Victoria could see such a pilot scheme as early as next year.
The Moreland Energy Foundation’s Bruce Thompson has won the Robinson Foundation Fellowship and will use the $12,000 award to research first hand the key policy drivers, technological applications, economic models and business partnerships behind successful local urban energy schemes in the UK and Germany.
He told PNN sister publication EnvironmentalManagementNews that his key example for the process was the UK Woking Council, south-west of London, which owns a co-generation plant providing power to the region and uses the revenue to install solar PV infrastructure.
Woking now has 10% of the UK’s solar installations and has cut carbon emissions from council buildings by 70-80%.
Thompson, who works for the not for profit Moreland organisation, said he aims to identify how a similar project structure would be possible in Australia, which already has the technology and capacity.
“The city has a similar structure to Australia. It won’t be easy but it’s certainly viable in an Australian context,” he said.
“We are looking to develop a (localised) capacity energy service company pilot project in Victoria by next year.”
Accepting the 2007 Fellowship at the Environment Industry Dinner last night, Thompson said that while conventional large-scale renewable energy systems would play a crucial role in a sustainable future, it was also a necessity to integrate power generation into households and workplaces.
“The evidence overseas is that once you start this process, the community gets very serious about saving energy through efficient lighting, heating and cooling,” he said.
Ian Coles, who chairs the Robinson Foundation named after the late EPA Victoria head Brian Robinson, emphasised the importance of the research trip in furthering understanding of decentralised or ‘distributed’ energy generation.
