The model is simple. Supporters can either buy shares in the broader community solar farm,or they can purchase “plots” in the garden. All 175 plots have been sold,for $4200 each. Their owners will receive a discount of $505 a year on their electricity bills for the next decade,while the family that owns the land on which the solar farm has been built is benefiting from the lease.
“It’s a little bit of income-proofing for us,” said Gemma Purcell,who with her husband,Reiner Meir,grows cereals and runs cattle and sheep on the farm not far from Narrandera in the NSW Riverina.
The income stream will be welcome,she says,particularly if dry weather sets in,but she was drawn to the idea because she wanted to contribute to a climate change solution. Using her land to help create a medium-scale solar farm that would give access to the benefits of solar to renters and apartment owners in cities made sense.
Loading
She recalls telling another of the project’s proponents,Kristy Walters,director of the Community Power Agency that,“we grow the cereal and grains that make your breakfast and we grow your meat,we may as well grow your energy too.”
Conversations that began in 2016 evolved into making plans between Purcell,the Community Power Agency and an energy retailer. By the time they had found a solar developer,Komo Energy,and were ready,the COVID-19 pandemic had brutalised supply chains,causing delays and driving up costs. As the situation eased,the Russian invasion of Ukraine shook up the energy market,eventually knocking out the electricity retailer the farm had begun discussions with.
The enterprise suffered another blow when they discovered a tax regulation change introduced under the Abbott government imposed heavy impost on not-for-profit renewable energy outfits.