Plans for a new Northern Rivers Renewable Energy Co-operative were conceived this week at an energy forum attended by over 100 people.

Still at planning stage, the co-operative would potentially produce, buy and sell renewable energy in the region, using wind, solar and bio-mass as well as wave and ocean-current technologies as they become available.

Against a backdrop of disappointment with federal and state policies, the forum was extremely positive about communities growing more of their own energy, and using it more efficiently.

Sold lies by the media

Executive Director of Beyond Zero Emissions, Matthew Wright, pointed to European nations shifting rapidly away from carbon, and presented a strategy for Australia to achieve 100 per cent of its power from renewables, using large-scale solar and wind farms.

‘We’ve been sold lies and misinformation through the media that renewables can’t provide baseload energy needs,’ he told the forum, urging people in the region to train as volunteer presenters with Beyond Zero.

Several speakers stressed that reducing energy consumption was one of the cheapest and easiest ways to cut greenhouse emissions, with several examples presented by University of Technology Professor Stuart White.

Professor White described a recent experiment in Sydney where energy saving had been made into a ‘competitive sport’ for kids, with one competition between schools producing reductions in household power bills of almost 10 per cent.

In another case, in Townsville North Queensland, minor adjustments to the way air-conditioners operated reduced peak demand in summer by an estimated 20 per cent, without the changes even being noticed by users.

Professor White said one of the ‘best kept secrets’ in the energy world was the enormous cost of meeting peak demand, requiring billions to be invested in old centralised network infrastructure, including expensive transmission lines.

Decentralised power grid

He shared research showing how a decentralised, ‘intelligent’ power grid which distributed energy more rationally and efficiently could dramatically slash wastage, with both environmental and economic benefits.

Professor White also said government policies and regulations were sometimes creating ‘absurd barriers to innovation’. He cited an example in Sydney, where the University of Technology wants to use its own locally generated power, but would be charged the same massive fee by the distribution company to send the power across the road, as it would cost to send it to a remote part of the state.

Anger at governments failing to adequately support renewable energy – and even hindering its development – was a key theme of the forum, which took place Friday at the Mullumbimby Civic Hall.

Similarly, the experience of setting up a new solar wind farm in Nimbin was hampered by multiple bureaucratic obstacles and policy flip-flops, including cuts to federal rebates and the state’s feed-in tariff.

The idea for a new locally-owned power company or co-operative emerged from the floor of the forum late on Friday afternoon, with plans to develop the idea via the Sustain Northern Rivers website. 

The group driving it included people with experience in the renewables industry and investment sector, and the Lismore-based Environmental Defender’s Office will now look at the legalities of a new co-operative.

While coal seam gas was not formally on the agenda for discussion at the forum, a number of speakers expressed concerns about its environmental impacts, and raised uncertainty surrounding gas’s greenhouse footprint.

‘Gas is a diversion,’ said Matthew Wright from Beyond Zero Emissions. ‘We don’t want a gas future.’

Professor Stuart White said one of the big problems with the energy debate nationally was that regulators didn’t have the capacity to critically analyse industry claims for more expensive infrastructure – like the proposed new $225 million transmission lines to bring more coal-fired power to the northern rivers to meet projected peak demand. ‘There’s a simplistic view among regulators that we’ve got to keep the lights on by building more stuff, like power lines,’ said Professor White. The forum was funded by a range of community groups, Byron Shire Council and the state government.