Victorian town in bushfire zone adds solar and battery for community sports centre

Hepburn Sports Centre with Central Victorian Greenhouse Alliance (One Step off the Grid)

The community sports centre of Hepburn, Victoria, has a solar and battery storage system which will reduce its electricity costs and emissions as well as supporting its role as a last resort community shelter in the case of a bushfire. Electricity power is one of the first supplies to be cut during severe bushfires. 

The Hepburn Recreation Reserve now has a 25kW solar system and a 13.5kWh Tesla Powerwall 2 battery. This system continues to operate when there is a grid outage. This large solar and battery combination will supply power day and night particularly in summer. Alone, the battery will provide power for a day and will be topped up quickly when it is sunny (a little slower if it is smokey or cloudy).

“The $31,818 cost of the solar and storage system was contributed to by the Hepburn Shire Council ($12,000), local community renewables outfit Hepburn Wind ($4,500), and the Central Victorian Greenhouse Alliance ($15,318) with $12,500 of that amount from a Bank Australia grant and $2,818 from the Hepburn Solar Bulk-Buy.” 

Read more: Solar and Tesla Powerwall offer Victorian town bushfire resilience. One Step off the Grid, July 24, 2020.

Australian billionaire funds off-grid solar/battery systems to bushfire affected areas still without power

Source: RenewEconomy

Australian billionaire, Mike Cannon-Brookes, has teamed up with Tesla and 5B, an Australian solar company, to donate stand-alone solar and battery systems that can provide power to remote communities affected by bushfires and storms. Some remote communities are still without power such as Cobargo in NSW and Goongerah, East Gippsland, Victoria. These two communities have already received a solar battery system each from Cannon-Brookes’ Resilient Energy Collective.

At Cobargo the solar and Tesla battery system provides power to the all-important communications systems of a police radio tower and a RFS (Rural Fire Service), National Parks and Eurobodalla Shire radio tower. The other system installed powers the Goongerah Community Hall, which provides relief services, a local internet connection, refrigeration and community meetings.

The stand-alone systems are easy to transport and quick to install. This includes the 5B solar panels that are readily and rapidly deployable - see image. The systems have a daily capacity ranging from 8kWh to 400kWh and can allow infrastructure, homes and businesses to operate off-grid, 24 hours a day. Cannon Brookes says the Collective has the capacity to roll out systems at another 100 sites “in the next 100 days if required”.

Such systems could provide resilience and independent renewable power for any remote community and reduce the need for the repeated trucking-in of diesel for generators.

Read more: Cannon-Brookes teams with Tesla, 5B to fund solar and batteries for fire victims. RenewEconomy, February 19, 2020.

UNSW student-designed solar freezer installed on a Fiji island

Source: One Step off the Grid

Engineering students from the University of New South Wales, Australia, were given a task to come up with a solution that will both empower the Fiji community and allow them to be self-sufficient. After much community consultation, they designed and installed a solar powered freezer in a remote village on Viwa Island.

“The Najia village on Viwa Island, on the outermost of the Yasawa Island group, is renowned for its fishing culture. So the students focused on creating a sustainable way for the villagers to freeze their daily catch and sell it on the mainland for more money.”

The other challenge for the students was to make sure that the project was easily maintained by the locals. Therefore the locals were trained to do the maintenance so that the freezer did not fall into disuse. Altogether the whole task was a valuable learning experience for the students and of great self-sufficient benefit to the community.

Read More:
- UNSW student-designed solar freezer installed on remote Fiji island. One Step off the Grid, November 28, 2019.
- A solar-powered freezer for today's catch: UNSW Engineering makes an impact in Fiji. UNSW Newsroom, November 27, 2019.

Yackandandah and other towns plan to have 100% renewable electricity

Totally Renewable Yackandandah (TRY) meeting (RenewEconomy)

Yackandandah, in north eastern Victoria, Australia, already has some big solar installations that will help the farming community town to reach 100% renewables by 2022. The Foodworks supermarket has a 80kW solar array and the town’s health care centre has a 90kW solar array.

These two large installations join an inspiring and expanding list of homes and organisations switching to solar in the town.  The petrol station, museum, school, kindergarten, neighbourhood house, council offices and men's shed all sport solar panels. In addition, there are plans to power the water treatment plant with "43kW of solar and 40kW of battery storage".

The renewable electricity goal has been set by the community energy group Totally Renewable Yackandandah (TRY). TRY is also looking at ways to reduce electricity consumption in community buildings by installing LED lights and improving the air conditioning and hot water systems, as well to reduce waste.

Yackandandah joins a growing list of town councils with goals to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and electricity costs. Others include: Lismore, NSW, 100% renewable energy by 2023; Uralla, NSW, 100% renewable energy in 5-10 years; Newstead, Victoria, 100% renewable energy in next 3 years; Darebin, Melbourne, zero net emissions by 2020; Byron Bay zero emissions by 2025; and Tyalgum, NSW, to go off-grid - to name a few.

Further reading:
Solar powered Foodworks. RenewEconomy, November 11, 2016.
Yackandandah 100% renewable plans kick off with 90kW solar health centre. One Step off the Grid, February 26, 2016.
Solar and battery set to power Victorian water plant. RenewEconomy, March 28, 2017.
In the absence of national leadership, cities are driving climate policy. RenewEconomy, July 19, 2017.
Byron Bay maps out path to zero emissions by 2025. Renew Economy, June 21, 2016.
Tyalgum. ABC News, October 8, 2018.
Post Script: Yackandandah takes one step closer to 100% renewable energy. One Step Off The Grid, October 3, 2019,

Better solar access for low income earners in the ACT

Photo by Julie May

The Australian Capital Territory (ACT) government has a goal to have 100% renewable electricity by 2020. Partly to achieve this goal, it has provided funding over four years to allow those in possession of an Australian Government pensioner concession card and own a home to access subsidised solar systems.

The participants will be offered a rebate of up to 60% on costs for the supply and installation of a rooftop solar photovoltaic system. The subsidy will also cover upgrades for a switchboard and smart metre if required. They will also have access to an interest-free loan to payback the remaining installation costs over three years.

This solar program is set to help these low income households save $A300 to $A900 a year on energy costs.

References:
Canberra Weekly, January 11, 2018, page 6.
Solar for low income households - Actsmart - ACT Government.

Canberra switches on its virtual 1MW power plant

Reposit Power phone app (Source - One Step off the Grid)

Australian internet of things company Reposit Power and network operator ActewAGL Distribution said on Thursday, 30 November, they had switched on a virtual battery made up of behind the meter energy storage installed in Canberra homes that could deliver more than 1MW of power to the ACT grid, supporting it at times of peak demand.

It’s the latest of a raft of battery storage demand response projects that are firing up around the country, pulling together Australia’s rapidly growing distributed solar and battery storage resources to help get the National Energy Market through the coming summer – as well as through the transition to renewables. The providers are paid a premium rate of 100c/kWh for their home battery power.

For full article see: Canberra switches on its own Big Battery - 1MW of household variety demand response. One Step off the Grid, November 30, 2017.
See also:
- Canberra trials world’s largest residential ‘virtual’ power plant. ACT Government, November 30, 2017.
- How I learned to slash my power bill, with solar and storage.
- My House as I am part of this virtual power plant as well.

Postscripts:
- Canberra Virtual Power Plant awarded top engineering honours. Reposit Power, September 19 2018.
- Ausgrid seeks to expand virtual power plant to cut back on network costs. RenewEconomy, May 22 2019.

India taps renewable energy to ensure all homes have power in 2018

Source: India Energy Storage Alliance

“The Indian government has pledged to broaden the roll-out of solar and battery storage to households without power in rural and remote towns and villages, as a part of a newly launched $2.5 billion project to electrify all of the country’s households by the end of 2018.”

One quarter of all homes in the country are yet to be electrified, that is 300 million people are not yet on the grid. Many homes will be eligible for free electricity connections but 80% of the funds will go towards electrifying rural homes. Here solar power packs of 200-300W will be added with battery banks to un-electrified homes, along with LED lights, a DC fan and a DC power plug, and repair and maintenance for five years.

India originally had a goal to have 40% renewable energy by 2030 but now believes it can surpass this goal by 2027. It has currently cancelled the development of new coal-fired power plants as it is less expensive for them to install rooftop solar and solar farms. From the article entitled “India joins the renewable energy revolution, accelerates targets”.

To read the full article from RenewEconomy see India taps solar, storage to ensure all homes have power in 2018. By Sophie Vorrath, 27 Sept, 2017.

Off-grid trial gives Western Australian farming community cheaper, more reliable power

Ros and Bernie Giles trialling off-grid power on their farm (from ABC News)

Western Australia (WA) is a large, sparsely populated state so providing reliable power to the fringes of the WA network is a challenge.

• Fed up with frequent outages and voltage spikes, six farming households in Ravensthorpe, 500 kilometres south of Perth, chose to take a leap of faith and try living off the sun and lithium batteries.
• WA's energy utility Western Power offered the systems for free in the search for alternatives to the massive cost of replacing ageing poles and wires.

For more information see the report from ABC News, by Katherine Diss and Mark Bennett, 19 Sept 2017.

See also a similar report: Horizon Power extends WA off-grid solar and storage trial from RenewEconomy.

Energy Queensland managing distributed renewable energy to become a 'virtual power plant'

Energy Queensland is a large Queensland government-owned utility that is working with GreenSync to manage distributed renewable energy resources, such as rooftop solar, to help manage demand and drive down prices. GreenSync is a Melbourne-based start-up business which will use a cloud-based, load control internet system to manage extreme electricity demand during severe temperature events and, in general, add grid support. This will create Australia’s largest 'virtual power plant'.

There are many potential customers with rooftop solar or other distributed energy sources in Queensland. For example, the so-called Sunshine State leads the nation on rooftop solar uptake, with 34% of houses said to have put PV panels on their roofs. Distributed renewable energy customers, such as these, would be enrolled into the virtual power plant platform ahead of peak summer demand.

The Queensland government has a goal to achieve zero net greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and to have 50% renewable energy for electricity by 2030.

For more information see Energy Queensland taps people power to shore up summer grid. By Sophie Vorrath, 6 September, 2017 from One Step off the Grid.

Solar power for 'all' with Peer to Peer (P2P) trading

Not everyone can have solar panels on their residence due to price, shade, renting or living in apartments. Such people may able to purchase renewable energy from systems that offer peer to peer (P2P) trading of solar energy across the regulated network.

The secure energy trading platform is based on crypto currency which is foreign to most of us but becomes clearer once examining the articles below. The market provider uses blockchain technology that allows the consumers to trade rooftop solar energy with one another, without the addition of market costs and commercial margins (a saving for the buyer). The seller gets a price which is more than the current feed in tariffs for solar but less than the uniform tariff. There are at least two trials of P2P trading happening in Australia and the links below outline them.

Firstly, blockchain technology is explained in the first half of this podcast from Renew Economy

Energy Insiders Podcast September 25 by Giles Parkinson and David Leitch.

Below are two examples of trials that have or are taking place from One Step off the Grid:

Origin Energy trials solar trading with blockchain start-up Power Ledger by Sophie Vorrath, Sept 21, 2017.

AGL tests household energy trading using blockchain in Melbourne pilot by Sophie Vorrath, May 26, 2017.
Postscript: AGL to expand P2P trial in Adelaide, as consumers embrace solar sharing. By Sophie Vorrath, 20 Nov 2017.

Home solar batteries used to power island grid at peak demand times

Renewable energy at Bruny Island. Photo by Jonathan Jones

The Bruny Island community near Hobart, Tasmania agreed to participate in the CONSORT Bruny Island Battery Trial where 11 solar-powered home battery systems are providing backup renewable energy at peak electricity demand times. The island is a popular tourist spot and requires backup power usually for long weekends and other holiday periods. Originally the backup power was provided by diesel generators but now the island grid relies less on diesel. The battery owners can sell their extra power back to the grid using Reposit’s energy management software. For example, a retired couple have sold $180 worth of power back to the grid in their first four months on the trial. The plan is to eventually have 35 home batteries supporting the island grid.

For more information please see these two articles from One Step Off the Grid, August, 2017

     - Bruny Island trials “electricity grid of the future”, by David Rose
     - Bruny retirees love their solar power, by David Rose
Also the project wins an award: Local partnership wins Clean Energy Council Award. SERREE, August 2018.

Community retailer Enova to buy and sell renewable energy

"Australia’s first community-owned energy retailer, the Northern Rivers NSW-based Enova Energy, will soon offer customers locally generated rooftop solar power, as part of its goal of producing enough renewable electricity to meet all of its customers’ needs.......

Everyone can now join the solar revolution. If you’re living in an apartment, or you’re renting, or perhaps can’t afford the initial upfront investment in solar panels, then you can still join the solar revolution.”

For more information read the whole article at One Step off the Grid

By Sophie Vorrath on 4 Sept 2017