We had a terrific and intimate celebration in Yack today to flag the completion of 10 solar installations on public buildings, three of which have batteries.
After five years of sustained effort ten public buildings have a combined total of 74.8 kW of solar panels and 36 kWh of batteries, including the Public Hall, Sports Park, CFA, Museum, Masonic Hall, Health Service and the Osbornes Flat, Wooragee and Bruarong Halls, and the Indigo Valley CFA. These systems are all linked by the electricity grid and the Ubi smart energy controller, and soon also the community energy retailer, Indigo Power.
They form a series of small, distributed solar and battery installations that are contributing renewable power to the grid around Yackandandah. Each on it’s own is not very large, but combined they contribute a significant amount to powering our town and act as a virtual power plant.
This project was made possible with inputs from the Victorian Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, plus: TRY, Indigo Shire, Into Our Hands Foundation, Various Hall Committees, YCDCo, Selectronic Australia, Indigo Power and the Yackandandah Folk Festival. Big support also from solar professionals, Solar Integrity.
Hi there
congratulations on your fantastic achievements towards a renewable future! We in north west NSW would also like to follow your vision and actions and have just started down the road. We would love the opportunity to speak to you at some stage (maybe even get your guys up here next year??). Could you please put me in contact with someone who might be able to progress this idea? Thanks in advance
Hi Sally,
Thanks for your interest and lovely comments. General enquiries can be sent via the contact form on this site – send us a message with your group details and vision. We’d love to pass on whatever we can, and of course there’s lots of information out there now on things that you can do. Have a look at the Community Power Agency website as well – they have workshops and webinars on designing community-owned energy projects and are a great resource for CE groups: https://cpagency.org.au/our-work/innovation-research/community-participation/