Gippsland Community Power Hub
The way we generate energy is changing
The Gippsland Community Power Hub
Sustainability Victoria has recently announced support for the establishment of seven Community Power Hubs across Victoria including one in Gippsland Region. Gippsland Climate Change Network is the lead organisation working with our partners, Energy Innovation Cooperative and the Mallacoota Sustainable Energy group to establish the Gippsland Community Power Hub.
A Community Power Hub is a collective of groups and organisations working together to develop and deliver community energy projects. A community energy project is one in which a community is involved in initiating, developing, owning, operating and/or benefiting from renewable energy and energy efficiency development. Benefits from community benefits include:
- Reduced electricity costs
- Increased energy self-reliance
- Income generation
- Increased knowledge and awareness of renewable energy, and
- Increased community cohesion through working together toward a shared vision.
The Gippsland Community Power Hub (GCPH) will be one of the most important platforms for communities in Gippsland to move towards a renewable energy system. Working at the grass roots level, empowering our local communities with the knowledge and support they need is crucial as we make the transition to a low carbon, clean energy future.
The Pilot Program: Latrobe Valley Community Power Hub
GCPH follows the success of the Community Power Hub Pilot program 2017- 2020 in which GCCN was the host organisation for the Latrobe Valley Community Power Hub (LVCPH). The Victorian Government through Sustainability Victoria committed to a two-year period to pilot setting up three Community Power Hubs (CPH) to bring together locals to develop community-owned and operated renewable energy projects in regional areas of Ballarat, Bendigo and the Latrobe Valley. A video illustrating the pilot program can be found here.
LVCPH funded the implementation of solar arrays, bulk buy solar panels and solar streetlight installations in community facilities and households, substantially boosting Victoria’s renewable energy capacity and saving thousands in energy costs annually. GCCN worked with our communities across the Gippsland region to implement local renewable energy projects, to enable the transition to a low carbon, clean energy future.
These were some of the results found after independent analysis of the pilot phase between June 2017 and June 2019 of the Community Power Hub Model.
Some of the projects from the Latrobe Valley Community Power Hub:
