Dennis Lambert, Barbara Guthrie, Martin Holmes, Neil Smith at the Senior Citizens Hall.
Two big projects from Junee Community Power (JCP) have finally seen the finishing touch since their beginning four years ago.
Both involve solar panel installation and clean energy solutions for the Junee Community Centre and the Senior Citizens Hall. Last Friday, JCP held an official presentation of the works, starting with a presentation out the front of Junee Community Centre before moving over to the Senior Citizens Hall for another presentation and morning tea.
Speaking at the presentations were Mayor Neil Smith, Secretary of JCP Martin Holmes, Senior Citizens Club President Barbara Guthrie and a passionate speech by Chairperson Dennis Lambert.
Barbara Guthrie spoke to the Independent about how the day was. “It was fantastic. Just fantastic,” she said.
“It was really good, it’s a great show for the Junee community to see what we’ve got here and it was also great just for the community to see what’s available to them.
“Since we’ve done it all up in the [Senior Citizens Hall], we’ve got four different lots of people coming in.”
Junee Community Power JCP was initially formed in 2017 out of a desire by Junee Shire Council to see a community based and led group who would promote energy efficiency awareness within the Junee Shire.
Council provided initial funding and administrative support to ensure the success of the group. JCP has since hit the ground running, attracting grant funding which went towards the two projects presented last Friday.
As a result, the building owners have also undertaken additional works, at their own expense, to further enhance the energy efficiency and reduce running costs.
Junee Community Power, now having delivered thermal efficiency projects, energy efficiency retrofits and solar installations on community assets, has quickly become a huge name in the community.
Junee Community Power works collaboratively with community partners such as the Junee High School to expand the projects and make it a learning experience as well as a community initiative.
JCP say the purpose of the projects were to raise community awareness of the actions that can be taken to improve energy efficiency in existing buildings, improve the energy efficiency of two community buildings reduce the energy costs associated with the subject buildings.
They additionally wanted to educate the next generation by allowing Primary and Secondary school students to be closely involved in the initial stages of the process.
According to JCP, the projects have resulted in significant cost savings and a heightened awareness in the community of the types of improvements that can be made and at what cost.
How was it funded? A number of funding sources were important in enabling JCP to fund interest free loans to building owners.
Broadly known as a “circular fund”, the system involves repayments on borrowed funds with the repaid money then moved on to fund loans on the next project.
Sources of funds for these two projects were the NSW Dept of Environment & Heritage and the Foundation for Rural & Regional Renewal (FRRR).
The Junee High School students provided their help and were guided by the JCP members, Charles Sturt University staff, local tradesmen to complete the two projects for the community.
Students from years 9 and 10 were tasked with assisting with doing a “blower door” test on the building, assessing the building for inefficient aspects, determining what works could be done to improve energy efficiency and costing the above improvements.
Students assisted members of the senior citizens group at the High School in applying for a State Government grant to replace their personal, older inefficient refrigerators by using computer application that the senior citizens were not proficient in using.
Junee Community Centre Project For the Junee Community Centre projects, JCP funded 8kW high quality LG solar photovoltaic (PV) panels and solar analytics using a highly reputable local installer as well as a TV with real time monitoring of energy production and consumption to help educate the community.
JCP also provided double glazing, air leak proofing of the centre after blower door testing by Junee Public School and Junee High School students.
Discussions are taking place on replacing gas heating with reverse cycle AC heat pump.
JCP have listed a conservative total savings figure of $3442.11 for 24 months with a calculation of $143.42 monthly savings and a rough estimate of $1721.05 per year.
The power saved is stated to be the equivalent to planting 268 trees.
JCP projected savings to total to $2045.76 for the next year, but note the Federal Treasurer and Australian Energy Market Operator expectation that energy prices will rise 50% next year.
Future plans for the Community Centre include removing gas heating and use reverse cycle AC for heat and cooling.
Senior Citizens Hall JCP funded Improvements at the Junee Senior Citizens Hall using FRRR funding, which includes installing 6.57kW high quality LG solar photovoltaic (PV) panels & solar analytics using a highly reputable local installer.
A long list of upgrades to the Senior Citizens Hall can be summed up by Barbara Guthrie.
“I’m over excited about it. I really am because it’s a great place now to have people in and you can feel comfortable in it,”
she said. “I put all my heart and soul into it. I really did. “When they first suggested it, I was really keen to start it.
The FRRR helped us and we were able to start it all and make a good job of it. So far, we’ve spent $24,000. “
[JCP] helped in every way they could. They’ve done everything they could do for us. Absolutely. Especially Martin Holmes, Dennis Lambert, Doug Bell and Neil Smith. “I’ll never be able to thank all the volunteers enough.” Mayor of Junee Shire, Neil Smith, said these works were “fantastic.”
“Not only do these improvements ensure the buildings will be relevant and comfortable for decades to come, but they also serve as terrific, working examples of how anyone in our community can save money on energy costs,” he said.
“This sort of thing not only saves money, but works towards saving our environment. Now that really is something worth striving for.” Chairperson of Junee Community Power, Dennis Lambert, also weighed in on the project and the benefits it has to both the community and the environment. “Solar PV just makes sense; it pays for itself in 4-7 years and high-quality panels last 25 years or more,” he said.
“They help reduce our carbon footprint, keeps valuable dollars in our community, increases homes, business and community energy resilience and security, and helps set us up for the all-electric home with an electric vehicle.
“The Junee Community Centre has $3500 over the last two years giving a return on investment of 12 per cent a year. Which bank will give you that?
“Over the next year, it will be more than 14 per cent with the higher electricity costs saving $2000 plus a year.
“Money that is supporting the Community Centre to run programs that support the Junee Community not some big energy company’s profits.
“Data monitoring is enabling JCP to make recommendations that will help reduce the Junee Community Centres’ energy bills even further and speed up their efforts to decarbonize.” Not only will more solar panels around the Shire for businesses and residents save money, but it will help make Junee a cleaner town as they move towards an electric future.
Jack Murray
