Northwest NSW has excellent solar and wind resources - we all know the summers can be VERY sunny! But are we making the most of that now? Below is a veritable feast of facts for those who are inclined!!
Narrabri Shire has a lot of rooftop solar already installed. Our solar penetration for the shire is 40%, compared with the rest of the Northwest at 33% and the state of NSW at 25%.
We have seen an almost doubling of the number of homes exporting solar energy (93% growth) and a more than doubling of the amount of solar energy being exported (143% growth) over the last seven years. It looks like this growth is continuing, from the people that call into the Geni.Energy shop in Narrabri.
Right now we export about 37,000 mWh pa. out of the region. We have all experienced the decreasing feed-in-tarrif that we get for our exported energy and this is likely to continue to decrease. Currently the Northwest region exports around $4.5M worth of energy. This could instead be captured and stored in a fleet of residential batteries or in a community battery, and sold back locally through the Virtual Power Plant. Selling it at a different time, could actually make this energy worth a lot more too.
What if our excess energy was instead kept local and sold on to our neighbours and friends??
We are very high energy users; Narrabri shire residential energy customers use an average of 6.6mWh p.a., whilst the northwest region uses an average of 6.4mWh p.a. compared with the state average of 4.8mWh p.a. The region buys in 166,000 mWh p.a. of energy. This is a massive economic leakage from the region of at least $56 Million.
What if that $56M was put back into buying local, green energy instead?
The Narrabri Shire has the highest energy consumption per business in the entire of NSW. On average our businesses use 146mWh p.a. of energy, a whopping three times the NSW average of 51mWh p.a. Interestingly across the Northwest the average business consumption is only 39mWh p.a. showing just how massive Narrabri Shire's usage is. It is likely that our northwest businesses are spending almost $100 Million each year on energy costs.
What if that $100M was totally cancelled out with behind-the-meter generation of green energy?
Geni.Energy is your partner in this energy transition. We can help identify ways for you to save money off your energy costs and reduce your reliance on coal and gas, increasing your energy independence. Furthermore there is so much opportunity for the northwest region to capatilise on the energy transition. We can create new jobs and investment from renewables!!