Mycelia Renewables supporting communities with big ideas

Rural communities face many challenges as our energy systems transition to renewables.

Grid outages and energy price increases are two issues that can have significant impacts, on households, businesses and community organisations. 

In response, local communities in Bass Coast and South Gippsland are leading their own renewable energy transitions and Mycelia Renewables is helping them do it.

Recognising the impact of climate change and questioning our current relationship with energy are big conversations, and the solutions are far from easy fixes. 

But many communities across our region are leading the way and Mycelia is supporting communities as they set their own renewable energy goals, and creating community plans on how they’ll get there. 

Mycelia is a registered charity and social enterprise established to support communities leading change in renewable energy transitions. 

Mycelia offers a range of services designed to help overcome the challenges confronting rural communities and First Nations groups as they embark on these big initiatives. 

Mycelia’s managing director, Dr Moragh Mackay said: “We started Mycelia because we want to reduce burnout in volunteers and over stretched and under-resourced community organisations. 

“We do this by creating an ecosystem of support around these initiatives that may involve access to expertise, data, facilitated co-design or resourcing.”

“Progress of community-driven initiatives is most frequently constrained by system and institutional failures, not a lack of community understanding of the change that is needed or the willingness to lead this change.” 

To address these system failures, you need community designed and led systemic solutions, Dr Mackay said.

Action

The Mycelia Energy Collective was launched in May this year to contribute to these solutions.  

The Collective: enables sharing of renewable energy among households and businesses that do and don’t (or can’t) have rooftop solar; is increasing the amount of locally owned renewable energy generation; is improving household and business energy efficiency; and is establishing a community benefit-sharing fund to resource this and other community initiatives. 

In July, we saw the commencement of Energy Circles - a new series of community-led events delivered in partnership by Totally Renewable Tenby and Mycelia Renewables. 

Focused on energy-related themes, these events are bringing people together and sparking conversations mainly on energy efficiency, electrification and making informed choices on renewable energy systems.

“Change needs to be designed by the people most impacted, so we’re enabling communities to do just that,” Dr Mackay said. 

“This may be through facilitating community-led design, sharing knowledge and experiences, bringing in people with appropriate expertise or helping secure funding”. 

“Collaboration is key. Being in this space is inspiring as you see people and communities working together, doing the thinking, the planning and becoming empowered and enabled to implement the solutions they have designed.

“We need to shift the conversation from being just about energy to being about equity.”

Change

Dr Mackay said the renewable energy transition was happening, and many people were benefitting.

“But others are being left behind. People who can’t install or afford solar, batteries and electric vehicles are not able to realise the value of reduced energy or fuel bills. 

“And what’s actually happening is that people without solar are disproportionately bearing the increased costs of electricity and becoming more vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. 

“If we’re going to make this energy transition work, we need to make it work for everyone. 

“The communities we are already working with are addressing this inequality, and together we can do more.  The flip side of vulnerability is resilience. People are ready for change.”

Anyone in Victoria can join the Mycelia Energy Collective and contribute to the work of Mycelia Renewables and the communities they support. 

Details: mycelia.org.au or thepeoplesgrid.com/collectives/mycelia-energy-collective

The next Energy Circle: Sunday September 10, Corinella and Districts Community Centre, 10.30am– \12.30pm. 

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