Crikey Mellie...stick some solar cells on your roof, they are getting cheaper than buying a good big screen telly these days.

Not ME ........

My community has insulated itself


HEPBURN Wind has received a grant of $750,000 to assist with the costs of connecting Australia's first community-owned wind farm to the electricity grid.
Ballarat East MP Geoff Howard announced the funding last week at the site of the Leonards Hill wind farm.

Unlike large wind farms which connect through substations to major transmission lines, smaller projects such as the one being developed by Hepburn Wind can connect directly to the local distribution network.

Connections at this scale have not been implemented in Victoria before.

"The grant will help Hepburn Wind, the local network operator, Powercor, and the builders of the wind farm, REpower Systems, to develop and implement what is expected to become a standard design for community renewable energy projects," Mr Howard said.

Hepburn Wind chairman Simon Holmes a Court said distributed generation would play a significant role in Australia's transition to a low-carbon future.

"Our community is the first of many that will harness local resources to contribute clean-power into the electricity grid," he said.

"This assistance will help simplify the process and reduce the connection costs for future community renewable energy projects."


http://www.hepburnadvocate.com.au/news/local/news/general/wind-farm-assistance-f...


Pricing parity flows through to increased profitability and dividend
Plus - scaling down on house size, improved insulation, double glazing and low wattage appliances has led to a 50% reduction in consumption in 3 years

It CAN be done

There is a great sense of personal achievement knowing your carbon footprint is in the negative


http://www.hepburnwind.com.au/

The NEXT project will be the solar panels, when budget permits

Should politicians declare their vested interests/shares in Green energy initiatives?

Ie, say if Senator Bob Brown had shares in Green company's in receipt of government subsidised contracts, benefits, should the public be notified?

What a load of crap!!!

Vanessa wrote on Sep 18^th, 2010 at 3:00pm:


Read the first post of this thread....take a deep breath before you do.

I hope, like me, you don't live in either NSW, VIC, Queensland, SA or NT.

mellie wrote on Sep 18^th, 2010 at 3:02pm:





Alinta disconnects record 17,000 customers
The West Australian
March 30, 2010

A record of almost 17,000 West Australian households had their gas disconnected by Alinta last year for failing to pay their bills and worse is likely to come with price rises of 30 per cent yet to flow into the official figures.

Community groups described the result - five times the rate of electricity disconnections - as "staggering" and called on the State Government to take the figures into account when approving any further increases in the regulated tariffs.

In its annual review of Alinta's performance, released today, the Economic Regulation Authority said the number of residential disconnections surged by 29.8 per cent in 2008-09 to 16, 805.

The number of households seeking extra time to pay their bill soared by an even greater 46 per cent, to 7216, from the year before.

In June last year the Government approved a 23 per cent hike in gas prices, in part to reflect Alinta's increased costs flowing from the Varanus Island explosion.

It recently approved another rise of 7 per cent beginning Thursday.

These increases are not reflected in the latest hardship figures.

WA Council of Social Services chief Sue Ash said the "staggering" disconnection rate was at least double that reported in other States.

http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/mp/7003159/alinta-disconnects-record-17-000...



Further steep power price hikes predicted
Tue Mar 9, 2010

The State Opposition says West Australian residents could face another four years of steep power price rises.

The Government announced a 17.5 per cent price increase for households to be in effect by July.

The Opposition Leader Eric Ripper says the Premier does not appear to be going to stop electricity price rises any time soon.

"His real plan as shown in his budget at forward estimates is for a 77 per cent increase between now and 2013."

"Clearly there is a lot more pain for WA families at the hands of Mr Barnett to come."

longweekend58 wrote on Sep 18^th, 2010 at 5:22pm:


I want lower prices on most things.