This last month we hosted a marvellous launch for our Community Energy Resilience project at the Venus Bay Community Centre: Community Energy meets the People!

The project has seen additional solar array added to our existing solar system, and a significant lithium battery. This means we can act as a mini Microgrid – with resilient energy available for our community members when the grid goes down.

We know that we are facing more frequent and severe weather events – and we know the impact that has on our community with no water, no power and for some no cooking or heating. This project seeks to address some of these issues while we look towards the bigger project of Community Energy for Venus Bay.

We hosted a range of State, Federal and local government representatives along with other stakeholders in our region who are looking at community energy/renewable energy projects. Most importantly, we welcomed community members and champions for this project.

With support from the Victorian State Government through Sustainability Victoria to the Gippsland

Community Power Hub, along with cash and in-kind contributions from the Venus Bay Community Centre; we were pleased to showcase our project and demonstrate what community can do when they work together on issues they share.

Where to from here? We have applied for funding from Federal Government to undertake a significant feasibility study to understand what community energy solutions might look like for us – with opportunities for plenty of community input and feedback along with way. Ideally this will help to define a business case for which we can then look for ways to implement. In addition, we know lots of community members have questions about their own renewable energy systems – what kind of system might be suitable for individual households, what kind of battery capacity is needed etc.

We are aiming to host another community forum in May to offer some practitioner guidance on these issues, and to share what we know.