Community solar goes live
Australia's largest community-owned solar farm has been switched on.
Around 550 people from the ACT community put up $2.4 million for the project to build a local solar power plant.
It now includes over 5,000 solar modules across 3 hectares, providing 1.8 GWh of electricity and 1,600 tonnes of CO2 abatement each year.
Renewable investment energy fund SolarShare handled the funding push, which saw locals put in amounts from $500 up to $100,000.
“We have everything from students who are still in student accommodation but wanted to get onboard and have done a small investment, to the other end of the scale who are maybe wealthier and keen to provide for future generations with a larger sum of money," says SolarShare chari Nick Fejer.
The company says it should be able to deliver a five per cent return to investors over its lifetime.
“The real burning question on everyone's lips is; ‘When does the first cheque hit my bank account?’ It's either within a 12-month window or shorter than that,” Mr Fejer said.
“All of the risk for the return is now in the hands of weather, which is well-known over long term periods.”
Under the ACT Government’s community solar initiative, SolarShare will be able to sell the energy into the energy network and receive 19.56c per kWh for electricity generated. As a comparison, electricity for homeowners costs around 25 c/kWh in the ACT (1 December 2018). Each year the plant is projected to earn over $360,000 in revenue.
The ACT government is subsidising the project through a 'feed-in-tariff' over a 20-year period.
ACT Energy Minister Shane Rattenbury says the tax will provide “an economic foundation to make the investment, build the farm and know that there will be a payback”.
“I'd like to think there would be a lot more community solar farms both potentially here in the ACT and right across the country,” Mr Rattenbury said.
“We've now got a model that works, and I can't see why it can't be replicated.”