At Monday’s ordinary monthly meeting, Walcha Council agreed to submit an expression of interest for Walcha to be part of a pioneering new initiative to create Australia’s first Zero Net Energy Town.
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The ZNET idea is to create an electricity and energy system for a rural town in the New England using the cutting edge of energy network technologies and solutions. The model uses local renewable energy resources, management and storage technologies.
“The key outcomes of a zero net energy town will be regional jobs, a stronger regional economy and more affordable energy prices,” project spokesman Adam Blakester said.
“The potential value of this model is quite significant, particularly given how abundant its renewable energy resources are and how distributed our energy needs are.”
The project is being led by a consortium of organisations and has the support of NSW Office of Environment and Heritage. Most of the member organisations have been working on the initiative for over a year.
Mr Blakester said the selection process to find the pilot town had not yet begun however he was pleased to hear Walcha would submit an expression of interest. “Walcha was one of the towns we had on our radar for a lot of reasons,” Mr Blakester said. “There is certainly a lot of potential for renewable energy in that area.”
The German town of Wilpoldsried was represented by their mayor Arno Zengerle at a recent community energy congress in Canberra. Wilpoldsried produces 460 per cent of the town’s energy needs from a mixture of bio-gas, wood, solar, wind and hydro generation. Their energy system includes distributed heating (for all public buildings) as well as electricity.
“This created significant new industry and employment and turned around the fortunes of what once was a ‘dying rural town’,” he said.
“The town is now growing, with new investment, industry and employment. Dozens of tour groups visit Wilpoldsried every year to see and learn from their pioneering distributed and renewable energy model.”
Mr Blakester said as well as wind, solar and hydro energy, there was potential to develop biomass energy using bio digesters and sewerage, agricultural residue and forestry residue.
“The most promising thing about this technology is that it produces methane gas which can be stored and used in gas turbines,” he said.
The immediate priorities for the ZNET initiative were to seek tenders for the blueprint and business case plus the selection of the town for the pilot. The project is to be completed by June 2015.
