Australian Regional Development Conference 2017 Coffs Harbour Conference Proceedings

There is rapidly increasing interest shown by communities in smaller-scale renewable energy, most notably distributed solar PV systems, and more recently, in batteries for electricity storage at the household scale. There is also increasing interest in medium-scale projects, such as bioenergy from sewage treatment plants and wind farms. Such projects can of course have environmental benefits, but they can also have significant local social benefits including: direct local employment creation and skills development; indirect employment creation; and local resilience by avoiding brown and blackouts. There is a clear role for local governments to facilitate and so drive uptake in order to maximise these benefits. We discuss some of the work already undertaken for Byron Shire Council as well as the work currently underway for East Gippsland Shire Council including: Modeling of different scenarios to identify the least-cost technology options; and discussing the options available to create an environment where the community can drive the uptake of local renewable energy