00:02It's been a, yeah, 12 years is a very long time and the last five years since we actually
00:07raised the money from this wonderful community of Goulburn, it's been agonising at times
00:13getting to where we've got, but we now have a position where we're in the final days of
00:19the testing and commissioning. We've already pumped the full capacity of the solar farm
00:26into the grid. We just need a couple of all tweaks and we're finalised. It feels wonderful.
00:32Yeah, it looks pretty impressive, huh?
00:35Oh, look, the wonderful thing is, it's positioning. If you're ever on the railway from Sydney to
00:41Melbourne or Sydney to Canberra, lean out of the right-hand window just before. There it is.
00:48Good stuff. So whose idea was it originally and how did it grow?
00:53Look, that's a long story, but I'll keep it short. In essence, it was a small number of
00:58concerned residents of Goulburn who were fed to the back teeth with the lack of action about
01:05renewable energy at both state and federal level. But that was in 2014. And you mentioned
01:1212 years. That's how long it's taken. We describe ourselves as a bunch of people who knew nothing
01:19about solar farms whatsoever. We were just determined to build one. And we've done it.
01:26And a lot of hurdles along the way.
01:29Certainly. Certainly. I can describe them to you if you wish.
01:34Yeah, give us a few examples.
01:36Okay. Since we raised the money from this wonderful community in 2020,
01:42there have been two major hurdles. The first was COVID. Now, I'm the mug who wrote the risk
01:49assessment for the whole grant from the New South Wales government. And when I wrote it,
01:54the words global pandemic, I don't think existed in anyone's vocabulary. But COVID cost us a lot
02:01a lot of time. Every single manufacturing facility throughout the globe almost was in lockdown.
02:09And when they came out of lockdown, the global shipping industry was in chaos. So that cost us,
02:17I don't know, a year, two years. And the other delay, I don't know how to say this too politely,
02:25but every single government department and regulatory authority with whom we dealt proved to be far
02:33slower, less communicative. So the red tape challenge is real.
02:40Yeah, it's the red tape challenge, basically. And we learned a lot trying to cut our way through it.
02:46And so this is enough to generate power for 500 homes, as I understand that. Is that kind of powering
02:52all these investors' homes? Or is all that energy being fed back into the grid and you're getting
02:57a return from that? No, it goes into the grid. My wildest dream would have people within Melbourne
03:04knowing they are using their very own generated electricity, but it's just not a physical possibility.
03:10So it goes into the grid. Essential Energy is our poles and wire company. So it goes into their system.
03:18Melbourne, they supply, I think it's about three quarters of New South Wales. And I like to think,
03:25in fact, I'm pretty sure that the power we generate is not going to be sent to the northern
03:31parts of New South Wales. It's far more likely to be used locally. So it is possible that our
03:37Melbourne investors are using our electricity. And do you have any idea about how much income
03:44per day or per week or per year you might be getting from this?
03:48It looks around a profit of around a quarter of a million a year.
03:52Wow.
03:54So from that, the rules of the co-op state that we must put a certain percentage away into what's
04:02called a community fund to assist those within the Melbourne region who struggle every quarter
04:07to pay their electricity bills. We will put a certain quarter into a sinking fund so that
04:13over time we can renew panels, renew the battery and so on as technology increases. And the rest
04:18will go as dividends to the investors.
04:21And so this can be a really profitable thing to get involved in.
04:26Well, all our cash flow indications indicate that it will be profitable and there'll be a return
04:33on investment in the range of 5% per annum. But there are risks. And, you know, like I'm a
04:40board
04:40member, I can't say there will be 5%. But that's our anticipated number.
04:46And with so many owners, is there a much greater likelihood of disagreements though? Or have you
04:52learnt to manage that over the 12 years?
04:55Well, we've had almost none. There were 288 investors. Five years, these wonderful people
05:03waited until the thing was completed. Only there are four or five people who said, look,
05:09we need our money back. And four of those five, it was for normal financial reasons where, you
05:14know, I need to repair the roof or help my son with a deposit for a house or whatever. Only
05:20one wanted their money back because they basically said, Ed, it's taken far too long. I expected
05:28a dividend way earlier than this. Give me my money back.
05:31One out of 288 isn't a bad strike rate.
05:34That's bloody good, I reckon.
05:36And what does this say about Goulburn?
05:38Well, it says we live in an environment where all our elected representatives are actively
05:48oppositionally opposing large renewable projects in the region. Within that environment, the
05:55people of Goulburn, enough of them want renewable energy and enough of them put their money where
06:02their mouth is. So it shows, it indicates to us that Goulburn is not necessarily the rather
06:08conservative, backward-looking country, town or city that people may perceive it. Within the
06:15community are a lot of forward-looking people.
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