The Government is now operating in accordance with the Caretaker Conventions, pending the outcome of the 2022 federal election. Info on Caretaker Conventions: https://www.pmc.gov.au/caretaker
The Innovators podcast: Jemma Green brings power to the people
A software platform that allows users to trade surplus renewable energy with each other and back to retailers, PowerLedger is part of what its founders like to call “a democratisation of power”.
But one of the founders behind the company, Dr Jemma Green, has more than one story to tell. A former merchant banker in London turned PhD graduate, she’s most recently been in the news for her elevation from independent councillor to interim Lord Mayor for the City of Perth.
PowerLedger co-founder and chair, Jemma Green.
In this fascinating first episode of ARENA’s new series of its ReWired podcast, we get an insight into PowerLedger’s rise to becoming one of the most-talked about new companies in renewable energy as Green discusses with host Adam Morton the public sentiment that drove its recent $34 million Initial Coin Offering.
And while Green came up with the idea for PowerLedger as part of projects and PhD research back in Perth, the real groundwork was set on the road to Santiago de Compostela in Spain and in the mountains of Nepal, South America and Israel when, and after 10 years in London and ready to return home, a thought kept bugging her: “I just got fixated in my head with the idea of building an eco village.”
That eco village became the $2.6 million White Gum Valley residential housing development in Fremantle, backed by Curtin University and developer Landcorp. Equipped with solar and battery systems, ARENA has also put $900,000 towards the development of a governance model for the sharing of renewable energy between apartments.
At its heart, this idea of neighbours trading energy with each other is central to Green’s work with PowerLedger.
“I think that for pretty much the past century, consumers have been at the end of a very long line of electricity,” she says. “And in the past decade, this new system is emerging, characterised by citizen utilities or citizen power stations, and more generation to the distribution part of the energy network.”
Find out where PowerLedger is headed and more about Jemma Green’s vision for the future of energy in Power to the People, the first episode of ReWired: The Innovators series. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts to keep up to date with new episode releases and catch up on the first series of ReWired about large-scale solar projects, hosted by Courtney Carthy, here.
This article was originally written by Dewi Cooke, Writer.
Sometimes it can be hard to figure out what’s really going on.
We’re here to help with that. And the second season of our ReWired podcast series, The Innovators, wants to take you to the cutting edge of that revolution.
It’s a place of hydrogen-producing solar paint, of virtual power plants and energy cryptocurrencies.
It’s a place of pure innovation and leadership, sparked by individuals with a renewable energy future in their sights and, often, extraordinary stories of their own to tell.
We cut through the noise to bring you optimistic stories of world-leading technology and bold ideas. Stories about the value of persistence and would you believe it, the motivating force of failure.
Adam Morton in the studio recording for The Innovators, a new podcast from ARENA. IMAGE: ARENA
Hosted by Adam Morton, one of Australia’s most experienced energy and environment writers, The Innovators will be released each Thursday.
Season one of ReWired took you out on the road to some of ARENA’s most ambitious projects. It has been downloaded more than 10,000 times by people in 45 countries around the world and earned a spot on Apple’s New and Noteworthy section in iTunes.
Season two will take a different approach, featuring entertaining and thought-provoking interviews with the people who are driving the energy revolution. We’ll bring you the stories behind the technology and the brilliant minds that are helping to reshape our world.
Get a taste of what’s coming up with this teaser episode and be sure to subscribe on Apple Podcasts or wherever you like to listen so you can keep up to date with the latest release.
And don’t forget season one, hosted by Courtney Carthy, which takes you on a journey across six large-scale solar projects backed by ARENA. There are so many fascinating stories out there, we can’t wait to bring some of them to you.
This article was originally written by Dewi Cooke, Writer.
This is a process that ARENA has chronicled through our first ever podcast series, ReWired.
It has been a huge success, reaching listeners in 45 countries across the globe and finding its largest following outside Australia in the United States, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Listeners as far afield as the Slovak Republic, Canada and Italy and Spain have all downloaded and enjoyed ReWired.
And this week it is featured on the front page of iTunes as a “New and Noteworthy” pick.
Journalist Courtney Carthy travelled all over Australia, visiting solar farms and witnessing the impact their arrival had on local communities. It’s a journey that took him from Emu Downs, north of Perth to Dubbo and Parkes in country New South Wales and all the way up to Kidston North Queensland.
It took in Elvis and a zoo and a disused gold mine and it brought to life a cast of colourful characters who, like ARENA itself, are working hard to speed up Australia’s transition to being a renewable energy nation.
Below you can find a link to episode one, as well as links to the other five. If you are interested in renewable energy and how it is remaking our nation, ReWired is a must-listen.
You can listen to links on the blog here or else subscribe at the iTunes store, where ReWired is currently averaging a five star review. If you like what you hear please give us a rating and leave a comment, it really helps.
Listeners have sent us messages of support and left reviews on iTunes.
What they’re saying
“So good to hear on the ground stories from the solar farms popping up across Australia.”
Samantha Christie.
“As a supporter of renewable energy I found this podcast to be great listening.”
babyboomer.
“I do a lot of work in the electricity sector and I was expecting a dry, difficult discussion about renewable energy. Instead, I was really impressed by the stories.”
Indefensible
What’s next?
We are already planning for our next series of podcasts. We can’t wait to bring you more stories of how Australia is racing towards a renewable energy future. Until then, here’s Season 1. Start with the first episode, Mining the Sun.
This article was originally written by Daniel Silkstone, former Head of Content, ARENA.
Construction begins at Emu Downs Solar Farm. Picture: Courtney Carthy
The twin hills of Emu Downs, 200km North of Perth in Western Australia, are equally inhospitable and welcoming, a combination that has helped the new industries of solar and wind energy to thrive.
This is a land of contrast and change: A Mediterranean-style climate that’s wet in winter and dry in summer, brown sandy soil that shows where the ancient coastline used to be, and flora that’s toxic to farming animals like sheep, cattle and horses.
It is tough country for agriculture. And that has left more of the wide, sun-drenched land available for emerging industries like solar and wind energy. The Emu Downs wind farm has been here in the tiny town of Badgingarra for about ten years. Now there is a solar farm being built next door.
Janine Ackland was once a city girl, but was embraced by the area after she married a local farmer. She works in the wind farm administration and she can see community benefits of the Solar Farm. Ackland says: “A lot of the people that are involved, the contractors or the labour force, are actually from the (nearby) coastal towns – Cervantes or Jurian Bay – we’ve got a couple of local earthworks and the water is coming from a local farm.”
The Solar Farm will complement dips in wind energy generation, filling those gaps to create a consistent stream of power. Construction will also bring a boost to the local economy. The Badgingarra locals are already convinced of the benefits of renewable energy. Looking at it as a snapshot of ARENA’s broader investment in solar energy, it’s also easy to see the overall benefits for Australia.
ARENA has contributed $90 million across twelve large-scale solar projects since 2016. This has unlocked about $1 billion in investment. That means that 90 per cent of the cost to construct these 12 large scale solar farms has been attracted from investors and renewable energy innovators. It is a stunning success story.
This is the last episode in this series of ReWired. If you haven’t listened to the other episodes please do.
We’re hoping to soon bring you more of these stories of renewable energy projects from all over Australia. Subscribe so you can be the first ones to hear these fascinating tales.
A lion, 250,000 tourists and a large-scale solar farm entered a small country town and created a thriving metropolis.
This is Dubbo, a city with the heart of a country town. It’s located in North Western NSW. It’s home to the Taronga Western Plains Zoo, an agricultural industry, and all the services that required to support 200,000 people in surrounding communities as well as the influx of tourists who come here every year.
And Dubbo’s large-scale solar farm also makes it one of Australia’s solar superpowers.
People have long been happy about the solar farms coming to Dubbo and nearby Narromine. Just ask David Hood, a tow trucker driver who has lived in the area his whole life. He’s so local that he built a house next door to the house where he grew up. He also lives next door to the Dubbo solar farm. So does his sister. “She’s happy to have it there instead of a hundred houses,” he says.
Laying the foundations for the solar farm.
Justin Shepherd, Project manager at Bouygues Construction, is also getting lots of great feedback at community meetings. “They were all very interested in how it all worked,” he says.“And there was a real positive attitude of people in the crowd wanting to have this in place.”
Local farmers recognise that the solar industry co-exists so well with agriculture that it can provide a stable income in times of drought. How popular is solar in Dubbo? The highest uptake of solar on people’s homes in NSW is currently Dubbo, Liverpool and Lismore.
But what about that zoo? Back in the early 70s, Dubbo wasn’t the first site choice, that was the nearby town of Wellington. But as Mathew Dickerson, former Dubbo City Council Mayor, explains the Wellington farmers, ‘didn’t want wild lions and tigers roaming round taking all their important livestock’. So the zoo brought its exotic animals, employment and tourism to Dubbo instead.
Now the future’s bright in Dubbo. Locals can sit back and enjoy the abundance of tourists the zoo brings in and also take pride in the energy coming out of their local solar industry.
Visit the hallowed and humming home of Australia’s large scale solar industry
Join Site Manager, Brendan Wykes, on a journey around Nyngan Solar Farm.
Brendan’s a Nyngan local, he was raised in this sunny town. And he has been part of the big changes when, in 2013, AGL built one of the biggest solar farms in the Southern Hemisphere.
The Nyngan Solar Farm is 570 km north west of Sydney, New South Wales. You can see its glorious 600 acres (that’s 2.4 square kilometres) of 1.3 million black solar panels soaking up sun and generating power.
Brendan is noticing that people are noticing the farm, “There’s a lot of interest in it, lot of people, and when the get out here they go, ‘jeez! It’s a lot bigger than what I expected’. It surprises a lot of people.”
Nyngan Solar Farm could be considered the birth-place of Australia’s large scale solar industry. The development of this farm helped establish the supply chains and technical know-how helping the construction of new solar farms across the country.
Stand on Nyngan’s red cracked earth and stand under its big, blue sky. Climb onto the farm’s viewing platform and listen to the hum of electricity. But don’t stay still for too long, you need to be a moving target for those flies.
Now marvel at the amazing shrinking solar costs. Back in 2013, each dollar that ARENA invested returned less than a Watt of solar capacity. Four years on, every dollar that ARENA invests returns more than five Watts of solar capacity. That’s five times more bang for a solar buck.
Listen to our previous episodes to go on a journey around some of Australia’s best large-scale solar farms. Subscribe to the podcast on your favourite podcast app and leave a review.
But before you do any of that, come on our Nyngan adventure now…
Interested in more ReWired podcasts? Click here to access our entire library.
From Elvis to the moon and the stars; a small town’s solar powered adventure.
You might have already heard of Parkes, a small town in Central West New South Wales.
might have even been one of the thousand of people who arrive every year at the annual Parkes Elvis Festival complete with jumpsuit, sideburns and swinging hips.
might have seen it in the classic Australian film, The Dish. That was the movie that celebrated the Parkes Radio Telescope Observatory and its role in the first moon landing.
Now Parkes is about to get famous for something else altogether: solar power.
The regional centre is the site of one of 12 new large-scale solar farms being supported by ARENA. This exciting development is just a few hours south of Griffith, the solar farm project featured in our last episode.
ARENA granted $7 million to developers Neoen to help them activate the $114 million required to build the Parkes project.
This project will install over 200,000 panels, giving the farm the ability to power almost 20,000 average homes. Its 50MW output will be enough to look after all the town’s domestic needs.
The Parkes’ locals are excited to share their open, flat spaces that will make the most of Australia’s plentiful sunshine.
In fact, it’s been estimated that that a 50km2 solar farm harvesting the Australian sun would be enough to cover all of the nation’s electricity needs. (Discover more amazing solar statistics like this on our website.)
Another fun fact: the combined energy generation of the Kidston, Griffith, and Parkes solar farms, featured in the first three episodes of our podcast, would be enough to power 50,000 homes and contribute 130MW of power to the National grid.
Interested in more ReWired podcasts? Click here to access our entire library.
Australia’s food bowl is producing world-class wine and premium solar energy.
Basking amongst the citrus trees, grape vines and rice fields of Australia’s food bowl sits the site for the Griffith Solar Farm in South-Western NSW.
The local Riverina area is renowned for the premium wine and food that it exports to the world. Soon the region will add renewable energy to its list of high quality and desirable produce.
To get to Griffith we’ve travelled a long way south from our previous episode on the Kidston Solar Farm in Northern Queensland.
The local legend is that Griffith is the sunniest place on Earth. While this may be a tall tale, it is true that Griffith’s big, clear, blue skies mean it’s the perfect place to construct a large-scale solar farm.
When opened in late 2017, the solar farm will offset emissions equivalent to 20,000 cars or 66,000 tonnes of CO2. And it could power around 11,000 homes.
ARENA has provided a $5 million dollar grant to help Developers Neoen make the solar farm commercially viable, which is around 10% of the total costs. The project is under construction and already boosting the local economy by drawing on the area for services, hospitality and sunny days.
Local contractors are finding employment in the important the civil work jobs, like constructing internal roads and erecting the fence around the site.
In fact, the fence is attracting attention, leading to curious rumours about growing controlled hemp for the Government.
The big companies who are doing the major works are employing local electrician contractors, as well as bringing in workers who stay in the motels and go to the shops and restaurants.
Good food is being eaten, great friendships are being made, and a local community is thriving.
The farm is installing 112,000 of the latest generation solar panels. The advances of solar energy over the last decade mean that solar power is now competitively priced against more traditional, fossil fuel energy sources.
But the real question is, will the Griffith Solar Farm be able to collect solar power by the light of the full moon?
Interested in more ReWired podcasts? Click here to access our entire library.
ReWired Podcast: Episode 1
Stay tuned for new episodes every week.
Interested in more ReWired podcasts? Click here to access our entire library.
From gold rush to renewable energy hub: Kidston is set to boom again
At its peak, in 1909, Kidston was a thriving and rowdy gold mining township of a few thousand with two hotels, two halls, a school, a police station and the Kidston State Battery which was built to help manage growing demand and is now heritage listed.
George Ryan’s family is fifth generation in the area and his great grandfather owned the hotel at Kidston during the gold rush. Today George runs cattle on two properties that have been in the family for two generations. Like hundreds of others, he worked at the modern gold mine, which operated from 1986 to 2000.
“Although it was fly-in, fly-out, it provided local jobs and many local grazing families benefited from the regular income of a mine job,” George’s wife Miranda says.
When the open cut gold mine eventually closed, most people left the area. Today the town of Kidston sits quietly along a dirt road; only a few houses remain and you would be hard pressed to know it was once the biggest gold producer in Australia.
The Ryan family live in the town and there are a handful of others in the surrounding area including Owen Campbell who is said to have driven the last load of gold out of the Eldridge pit. He and his wife Jenny decided to stay in the area and run a 142 square mile cattle station and tourism accommodation at the former mining camp which they bought in November 2001.
The local community is excited by a unique renewable energy venture about to ramp up in Kidston which is set to create jobs and boost the region’s economy.
You wouldn’t think a disused gold mine would be the ideal candidate for a makeover but that is exactly what is happening at the Kidston site where Australian company Genex Power is building a solar farm alongside a proposed pumped hydro facility.
The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) is providing $8.9 million towards the $126 million Kidston Solar Project. It is the first phase in the development of the Kidston Renewable Energy Hub which, when complete, will have an output of 145 GWh and be able to power the equivalent of more than 26,000 average Australian houses though the National Electricity Market.
The 50 MW Kidston Solar Project is the first to break ground of six Queensland solar farms to be funded through ARENA’s competitive large-scale solar round. The Queensland developments will deliver 750 jobs; in total the 12 ARENA-funded solar farms will deliver close to 1500 jobs across as well as flow on effects to local businesses and regional economies.
Owen and Jenny’s former mining camp, for example, is getting a significant makeover to house the workforce of up to 90 on site to build the solar farm.
Genex is leasing the Oaks Rush Outback Resort from the Campbell’s, which is some 7 km away from the solar farm site, and will spend $1.8 million refurbishing all the existing facilities including the kitchen, cold rooms, gymnasium, tennis court, water treatment plan and back-up generator.
Oaks Rush Outback Resort sign.
The original facility had 250 rooms but most of them were dismantled and sold before Owen and Jenny bought the camp. The remaining 16 accommodation units will be refitted and a further 68 ensuited rooms will be added. At the end of the lease, the camp will be returned to Owen and Jenny to run as a modernised tourism facility next to the Kidston Renewable Energy Hub which is expected to be a major attraction in a historic part of north Queensland.
There was a definite buzz in the air at the February sod-turning event to mark the start of construction on the Kidston Solar Project. One of the “local” publicans and owner of tourism operation Cobbold Gorge, Simon Terry, drove more than 100 kilometres to join the festivities and help out driving visitors around the site.
“The mood is buoyant within the Etheridge Shire – the project is great in a number of ways – for many of the little communities where work has come and gone morale has been low so this will certainly be good,” Simon says.
Another local Glynis Ryan, who grew up in the area, watched on with a big smile as the crowd gathered. She said she was looking forward to the project getting underway and the jobs it will bring – her youngest son Luke has put in an application and hopes to work on the solar farm and the pumped hydro project.
“It’ll be great for the area. Unemployment around here is quite high – this is probably the best thing to come along since the closure of the mine,” Glynis says.
Genex Managing Director Michael Addison.
While Genex Managing Director Michael Addison said North Queensland locals would be prioritised for employment opportunities, Miranda Ryan explained the benefits to the community also extended beyond that.
“As far as our family is concerned, it will be good to know there may be jobs for our children in the future and for other local families. The camp will also provide a place for local families to go and have a meal of a weekend and a sociable night out as the closest town is Einasleigh, about 100km from us,” Miranda says.
For George Ryan, new infrastructure is just part of the story. The Kidston development means hope for Kidston’s townsfolk that a new prosperity is just around the corner.
“When the Kidston mine closed down a lot of locals were left unemployed here and it left a vacuum,” George says. “This project will throw them a lifeline. There’s going to be modern-skilled jobs that will be available for locals.”
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At its peak, in 1909, Kidston was a thriving and rowdy gold mining township of a few thousand with two hotels, two halls, a school, a police station and the Kidston State Battery which was built to help manage growing demand and is now heritage listed.
