Overview
St Arnaud Community Renewable Energy Association have been in the early stages of determining the feasibility of a community power station in St Arnaud and endeavour to put forward a business case to fund their community project.
Challenge
St Arnaud have experienced issues with grid stability and rising utility costs. The community has also wanted to achieve 100% renewable energy through community owned assets. We were engaged to investigate the current community energy usage and offered to help them understand the most feasible options available in a roadmap to achieve 100% carbon neutral through utilising renewable energy and storage technologies.
Solution
Our experienced team put together a study assessing the community solar export & energy consumption. We used HOMER software to model how much solar PV and battery is needed to support the community energy demand. To better help the community understand how to reach their 100% renewables target – we offered several renewable energy options in stages, which assessed high-level technical & commercial feasibility.
Results
Our final output provided a recommended pathway to maximise achieving a 100% renewable energy target which may take the form of a staged development pathway. This places the St Arnaud Community Renewable Energy Association in a strong position to submit proposals for government grants and make decisions about how the community can best invest in community energy assets.
