Yesterday I attended an all day forum on Improving Energy Supplies to Your Community. This was a great opportunity to explore a range of options that could be implemented in the Shire of Yarra Ranges. I found out about funding sources to enable energy supply improvements and made a number of connections that I intend to follow up and seek further advice on what we can do locally.

I am grateful to the Consumer Utilities Advocacy Centre (CUAC), Regional Development Victoria, Sustainability Victoria and the Victorian Local Governance Association who sponsored the event.

Topics covered included:
• What is the potential of non-mainstream energy supplies, e.g. solar, biomass, wind, LPG?
• What (non-technology specific) issues need to be considered, e.g. demand-forecasting, risk management, financing, data collection?
• What are the benefits, costs, risks and impediments for communities setting up alternative energy schemes?
• How can communities create a Business Case for securing better energy supplies?

One of the key case studies actually focused on the Shire of Yarra Ranges. An audit of the renewable energy resources available in the Shire and the potential to use these to generate new energy supply was conducted by Climate Managers. This report is available here. This review was funded half by the Shire and half by Sustainability Victoria through the Smart Energy Zones program. The report focuses on the options for businesses and omits options at the community and residential scale. However it does bring together a lot of useful information that can be used to assess the feasibility of projects at any of these scales.

I was inspired by the level of community involvement in energy programs being undertaken in rural Victoria and believe that this component has been sadly lacking in our region, except for a few good examples such as the Dandenong Ranges Renewable Energy Association. But we need a level of activity much higher than what is currently occurring. One of the key take home lessons from this forum is the importance of empowering the community to lead on these projects.