The Huntlee residential development will be the first new town in the Hunter Valley where coal mining and electricity production are main industries for 50 years. When complete, it is expected to house 20,000 residents in 7,500 properties.
Falling renewable energy costs and "substantial" connection costs have led to an investigation into the possibility of building the new town off the grid, and powered entirely by renewable energy. The concept is being developed by the Huntlee project director, LWP Property Group, in addition to Brookfield Energy Australia and Flow Systems.
A total of $1.1 million is being invested in the initial study, which will assess the feasibility of achieving a 100% renewable microgrid, $442,000 of which is being provided by the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA). In particular, renewables, battery storage and enabling technologies will be assessed for their reliability and cost-effectiveness.
If positive, ARENA CEO, Ivor Frischknecht says the town will "set a precedent" and could "accelerate the uptake of renewables in Australia." He added, "There are a number of regulatory challenges and constraints and technical risks facing microgrids. Brookfield will share key insights about overcoming these barriers with the energy industry."
Flow Systems MD expanded, stating, "Our goal is to develop a model that has 10 times the penetration of renewables for the equivalent cost of energy. Proving this can be done technically and commercially will be a real step change for embedded renewables in this country."
Popular content
This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.
Share
Becky Beetz
By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.
Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.
You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.
Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.