Australia’s first community-owned energy retailer, the Northern Rivers NSW-based Enova Energy, will soon offer customers locally generated rooftop solar power, as part of its goal of producing enough renewable electricity to meet all of its customers’ needs.
In a statement released late last week, the company said it would now purchase excess rooftop solar generation from its customers, as well as from local community solar farms and gardens, to sell on to other customers who wanted access to solar power, but could not generate it themselves.
The new scheme, which Enova says could meet just under half of existing customer requirements, comes less than two months after the retailer boosted its solar feed-in tariff by 33 per cent, to 16c/kWh.
“Using solar supplies such as (the new 18kW system on our own office rooftop in Byron Bay) ….we can now supply locally generated renewable energy to people who don’t own their own solar panels,“ Enova said in a statement late last week.
“Enova can meet approximately 40% of existing user requirements with this locally generated renewable energy.”
The retailer said that it was also introducing new energy plans to allow customers to access the community generated solar.
Under the new plans, customers would also be able to choose GreenPower, and continue to support Enova’s Renewable Development Initiative (RDI) which supports our community projects, it said.
“Fossil fuels are on the way out and complete reliance on large- scale energy generation will not be far behind,” said Enova managing director Tony Pfeiffer.
“The future is all about locally generated and locally consumed renewable energy and Enova is making that possible right here, right now, beginning in the Northern Rivers region of NSW.”
Pfeiffer said the company also had plans to invest in more renewables – including community owned local solar farms, and other sources which could include wind, hydro and biofuels – as its customer base grew.
“Becoming a renewable power generator enables Enova much more control over the energy we supply to our customers,” he said.
“Enova’s vision to produce enough renewable energy to meet all of our customers’ needs is being realised earlier than originally planned.
“This is a landmark moment for us as a company and for the Northern Rivers,” Pfeiffer said.
“We know our customers don’t want to wait for politicians and big business to lead the way in transitioning to renewables, they just want to get on with it. Enova is empowering them to do just that.
“Everyone can now join the solar revolution. If you’re living in an apartment, or you’re renting, or perhaps can’t afford the initial upfront investment in solar panels, then you can still join the solar revolution.”
Sophie is editor of One Step Off The Grid and deputy editor of its sister site, Renew Economy. Sophie has been writing about clean energy for more than a decade.
