As the staff and children at St Brigid’s Primary School head back to school from their summer break they will be happy to know their electricity bills are on the way down, thanks to a new solar system recently installed by Healesville CoRE. St Brigid’s is the third building in Healesville to use our Revolving Fund for an interest free loan which will be repaid over the next few years using funds from the school’s reduced power bills.

A solar electricity system installed at St Brigid’s Primary School in Healesville is now online. The system was installed by Healesville CoRE using part of a $90,000 grant provided by the Federal Government in 2020. Yarra Ranges Council provided invaluable support in terms of financial and project management services. The system consists of 71 panels rated to produce a total of 32.6 kW of power. 

Provision of the system finance has been structured as a loan to St Brigid’s. The school will repay the loan over a number of years funded by the school’s reduced power bills. Once the loan has been repaid the school will have the full benefit of the system and Healesville CoRE will be able to reuse the repaid loan funds to fund a new system on another community building. 

This is the third community building where Healesville CoRE has installed solar systems under this model, the other two being the Robyn Jane Children’s Centre and the Healesville Living & Learning Centre. Both of those systems have previously gone online.

In some fantastic news to start the year, Healesville Community Renewable Energy Inc is the recipient of the Yarra Ranges Council, Environmental Achiever of the Year Australia Day Awards!

Yarra Ranges Council is very proud of the dedication and achievements of our residents who volunteer their own time and knowledge to make our local communities are great place to live.  Council’s annual Australia Day Civic Award ceremony provides a fantastic opportunity to acknowledge and celebrate the presentation of the awards to recipients, with their family and friends.

The award was presented on January 26th at Mt Evelyn Athletics Pavilion and lived streamed via Yarra Ranges Life TV. To view the Award Ceremony, click https://www.facebook.com/events/1000442697212662

Photography by Leo De Jong

The Central Committee of Healesville CoRE is pleased to advise our financial members and the general public that the 2021 Annual General Meeting will be held on Thursday 2 September from 7:30 pm via an oline Zoom meeting due to Covid 19 restrictions

UPCOMING EVENT: in conjunction with Yarra Valley Community Power Hub
Electric Vehicles and other Energy Efficient Modes of Transport

NOW ON Saturday 19 FEB 2022 10.30am – 12.30pm

Darron Honey Centre (rear of Uniting Church), Maroondah Hwy, Healesville

Come and experience a close encounter with some of Australia’s best EV’s (electric vehicles) and hear from their owners on how they made the switch!

MORE INFO AND REGISTRATION CLICK HERE

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD OR VIEW OUR PROGRAM OF EVENTS

Throughout 2021, Healesville CoRE will be holding its 4th series of free community events.

Please note that this program is subject to change due to Covid-19 restrictions. We are committed to run our events as face to face meetings in line with health guidance.

Please stay tuned for email updates and check each event on our website HERE for further information.

Subscibe to our mailing list HERE and get event reminders and newsletters sent directly to your inbox.

The goal of our events is to assist community members to better understand and more deeply engage with community based renewable energy power generation, methods to improve the energy efficiency of their homes and businesses, and to inform and advise on future community based renewable energy projects.

More specifically, these events focus on improving community awareness and knowledge on a range of topics, including: domestic solar panel installations, heat pump and solar based hot water systems, off grid solar battery storage, smart monitoring systems, small to medium scale solar farms, microgrids, energy optimisation products for homes and businesses, community owned energy systems / the Local Power Plan, and electric vehicles. Check out the full list of events on our website HERE!

Healesville CoRE is committed to reducing our community’s reliance on fossil fuel generated power whilst simultaneously saving our community members money on their energy costs.

FREE LIGHT REFRESHMENTS will be available at each event (if held at a venue rather than online).

Online registration is free, and will open 3 weeks prior to the date of each event on our event page on our website.

Karen & Ron Roberts’ Experience with their Reclaim Heat Pump

In August 2019 Healesville CoRE members Karen and Ron Roberts decided to take advantage of the Solar Hot Water & Heat Pump offer by purchasing an Apricus CO2 Heat Pump from Reclaim Energy. They already had a 3.5kw solar system with 14 panels installed a few years earlier, and although this certainly reduced their power bill, they knew their old electric water unit was chewing through the kilowatts and needed replacing.

The figures are:

Cost of unit                              $3520

Installation                              $1262 (Plumbing and electrician)

TOTAL                                     $4,782

Less Federal rebate                 $1732 (STC $1156 and VEEC $576)

Less State rebate                    $1000

Total out of pocket cost        $2050

The graph below tells the story, look at the July total compared to the August one! As you can see, the peak usage remains fairly constant, but the off peak usage drops dramatically and then remains quite low. They believe this is because the old unit used to heat up during the off peak portion. The new one only heats up once a day for 2 hours from 10am till 12 noon which will be changed in the winter to maximize the suns effect on the solar panels.

Karen and Ron are with Tango and their feed in tariff rate was 11.3c until June, and 12c from July until now. Their power bill averaged at $103.45 per month from March to August 2019, then after the heat pump installation dropped to an average of $43.20 per month from September 2019 to February 2020. These figures may have to be adjusted slightly because we need to take into consideration the days were longer and warmer after the heat pump was installed, but they calculate that they will still be saving about $700 a year ($7,000 over 10 years), which means that the heat pump will pay for itself after about three years. Not a bad investment!

Healesville CoRE are continuing their Hot Water Community Offer in 2021!

Come to our next event called ‘Switching to Solar’ on the 1st of March 2021 to learn more!!!

Healesville Net Zero Town Project – 2018’
The ambition of Healesville CoRE is to transition our town to net zero emissions and create greater energy independence for Healesville. The broader objective is for the community to feel empowered to have more control and ownership over the production, distribution and storage of the town’s renewable energy

What was the Healesville Net Zero Town Project & Why Was it Created?
In 2017, Healesville CoRE partnered with Monash University’s Net Zero Initiative and the Yarra Ranges Council to apply for a New Energy Jobs Fund Grant from the Victorian Government, to create a feasibility study and transition plan for Healesville to become a Net Zero Town. Although our team was shortlisted and went to interview for the grant, our application was ultimately not successful.

Nevertheless, Monash University offered to create a ‘pro bono’ project for Healesville CoRE, with two students to undertake an Options Study, supervised by Dr Roger Dargaville (Senior Lecturer in Monash’s Department of Civil Engineering) and Dr Yasmina Dkhissi, the Monash University Net Zero Strategy Manager.

Luke Barry and Nick Seymour, both Monash University Environmental Engineering students, were selected to do the research and provide a report. Their work commenced in March 2018 and was completed in June 2018, with a written report and a presentation on 21^st June 2018, at the Healesville CoRE first anniversary community gathering at the Memo in Healesville: ‘Our Solar town: from dreams to reality”.

Why was Monash Motivated to Establish this Program?
According to Dr Yasmina Dkhissi, “Monash Uni through its Net Zero Initiative is committed to Climate Action, Leadership and Partnerships. Monash Uni is transforming its own infrastructure and assets to transition to net zero emissions by 2030 and building an innovative,100% renewable powered Microgrid on its Clayton campus.

Monash is committed to creating a positive impact beyond the campus boundaries and helping community organisations embarking on similar journeys.

Monash sees Healesville Net Zero town as the perfect opportunity to promote collaborative and innovative approaches to solving today’s great sustainability challenges. It allows Monash students to apply and further their skills and knowledge on an interdisciplinary ‘real-word’ challenge being driven by a local community group, supported to find practical solutions that will benefit the region and beyond. If this project could help enable collaborations with local industry partners, we strongly believe that this would constitute one great step towards achieving Healesville CoRE’s vision.”

Healesville CoRE was excited to work with such a professional team willing to support a group of community volunteers in achieving our big ambition of a Net Zero Town by 2027. The final report provided by Nick Seymour and Luke Barry provides us with a secure foundation and a direction for our project.

Healesville Net Zero Town Project – Scope (March 2018)
Healesville Net Zero Town Report – July 2018