A small group of Goulburn residents gathered around kitchen tables in late 2014 to discuss a simple idea: making their own clean electricity.
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group → gather → electricity
Twelve years later, that discussion became Australia’s first community-owned solar farm paired with a large-scale battery.
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discussion → become → battery
The 1.4-megawatt facility, backed by a four-megawatt-hour battery, officially opened on an old industrial site on the edge of the New South Wales regional city.
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facility → back → city
The project can generate enough electricity to power about 500 homes, sending power directly into the local grid.
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project → generate → grid
The project depended on years of shared effort and persistence.
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project → depend → effort
About 300 investors, most of them local residents, raised $3.3 million in capital, along with $2.3 million in grants from the NSW Government.
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most → raise → Government
According to the Business Council of Co-operatives and Mutuals (BCCM), the project provides a practical example of how regional communities can help lead the move to renewable energy through community ownership.
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communities → accord → ownership
Roots of a decade-long initiative
The project began with Community Energy for Goulburn (CE4G), a volunteer sub-committee formed by local sustainability group The Goulburn Group.
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project → begin → Group
Organisers wanted a system where every member had an equal say, regardless of how much money they invested.
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they → want → money
They formed the Goulburn Community Energy Cooperative and registered it through the NSW Department of Fair Trading.
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They → form → Trading
Under the cooperative structure, each member has one vote.
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member → have → vote
Someone who invested $400 had the same voting power as someone who invested $4,000.
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who → invest → 4,000
This meant no investor could use greater financial power to control the project.
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investor → mean → project
Writing in energy publication The Energy, founding member and CE4G president Peter Fraser said building trust began with the local community.
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trust → write → community
Before making formal applications, volunteers went door to door around the proposed solar farm to explain the idea and hear people's concerns.
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volunteers → make → concerns
Fraser wrote that there were no objections from those neighbours.
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Fraser → write → neighbours
The chosen site was an old, unused industrial site beside the railway corridor between Sydney and Canberra.
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site → choose → Sydney
The land was not square and was not ideally aligned to face north, which created some design challenges.
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which → align → challenges
But the site was easy to see from the road and railway, giving the project a public showcase.
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site → see → showcase
It was also next to an existing 33kV power line, which made the grid connection easier.
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connection → exist → line
Navigating delays and unexpected hurdles
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Navigating → navigate → delays
Delays, policy changes and rising costs repeatedly pushed the project timeline out.
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Delays → rise → timeline
Organisers dealt with global supply problems during the pandemic, higher material costs and long reviews by the local council and electricity network owner.
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Organisers → deal → council
Because the solar farm is inside the Sydney water catchment area, the project also faced extra planning rules.
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project → face → rules
Fraser wrote in The Energy that Sydney Water required considerable landscaping measures to help stop sediment from reaching catchment dams.
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Water → write → dams
These requirements added more work before construction could begin.
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construction → add → work
Tax rules also surprised the organisers.
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rules → surprise → organisers
As Fraser explained in The Energy, government grants for capital projects can be taxable, so tax had to be paid before the solar farm was earning any income.
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farm → explain → income
Fraser wrote that the project team had not known about this, and that the government that provided the original grant had not known either.
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that → write → grant
The work continued with specialist project developer Komo Energy, which stayed involved for more than eight years.
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which → continue → years
Fraser credited the company with helping the cooperative through the many challenges involved in developing the project.
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Fraser → credit → project
Keeping financial benefits within the town
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Keeping → keep → town
Unlike commercial power projects owned by outside shareholders, the cooperative model keeps much of the financial benefit in the local economy.
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model → own → economy
Local contractors and suppliers were used for construction and ongoing work where possible.
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contractors → use → construction
At the official opening, Parliamentary Secretary to the NSW Treasurer David Mehan MP praised the cooperative's local economic impact.
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MP → praise → impact
“The co-operative model has grounded this project in the region,” Mehan said.
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Mehan → ground → region
“It has anchored it ethically and in the way it has been delivered, from using local businesses to keeping benefits local.
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it → anchor → benefits
Around 80 per cent of profit remains in this community.
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cent → remain → community
Few renewable energy projects in NSW can say that.
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projects → say → that
The co-operative model has made it possible here in Goulburn.”
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it → make → Goulburn
…and 10 more, not listed.
The Aporia
