Antinuclear

Margaret Hender from the Citizens Own Renewable Energy Network Australia explains the citizen owned renewables funding mechanism and highlights what is needed to encourage uptake of the concept.

The Citizens Own Renewable Energy Network Australia (CORENA) brings together people in the community who are keen to contribute to action on climate change and that technology by enabling people to help collectively fund practical renewable energy projects.

Passing on the benefits of renewables

At first glance there is nothing particularly unusual about the 7 kilowatt high quality solar photovoltaic (PV) system that was installed in November 2013 on the roof of Tulgeen Disability Services in Bega, New South Wales. It will provide 58 per cent of the electricity used by the Tulgeen cheese packaging facility, which employs people with disabilities, and 21 per cent of the usage at the Training and Education Services day programs centre.

The novel element is the mechanism used to fund the project. CORENA gave Tulgeen an interest free loan of $12,000, funded entirely by voluntary contributions from citizens across Australia. Tulgeen CEO Pete Gordon plans to repay the zero interest loan in three years from the savings in power bills, however, the system will be generating electricity for 25 years. This translates into reduced costs for Tulgeen’s clients and a greater range of services able to be offered by the centre.

This represents a win-win scenario. Tulgeen chose to cover part of the cost themselves, but typical solar PV installations funded by CORENA don’t cost community organisations a cent, and their loan repayments help to fund installations for other organisations.

How CORENA began………..

Quick Small Projects

CORENA’s donated seed funds allow us to pursue what is needed, rather than being bound by conventional financial constraints.

CORENA’s Quick Small Projects take the capital expense out of energy efficiency and solar installations for community serving organisations by using donated funds to give interest free loans. As the loans are repaid out of savings from power bills, the funds then revolve into the next project, and then the next. When approximately 120 projects are funded, there will be enough revolving seed money to fund one new project per month on an ongoing basis. Our Quick Small Projects will then essentially cost nothing. To reach this point, we will need around $2.4 million in seed funds, or $24 from each of 100,000 people.

Solar thermal: the Big Win Project

Similarly, all income generated by CORENA’s solar thermal Big Win Project will be paid forward to help build additional utility-scale projects…….http://ecogeneration.com.au/news/citizen_funded_renewable_energy_projects/089762/