The Social Access Solar Gardens project was a multi-partner effort, with primary funding from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) and the NSW Government. The project objective was to take between one and four solar gardens projects to the point of implementation, or to identify the particular barriers that would prevent the social access solar garden model from working in Australia. The project specifically asked whether solar gardens are desirable to ‘locked-out’ energy users, feasible, and viable. The project had three research streams (market research, legal, and financial), and provided support to four prototype teams in five locations – Swan Hill in Victoria, Blacktown, Shoalhaven and Byron in NSW, and regional Queensland – to reach a decision on whether to proceed to implementation of a solar garden.
Author: Institute for Sustainable Futures & Community Power Agency
