Noosaville Community Battery Project Report

Jessica Phillips15:36

Thank you. Any questions? So would you like to flow? Thank you for inviting me, all those in paper and that's carried unanimously. Thank you, thank you. Okay, moving on to item 7.1.3 and that is the um Noosaville Community Battery Project Report.

Grant-funded Noosaville community battery. So, in June 2023, Council was awarded $500,000 under the Australian government's community battery to the house insolvent program. This project has now been successfully delivered, with the factory being commissioned and operational. Of community workers 2026. The project was delivered in partnership with Zero Emissions Noosa and the Yarra Energy Foundation, and was established as a pilot initiative to demonstrate community battery it deployment in Queensland. It was intended to be the first. Community battery in Queensland that was owned and operated outside of a distribution network service provider. This pilot has provided valuable insights into the regulatory, technical and commercial challenges associated with community batteries in the State. The battery is located in McGregor park, Noosaville and comprises a 120 kilowatt battery storage system which is designed to store excess root of solar generation during the day and discharge during periods of. The location included a site visit with all key stakeholders including Queensland Fire Department to ensure that there was sufficient access requirements. Proclimate. The project was delivered over a period of three years and experienced significant delays due to network power negotiations, Energex connection approvals and the development of the new commercial and regulatory arrangements associated this kind of project. Despite these challenges the factory is now fully operational and is supported by a 10 year service level agreement, an extended manufacturing warranty and ongoing operational management arrangements. Community engagement was undertaken throughout the project between 2023 and 2026 which included community information sessions, newsletters, webinars, letter box drops and direct engagement with residents. Feedback received was generally positive or neutral with no significant community opposition identified. A local artist Sophie Farquhar was also commissioned to develop a site-specific artwork which further supports the community ownership and integration of the asset within the public. As a pilot project the Noosaville community battery has provided important lessons for the future deployment of community energy infrastructure. Key learnings include the potential advantages of changing to a behind-the-metre battery model that could deliver more direct community reasoning experiments and also the challenges associated with achieving commercial viability for community batteries within the current operational environment. Performance and monitoring will be ongoing with the initial reports their performance report occurring once we have six months of operational data and this will allow us to assess its ongoing performance and viability can I have a mover and a seconder? I can move it Madam Chair. I second it by Councillor Wilson.

Frank Wilkie19:26

Yeah, because this is a significant project involving significant innovation, I will speak about this. Today we also mark in the successful delivery of this community battery. It's a pilot program, $500,000 grant funded project. It stores excess rooftop solar energy generated by residents' properties during the day and releases it back to them when demand is highest at night, helping residents get more value from the renewable energy they generate. This community battery strengthens local energy supply in times of high demand, reduces pressure on the electricity network, supports greater uptake of rooftop solar, and along with the installation of many more across the State, helps keep downward pressure on electricity prices by increasing supply of energy. Noosa has been at the forefront of Queensland's energy transition, delivering what is understood to be Queensland's first non-DNSP-owned community battery, and this project is part of larger movement. More than 100 community batteries are now installed under construction or planned across Queensland through energy providers, councils and government supported programs, demonstrating growing confidence in community energy storage. Lessons learned here include changes to projected costs, reducing financial returns to ratepayers, which will be monitored and regularly reported to reduce councils' exposure to financial risk. In my personal view, the charges seem designed to discourage anyone but major energy providers from distributing and benefiting financially from these batteries. And this battery is more than a piece of infrastructure. It's a big step towards greater energy security, resilience, lower energy charges and cost of living crisis, and innovation, ensuring our community does not miss out on the global transition to cleaner, more cost efficient technologies and energy supply. I also congratulate our staff and project partners ZEN and Yarra Energy Foundation for the professional way in which you've delivered this innovation for our show. Especially congratulate the forward-thinking, well-informed residents in the Noosaville neighbourhood that have embraced this battery and I look forward to future reports on the battery's progress. Thank you any questions?

Amelia Lorentson21:51

Um, uh, so the original business case assumed that a community battery tariff similar to Victoria's but that there was no equivalent tariff existing in Queensland at that didn't eventuate. Keep coming back to benefit of hindsight and you raised this and this is a part of project which is purposely designed to, you know, understand these challenges and learn from them. So my question is, with the benefit of hindsight and knowing now what we know about tariffs, financial viability and market changes, would we make the same investment today?