One of Australia's first community-owned wind farms plans to expand its production to meet growing demand. Hundreds of community-led projects have been developed as part of a growing national trend.
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00:00On the state's south coast, two turbines generating kilowatts of power.
00:07The community-owned Denmark wind farm is one of the first of its kind in Australia.
00:11For us it was climate change and the desire to actually model and scale up renewable energy,
00:17not just at the household level.
00:19Ten years ago these turbines produced more than half the town's power.
00:23But as the population has increased, so has demand for electricity.
00:26We have approval for four turbines there, so there's no reason why we couldn't produce much more than 100% of the town's energy.
00:35But attempts to diversify the town's energy infrastructure have been stifled.
00:39The town missed out on federal funding in a recent bid.
00:42We've investigated and made an application for support to get five large-scale batteries embedded into the local network.
00:52So we should have got supported.
00:56The WA government is investing more than $5.7 billion into the state's energy transition,
01:01while the federal government says it's installing 400 community batteries to support the energy transition.
01:06But there was no direct funding for community-led projects like the Denmark wind farm.
01:11Energy analysts say those programs are not going where they're needed.
01:14Having the batteries is a good thing.
01:16What we really should be focused on is getting those batteries into regions.
01:20We don't really need it as much in the city straight away as we need it in the country straight away.
01:25Despite the delays, many communities remain interested in generating their own energy.
01:29125 groups across the country in every state and territory and together they've delivered over 730 different projects.
01:38Communities are really keen to be on the front foot of this shift to renewable energy to reduce their bills,
01:45to increase energy resilience, to bring local economic benefit.
01:50a community solution to a global problem.
01:52A community solution to a global problem.
01:55focus is to encourage public education,
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