Renewables roadshow: how Canberra took lead in renewable energy race
In the latest in our series on Australian green energy projects, we find out how the ACT is transitioning to 100% renewable energy, aided by the country’s largest community-owned solar farm. s Australia remains mired in a broken debate about the supposed dangers of renewable energy, some states and territories are ignoring the controversy and steaming ahead. While Australia is far from the renewable capital of the world, the Australian Capital Territory may soon be among the world’s top renewable energy regions. And as it transitions, the ACT is demonstrating the benefits of the renewables boom to the rest of the country. In 2016 the ACT government legislated the target of sourcing 100% renewable energy by the end of this decade. It is the most ambitious renewable plan in the country, although Victoria is pushing ahead with a target of 40% by 2025. New South Wales has lagged behind other states, and doesn’t have a specific renewable energy target, but it aims to have net-zero emissions by 2050. As part of the ACT renewable energy plan, the government has run a smaller-scale community solar scheme,says Lawrence McIntosh, project leader of Solar Share, a member-owned company building solar projects in and around the ACT. Standing among the grapevines of the Mount Majura vineyard, McIntosh describes the country’s largest community-owned solar farm that will soon greet drivers as they enter the nation’s capital from the north. “It’s our flagship project for the Canberra community,” he says. The vineyard needs sloped ground to grow its grapes, so on a flat piece of land it isn’t using for grapes, Solar Share will install 5,184 modules, creating a 1.26 MW solar farm. “That’s about enough power for two to three hundred homes and we’ll have in the range of 500 to 600 investors, who together own this solar power array,” McIntosh says. Those owner-investors will come from the local community, with people in the ACT invited to buy shares in the project, which start from about $500.
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on Mar 30 2017. Filed under Renewable energy.
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