The Grong Grong Solar Farm will host Australia’s first large-scale solar garden, the Haystacks Solar Garden.
While solar gardens exist internationally, they are relatively new in Australia. The concept is similar to a community garden except that, rather than a plot to grow vegetables, solar gardeners can buy a virtual plot of solar panels in a larger solar system and get the benefit of their share of the solar farm. This often takes the form of credits on their electricity bill, very similar to feed-in tariffs for rooftop solar systems.
In the US, solar gardens are particularly common, existing in 39 states. These are often supported by regulation that stipulate that solar gardeners get credits on their bill at the same rate as their usage charges. This has seen over 4,000 MW of solar gardens built to-date.
The Haystacks Solar Garden
The Haystacks Solar Garden is being developed by Pingala with support from Community Power Agency. The project received a $1.3 million grant from the NSW Government Regional Community Energy fund to establish Australia’s first large-scale solar garden. Since then, the team has set up the Haystacks Solar Garden Co-op which now has over 300 members interested in buying a plot. Several contracts are set up for the solar garden in preparation for the project going live in 2022. The final raise for solar gardeners will occur after the Grong Grong Solar Farm crowd equity raise.
How does it work between Grong Grong Solar Farm and Haystacks Solar Garden?
The owners of the Grong Grong Solar Farm will be the crowd equity investors that invest as part of the raise on Birchal. It was realised that solar gardeners were seeking more predictable costs and savings over time. Solar farms selling electricity into the NSW wholesale market and Renewable Energy Certificates have more variable costs and revenues each year, making an equity investment less suitable.
Previous research by Community Power Agency and UTS Institute for Sustainable Futures had found that Australians are very interested in being solar gardeners if they have similar savings to rooftop solar. This took some innovative thinking by the project team, who set up the relationship between the Haystacks Coop and the Grong Grong Solar Farm as a 10-year loan. This loan will help fund construction of the Grong Grong Solar Farm. Once the Grong Grong Solar Farm is operational, the loan will be repaid with interest over a 10-year period.
The Haystacks team also selected Enova to be the partner retailer, who recently were rated as No. 1 in the Green Electricity Guide by Greenpeace. Loan repayments are made to provide bill credits on the solar gardeners’ bills.
The project team hopes that the Australia’s first large-scale solar garden will be adapted for many similar projects in the future!
How does being an investor in the Grong Grong Solar Farm compare with being a Solar Gardeners?
People can invest in the Grong Grong Solar Farm or become a solar gardener, or do both!
Solar gardeners buy their plot, sign up with Enova and get on-bill credits for solar generation. The price of a 3kW plot is fixed (final price TBC), and the on-bill savings are certain.
Crowd equity investors in the Grong Grong Solar Farm can invest anywhere from $250 to $10,000, and get a return on investment via dividends from the project’s operating profits over time. These dividends will change over time depending on the NSW energy price, operational costs and other factors.
Crowd equity investors remain shareholders for the life of the project (20 years with possible extensions to 35 years) and can sell their shares.
Crowd equity investor and solar gardener are quite different, but both are crucial to making this project, and many more like it, happen!