Ballarat’s plan to become Australia’s first regional city exclusively powered by renewable energy has been officially launched this afternoon.
The Ballarat Energy Network, an initiative of the Committee for Ballarat, will aim to power the city on 100% renewable energy using a local network and also send some of that back into the National Electricity Market.
George Fong Chairman of the Committee says it’ll be a national first.
“There are isolated examples in Europe and in America but as far as Australia is concerned, I don’t think there has been a project or initiative of this scale.”
“So, I think it’s fair to say whilst there are small collaboratives around the place, taking on an entire regional city hasn’t been done before, certainly in this area,” Mr. Fong said.
Unique to the project is further analysis of the feasibility and commercial viability of the Ballarat
Energy Network being owned by its community, partnered with a retailer and delivering value
directly back the community and the region.
