Community energy projects need people; and not just people, but people who are willing to get involved with the project, promote the project in the community, perhaps influence attitudes… Sounds hard?
Last year, Sustainability Victoria commissioned independent social research to look at the Victorian community’s interest in the ‘advanced’ climate change actions, one of which was about participating in community renewable energy projects.
The research aimed to measure the level of awareness, likely take-up and understand the barriers and motivations for these actions.
Qualitative research was with eight focus groups in Melbourne, Bendigo and Wangaratta and participants were 18-65 (even split men and women). Quantitative research was conducted with 600 Victorians online, that were representative of the population’s age, gender and metropolitan or regional locations.
What they found was that younger participants were more likely than older participants to be aware of community renewable energy projects. And of those aware, most didn’t know how to get involved.
The beauty of the Community Power Hub project is that we can guide you, support you and inform you. We can point you to tools to involve your neighbours and larger community. This is an exciting time to look at community energy projects because there are organisations there to help. We would be happy to discuss your project idea.
