Solar plan back under spotlight

Acommunity plan to make Natimuk self-sufficient has reached its next major milestone.

Natimuk Community Energy is one step closer to a self-sufficient solar-farm reality and will host a workshop next week for interested parties to decide how best to proceed with the project’s business arrangements.

Natimuk Community Energy president Edwin Ervine said the workshop represented a key milestone in getting the solar farm operational.

“A few years back, a community workshop sparked the idea of having a community-owned solar farm at Natimuk, big enough to offset our town’s electricity needs,” he said.

“Four years on and we are on the brink of making that idea a reality.

“We have sorted out the technical and engineering side of the project and we have reserved the farm’s capacity in the grid, which was a huge step forward.

“We have lodged our permit application with the minister for planning and are extremely confident about it.”

The group plans to build the 4572-panel farm on a 2.224-hectare site east of Natimuk and has made further advances on the concept since a $339,000 State Government contribution in 2019 funded the project’s development phases to finalise permit approvals, connection studies and detailed design features.

Mr Ervine said the next step, which the workshop would kick-start, was required to facilitate the project’s governance direction.

“The workshop restarts this discussion about what the governance structure will look like, whether it will be a company or a co-operative, for example,” he said.

“We welcome people to the workshop who live in the region and might be interested in participating in renewable energy self-sufficiency.”

Mr Ervine said the complex process of providing renewable power to Natimuk meant agreements were needed to establish relationships between the solar farm, the grid and the homes and businesses it would service.

“We are not seeking to make a profit. The farm will generate revenue, but because it won’t generate profit, we can sell that power at a cheaper rate to a retailer who will pass the saving to Natimuk customers,” he said.

“That is why it is important to write all these agreements and establish the right connections between available retailers who will service the solar farm’s power to Natimuk.

“And because the community will own the farm, when you pay your bill, it stays in the community and pays wages.

“Money doesn’t go offshore to a multi-national, and we can establish some energy resilience in the community.”

Mr Ervine encouraged people from the broader Natimuk community interested in the project to attend the event at Natimuk Soldiers Hall on Friday, May 28, from 10am to 1pm, with a lunch to follow.

He said the workshop would provide people a chance to ‘reconnect’ with the group’s vision, receive an update on the project and ask questions, provide an avenue for people to share new ideas as well as discussion on the project’s future governance and legal structures.