Meeniyan takes notes from Yackandandah’s renewable energy approach

SOUTH Gippsland Shire councillors appeared to have walked into a trap at Wednesday’s Sustainable Meeniyan meeting, but the evening soon took a more constructive path.

Councillors Jenni Keerie, Scott Rae and mayor Mohya Davies came to hear about building energy sustainability from speaker Matt Charles-Jones of community energy group Totally Renewable Yackandandah (TRY).

They heard about energy measures taken in that town that have enabled it to produce 60 percent of its energy requirements through renewable means since TRY swung into action in 2014, relying predominantly on solar panels on local buildings and increasingly on battery backup.

TRY sprang from a council-hosted community forum.

Undoubtedly, the trio of South Gippsland Shire councillors will have plenty to discuss with their colleagues and council staff after Matt’s informative talk, having taken an active interest in the session.

The night started on a sour note, with one attendee launching a sustained attack on South Gippsland Shire Council, and its elected representatives.

The attendee continued to compare the local council with that of Indigo Shire, painting the latter as environmental heroes, while saying South Gippsland councillors are more concerned about discussing the opening prayer for their public meetings.

However, Matt was happy to stick to what has been achieved in Yackandandah, saying a major focus of TRY is to celebrate small wins on the energy front.

While environmental benefits are one of the organisation’s aims, it was also keen to find solutions to create energy resilience as quickly as possible, and to save local people and community organisations money by cutting energy costs.

Reducing energy costs was intended to improve the local economy, allowing money to be better spent on benefiting the community.

“We helped the community health service install 100 kW of solar and they saved themselves $35,000 in the first year and were then able to use that money to keep the GP service going,” Matt said.

He explained an important focus of TRY from the outset was to boost renewable energy production in the town and energy resilience rather than getting bogged down in philosophical discussions on climate change.

After significantly boosting the number of buildings with solar panels from the 2014 figure of 20 percent, and increasing the installation of batteries including a 274kWh community-owned one and others at essential service sites such as the SES and CFA, ambitions rose in Yackandandah.

The town has now established Indigo Power, a social enterprise that is intended to return 50 percent of profits to community energy activities once it becomes profitable.

Matt touched on the importance of building strong relationships with local organisations and community groups and energy network service provider AusNet, for which he works.

He also touched on the importance of a united approach and support across the different levels of government.

Matt highlighted the importance of using Smart Energy Controllers, outlining their purpose.

“A Smart Energy Controller is there to create some logic in the local electricity supply so that we can build better things later on,” he said.

He added that the device is a way to get the local energy system to function well together, rather than just operating everything in isolation on a building-by-building basis.

Matt conceded that there is plenty of room for improvement in the way in which renewable energy materials for batteries and solar panels are sourced and how they are disposed of after their useful life but is confident those issues can be resolved.

Sustainable Meeniyan will hold a further meeting soon, with its co-chairs Sally Gorman and Andrew McEwen delighted to gain an insight into renewable energy from Matt that will help guide discussions and spark ideas In Meeniyan.