knowing there are finite resources and we need to do something;
• the big and scary nature of future energy scenarios;
• technical interest in working in energy;
• philosophical reasons;
• wanting to save money;
• important to be part of a thriving community and community problem solving;
• interest in the social consequence of reaching solutions;
• chance to work on our future in a small scale, but important way and
• motivation from seeing a room packed with people thinking and talking about energy.

Channel 9’s Today Show Weather Report, Newstead