BREAZE July eNews

The Grampians Community Power Hub is currently advertising two paid positions to work with a team of BREAZE Inc volunteers and the Hepburn Branch partner, Hepburn Wind, in identifying opportunities for renewable energy projects across the communities of the Grampians region. Both positions are being advertised through the agency, Talent Nation, and interested parties should apply via the advertisement on the Ethical jobs website - click on links below.  

• • • • • Project Manager - to coordinate Hub operations, participate in the Project Control Group and undertake feasibility studies as appropriate - full time
        • Communications/Administrative Officer - to manage Hub communications and promotions and assist with the everyday running of the Hub - part time

The Community Power Hub program is being delivered by Sustainability Victoria to support Victoria's transition to a clean energy future. The Community Power Hub is envisaged as increasing community awareness, helping communities to reduce energy costs, and building community resilience via greater energy independence. 

He’s back by popular demand!

Join us and John “Ditchy” Ditchburn for a spring gardening special where you’ll learn how to grow four key spring planted vegetables including:

• Tomatoes
• Corn
• Peas
• Pumpkin

John will give us practical hints on growing these four key vegetables in Ballarat’s springtime including information on air and soil temperature dynamics and how they influence when and how to plant in spring.

John brings with him a lifetime of experience in growing fruit and vegetables and being involved in the food gardening community. He first began to grow vegetables at the age of sixteen. Since then, apart from a year spent travelling, he has always grown vegetables in one form or another. As well as running the Urban Food Garden, he has been involved in numerous gardening activities in Melbourne and Ballarat.

John also works as a freelance cartoonist; you can check out his work here.

This event will be presented via Zoom and streamed live onto the Smart Living Ballarat Facebook page. A recording of the event will be available on the Smart Living Ballarat Facebook page instantly after the event. To join live and be able to participate in the Q+A, please register for the Zoom presentation.

This free talk is hosted by Smart Living Ballarat for BREAZE Inc. in collaboration with the City of Ballarat and is part of a free series of monthly sustainability workshops presented every 3rd Wednesday of the month.

Facebook event: https://fb.me/e/S0JqvKoD

BREAZE Inc. to host Grampians Community Power Hub

On Thursday 8 July Victoria’s Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change, Lily d’Ambrosio, announced $6.5 million to expand the Community Power Hubs program and provide new grants for community organisations. 

BREAZE is delighted to be nominated as lead partner organisation for the Community Power Hub for the Grampians region (G-CPH). BREAZE joins six other organisations in the expanded regional CPH program: Loddon Mallee hosted by Bendigo Sustainability Group; Barwon South West hosted by Geelong Sustainability Group; Hume hosted by Indigo Power; Gippsland hosted by Gippsland Climate Change Network, and the two metropolitan CPHs - metropolitan Melbourne hosted by Yarra Climate Action Network and the Greater Yarra Valley and Ranges hosted by Healesville CORE Group.

As host of the Grampians CPH BREAZE  will be collaborating with our Hepburn branch partner, Hepburn Wind, and with other communities and partner LGAs  across the Grampians region,  working with Sustainability Victoria to facilitate transition to a low carbon, clean energy future.

It’s an honour for BREAZE to be again selected to manage such an important and timely program, one that will aid the development of community-owned renewable energy projects across the state. The Grampians CPH will help local communities to build cheaper, cleaner energy infrastructure that is also more resilient when bushfires hit. 

The CPH Pilot program which ran from 2017-2020 substantially boosted Victoria’s renewable energy capacity and saved thousands in energy costs. Collectively, the pilot program’s 15 projects added 1.35MW of renewable energy capacity back to their communities, annually reduced their carbon emissions by 1,839 t.CO2e and saved $346,000 in electricity costs. This 2021-2022 program hopes to achieve similarly benefits for Victorians and accelerate our transition to a renewable energy future. 

As the lead partner organisation, Ballarat Renewable Energy and Zero Emissions will be funded to increase access, involvement and ownership of renewable energy systems within the Grampians region, whilst delivering significant economic benefits and ultimately reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

The Grampians Community Power Hub will be a one-stop-shop for advice on renewable energy and energy efficiency and one of the most important platforms for communities in this region to move towards a renewable energy system. Working at the grass roots level to 

empower our local communities with the knowledge and support they need is crucial if we are to make the transition to a low carbon, clean energy future.

So as  DELWP’s Grampians Renewable Energy program ends, BREAZE moves onto the next phase of helping to decarbonise the region.

A reunion and celebration

 

On 9 July members of the BREAZE Board got together with members of the Old Colonists’ Association (OCA) Committee, along with the Member for Wendouree, Juliana Addison and Cr Belinda Coates, to celebrate the completion of the Victorian Government’s Grampians Renewable Energy (GRE) Program, and BREAZE’s nomination as lead partner in the Grampians Community Power Hub. One of the nine projects undertaken for GRE was the installation of Solar PV across the OCA’s retirement village in Charles Anderson Grove – the project steering committee, OCA and BREAZE volunteers, met fortnightly for nearly a year. Solar for retirees, social housing and sporting clubs are among the GRE models that BREAZE hopes to replicate across the many communities of the Grampians region in the new regional CPH.

L-R: Travis Hurst (OCA); Juliana Addison (Member for Wendouree);  Gerald Jenzen (OCA); Jo Barber (OCA President); Therese Footner (BREAZE Board); Stephen Carter (OCA Treasurer); Sally Missing (BREAZE Board); Peter Boadle (BREAZE Board); Mary Debrett (BREAZE President); Suzanne Nunn (BREAZE Board); Cr Belinda Coates (CoB); Peter Reid (GRE Coordinator/BREAZE Board); Pauline Gleeson (BREAZE Board)

 

On Thursday 9 July Victoria’s Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change, Lily d’Ambrosio, announced $6.5 million to expand the Community Power Hubs program and provide new grants for community organisations. 

 BREAZE Inc. has been nominated as lead partner organisation for the Community Power Hub (CPH) for the Grampians region and joins six other organisations in the expanded CPH program: Loddon Mallee hosted by Bendigo Sustainability Group; Barwon South West hosted by Geelong Sustainability Group; Hume hosted by Indigo Power; Gippsland hosted by Gippsland Climate Change Network. The 2021 program also includes two metropolitan CPHs - metropolitan Melbourne hosted by Yarra Climate Action Network and the Greater Yarra Valley and Ranges hosted by Healesville CORE Group.

The Hubs are envisaged as assisting small business and community organisations to help the transition to renewable energy to halve emissions by 2030.

This regional program expands on the Pilot program which ran from 2017-2020 and substantially boosted Victoria’s renewable energy capacity, saving thousands in energy costs, adding 1.35MW of renewable energy capacity into communities – reducing annual carbon emissions by 1,839 t.CO2e and saving $346,000 in electricity costs. This 2021-2022 program hopes to achieve similarly benefits for Victorians while accelerating our transition to a cleaner, renewable energy future. 

BREAZE is honoured to be once again be managing such an important and timely program, one that will help local communities to build cheaper energy infrastructure that will also be more resilient when bushfires hit. 

BREAZE volunteers will be looking for viable projects and seeking to engage with potentially interested groups such as: not-for-profit operators of social housing and retirement facilities, community child-care centres, kindergartens, Men's Sheds, environmental and sustainability groups, neighbourhood associations, sporting clubs, colleges and universities, animal welfare organisations, scouts, scholarship funds, public museums and libraries, and cultural organisations.

Possible projects include: solar arrays, solar bulk buys, solar streetlight installations in community facilities and households, community batteries, virtual power plants, and small scale utility solar and wind.

BREAZE  will be collaborating with Sustainability Victoria and Hepburn Wind, our Hepburn branch partner, and will be seeking other partners across the Grampians to enable the much needed transition to a low carbon, clean energy future. 

As a one-stop-shop for advice on being energy efficient, the Grampians Community Power Hub will be one of the most important platforms for communities in this region to move towards a renewable energy system. Working at the grass roots level to empower our local communities with the knowledge and support they need, is crucial if we are to make the transition to a low carbon, clean energy future and to meet Victoria's emissions reductions target.

If you or your group has a project in mind please contact me -  or head to our form to register your interest.