- The first SolarShare project is progressing well with initial investment registrations close to $3million
- We are working to resolve some matters around the offtake agreement with ACT govt, grid connection and final development / NCA approval
- We expect to start raising funds towards the end of Q1, 2016
- Had productive meetings with ActewAGL
- Started to build a relationship with Australian Impact Investment about SolarShare as an investment opportunity for their clients.
- Connected with SolarShare’s community members at stalls and events particularly on Sunday the 29th at the climate rally.
- Recruited some new volunteers to the team.
Development of a project like this one for our community involves a number of streams of approval process, some are dependent on previous steps and others can all happen at the same time. Some of the main streams are:
Offtake agreement: We’ve had some good feedback from the ACT Government on our proposal to the community solar feed in tariff scheme. They have asked us to do a little more work securing some additional expertise on the development and contract negotiation side of things. We think this is pretty reasonable feedback and we will be focussing on this in the coming weeks. Grid connection: You may remember we have received the technical approval from ActewAGL. The next step here is to negotiate a document called the generator connection agreement; we then pay them a design fee to do a detailed plan of where the high voltage cables will run and how the transformer and associated equipment will be installed.
Final development/NCA approval: There are some final steps we need to convert the conditional works approval through to full approval for construction. We will be finalising these a little down the track but they include the construction works management plan, ACTPLA sublease consent, and land management agreement. We will progress these as we are closer to converting our lease option into an actual lease and thus beginning construction.
Fundraising expected to start Q1, 2016 Naturally all of these steps involve other parties and so are not fully within our control, however our best estimates see us beginning to raise funds towards the end of the first quarter of next year.
In raising money from community investors we need to publish a disclosure document. This needs to be checked by our lawyers and accountants before it is lodged with ASIC. Only after that are we allowed to receive money as community investment. We are now on draft five of this document and it will probably be at least five more drafts before its ready to go. We will make sure we give three months notice on this step, as we know that a number of you might need a little while to prepare your funds ready to invest.
We are very close to hitting the three million dollar mark of pre-registrations, its inspiring to see how much support there is in our community for bring community owned renewable energy to life.
SolarShare Profile: Alex LambAlex joined the team a few months ago and has been giving us a hand with our communications and marketing. We asked her to reflect on her time so far:
Q. What attracted you to volunteering with SolarShare?
A. I wanted to understand better how community solar schemes can work and be involved in a project that I felt would really be a stellar example of community solar in the ACT – something good for Canberra and potentially a great model for other states to follow as we reach our ambitious renewable energy target.
Q. What kind of things do you do at SolarShare?
A. I am part of the media and marketing team. We meet to discuss how we can share our message with the wider community to get more people interested in SolarShare
Q. What aspect(s) of the work do you enjoy best?
A. I enjoy meeting new people through the project, our fast-paced meetings and interesting discussions
What’s coming next year?We’re all going to have a well deserved break over Christmas, but there are some interesting things in the pipeline next year (in addition to our flagship project.) These include a 100kW rooftop project and second 1MW ground mounted facility.
Have a very merry Christmas from all of us at SolarShare!
