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CENTRAL VICTORIA: SOLAR CITY
NARRATOR: The Central Victoria Solar Cities program includes Bendigo, Castlemaine and
Newstead, a small green community whose experiences of going renewable are giving the program
valuable insights.
LEAH SERTORI - CENTRAL VICTORIA SOLAR CITY: As a result of the Solar Cities program our
communities are taking charge of their own energy use. The Newstead program is a pilot
of Central Victorias Solar Cities 100% renewable communities program and what we are piloting
within the research trial is the idea that communities can work together to collectively
reduce their consumption.
GEOFF PARK - RENEWABLE NEWSTEAD COMMITTEE: We have to move to more renewable forms of
energy but what we want to do in Newstead is demonstrate how you can do it at a local
scale. One of the key things we are doing is trying to get as many people in town households
to have home energy assessments and to date out of 200 households in the town I think
we have got 120 assessments already been done, we have another 40 on the waiting list. So
that's a really high percentage and that's really about trying to help people to understand
how they can understand their energy use and how they can reduce it over time.
NARRATOR: Applying clean energy strategies has been the challenge for many Newstead householders
and small businesses where the heritage character of their properties has created particular
demands.
ELIZABETH JULIE BELL - THE RED STORE: The Red store is an 1800's general store or grocer.
When we had our energy audit done it was more a matter of walking around and getting someone
else to look at your business and building with new eyes.
LEAH SERTORI - CENTRAL VICTORIA SOLAR CITY: We were overwhelmed by the positive response
from our local communities. Some people are more excited by energy saving because of the
environmental benefits and everyone can understand the cost saving benefits to local communities
too. As a result of Central Victorias Solar City, communities in our region now understand
the benefits of reducing their energy consumption and the cost savings that come with that.
LAUREL JEFFERY - CASTLEMAINE RESIDENT: What we have learnt through Solar Cities: my neighbours
are now wanting to do the same thing. I had this assessment officer come and we had a
look at the place. He made some recommendations and ideas that I could do to improve the house.
That was excellent because I really needed some guidelines to work on and it wasn't difficult.
NARRATOR: In addition in activities in towns like Newstead the Solar Cities program in
Central Victoria has included regional projects.
LEAH SERTORI - CENTRAL VICTORIA SOLAR CITY: One of our projects with the community is
to design and construct two 300kW Solar Parks, there is one in Bendigo and there is one in
Ballarat. The idea behind the Solar Park is that communities can buy into their own renewable
energy power station that's then generating enough electricity to power a number of homes
in their town.
NARRATOR: The Australian Government Solar Cities program is the story of the many ways
in many places that people are contributing to Australia's clean energy future.