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The use of an evaluative hub project to progress community owned renewable energy
GUEST: Don Carlson – community owned renewable energy advocate and member of Renew (Toowoomba)
INTRODUCTION TO THIS EPISODE:
Robust studies now conclude it is feasible to have a future in which our community power needs can be met from renewable energy sources. My guest on this episode of the After the Virus podcast, Don Carlson, believes there is real momentum for embracing this change, but worries that much of the current response is piecemeal and not necessarily focussed on the most efficient and cost-effective path to achieving that preferred future.
Don thinks that the quickest and most equitable way to speed the adoption of sustainable energy is to demonstrate that it can be both cheaper and reliable. He talks about his ideas for one possible way to achieve this demonstration: through setting up a proof of concept, community based sustainable energy hub. Such a project can gather valuable evaluative data on the optimum mix of renewable energy services, the pricing of those services, and consumer behavioural response to services. This evaluative hub would be connected to the wider electricity grid, but set up with the objective of showing that grid interactions with it could be made as limited and predictable as possible. The hub concept represents a potential compromise, between more purist arguments for grid or off-grid solutions to achieve greater community renewable energy adoption in the future.
Nationally, in Australia, the hub concept has already been trialled in Victoria and a few other locations. It is now time to see it implemented in South East Queensland.
SUMMARY OF MAIN INTERVIEW TALKING POINTS:
- The need for a realistic economic appraisal of the rapidly expanding renewable energy strategies open to communities.
REFERENCES ASSOCIATED WITH POINTS MENTIONED IN THE DISCUSSION:
- Electric vehicles and their potential to work with smart grids in Australia
CONTACT DETAILS:
Guest: Don Carlson - Renew (Toowoomba Branch) on Facebook
Householders’ Options to Protect the Environment (HOPE):
T 07 4639 2135 E [email protected] W F
PRODUCTION:
Produced for HOPE by Andrew Nicholson. This episode recorded in Toowoomba, S.E. Queensland, Australia on 18th February 2021
Artwork: Daniela Dal'Castel Incidental Music: James Nicholson
View all episodes
By Householders’ Options to Protect the EnvironmentGUEST: Don Carlson – community owned renewable energy advocate and member of Renew (Toowoomba)
INTRODUCTION TO THIS EPISODE:
Robust studies now conclude it is feasible to have a future in which our community power needs can be met from renewable energy sources. My guest on this episode of the After the Virus podcast, Don Carlson, believes there is real momentum for embracing this change, but worries that much of the current response is piecemeal and not necessarily focussed on the most efficient and cost-effective path to achieving that preferred future.
Don thinks that the quickest and most equitable way to speed the adoption of sustainable energy is to demonstrate that it can be both cheaper and reliable. He talks about his ideas for one possible way to achieve this demonstration: through setting up a proof of concept, community based sustainable energy hub. Such a project can gather valuable evaluative data on the optimum mix of renewable energy services, the pricing of those services, and consumer behavioural response to services. This evaluative hub would be connected to the wider electricity grid, but set up with the objective of showing that grid interactions with it could be made as limited and predictable as possible. The hub concept represents a potential compromise, between more purist arguments for grid or off-grid solutions to achieve greater community renewable energy adoption in the future.
Nationally, in Australia, the hub concept has already been trialled in Victoria and a few other locations. It is now time to see it implemented in South East Queensland.
SUMMARY OF MAIN INTERVIEW TALKING POINTS:
- The need for a realistic economic appraisal of the rapidly expanding renewable energy strategies open to communities.
REFERENCES ASSOCIATED WITH POINTS MENTIONED IN THE DISCUSSION:
- Electric vehicles and their potential to work with smart grids in Australia
CONTACT DETAILS:
Guest: Don Carlson - Renew (Toowoomba Branch) on Facebook
Householders’ Options to Protect the Environment (HOPE):
T 07 4639 2135 E [email protected] W F
PRODUCTION:
Produced for HOPE by Andrew Nicholson. This episode recorded in Toowoomba, S.E. Queensland, Australia on 18th February 2021
Artwork: Daniela Dal'Castel Incidental Music: James Nicholson