Hepburn Energy

01/06/2025

Our friends in Denmark WA, are looking to expand their turbines and to add a battery. We have so much available capacity in the existing distributive network; it would be great to see governments getting behind mid-scale community renewables!

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-05-27/community-owned-denmark-wind-farm-to-double-output/105318020?utm_source=abc_news_web&utm_medium=content_shared&utm_campaign=abc_news_web

A co-op wind farm in Denmark, Western Australia is one of hundreds of "mid-level" energy projects being developed across Australia amid a growing trend of community-led investment.

25/05/2025

Electricity use in our Shire has gone up by 15% since 2018, jumping from 82,024 MWh to 94,695 MWh in the 2024 financial year. But compared to last year, that’s only a 1.5% increase. This rise is probably due to a growing population and more people switching from gas appliances to all-electric options.

There's a solid argument for boosting energy efficiency in homes and looking into household batteries because a lot of rooftop solar energy is being sent back to the grid instead of being used right at home. Right now, about 35.9% of solar energy is consumed by households directly, and overall, the Shire relies on 38.8% of clean energy from community renewables and Power Purchase Agreements with the Council and Central Highlands Water.

20/05/2025

It's pretty amazing what local people have been doing at home over the years. The Shire now has 21.8 MW of solar PV capacity installed, an 8.4% jump from last year and a huge 107.5% increase since 2018. Back then, only 17.7% of homes had rooftop solar, but now that number has shot up to 37.6%. That's more than double in just six years!

The size of solar PV systems has changed a lot over the years. Back in 2018, the average size was 3.6kW, but now it's jumped to 5.9kW. In our Shire, community-generated renewable energy—including our two turbines and rooftop solar—hit 37,760 MWh this past year, almost double what we produced in 2018. That's a whopping 96% increase!

20/05/2025

Our community battery ‘Bessie’ is on the way! Travelling on a vessel called Pusan C from China she is estimated to dock in Melbourne on 2 June. Thanks to the awesome team at for all of their support.

13/05/2025

The results from our latest shire wide energy audit are in! In FY2024, the Shire's net emissions from electricity were down to 41,433 tonnes of carbon, which is much lower than the 69,251 tonnes we had back in 2018 (our baseline).

The locally avoided emissions have gone up from 21,181 tonnes in 2018 to 31,612 tonnes in the 2024 financial year. That’s a solid 49.2% increase in avoided emissions over the last six years!

12/05/2025

Site preparations for our new 5MWh community battery ‘Bessie’ are well underway with the civil works now complete!

We're thrilled with the outcome! Huge thanks to Ron and Nathalie for allowing us to work on their farm and hosting our battery. We appreciate our contractors, Aidan from O'Brien Electrical Engineering and John and Kieran from JM Contracting, for their great work.

08/05/2025

Our cooperative has been working with David Booth, aka the street artist Ghostpatrol, for quite a while now. Back in 2013 and 2015, he painted Gale and Gusto (our wind turbines), giving them visable personalities, and they really took off, becoming the first of their kind in the world. We are working with him to decide what story the battery mural will tell , and we’ll share more details on that soon.

Check out more about David’s work here: https://david-booth.com/

06/05/2025

Innovation through collaboration! Co-ops create collective solutions to big global issues like climate change and inequality.

Back in 2005, before our co-op was formed, there was a big community push against a proposed wind farm. A lot of misinformation had some locals worried about wind energy. Some people were disappointed and wanted to find a way to grow local support for wind turbines. They drew inspiration from the success of co-operative energy models in Denmark and other parts of Europe, so they got together to explore a community-owned alternative. This group actively engaged with local residents, shared important information, and built support within the community. By 2007, Hepburn Wind was officially a co-operative.

Since then, our co-op has teamed up with various organisations to work together on community projects that address climate change. One of these partnerships is Hepburn Z-NET, which connects local groups, organizations, experts, and the council to help the Hepburn Shire reach zero emissions by 2023. In 2020, Z-NET even came together to form a human sign to showcase our goals.

01/05/2025

We did a deep dive into the ethical practices of different companies before picking a community battery. After a thorough selection process, we chose a battery from Sunwoda Energy Technology Co., Ltd, which has been part of the Sunwoda Group since 1997. Sunwoda is based in Shenzhen, China, and focuses on making lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles, power management systems, and energy storage solutions. They’ve got over 40,000 employees across 15 production sites globally and are known as Apple's original battery supplier.

Sunwoda takes its environmental responsibility seriously with an ESG Management Committee and has a policy in place for conflict minerals. They respect human rights by following labour laws and working with conflict-free suppliers. Plus, they've got a Risk Control and Audit Center that encourages employees to report any wrongdoing and enforces a strict no-tolerance stance on corruption and fraud in their supply chain.

29/04/2025

Co-operatives empower communities by opening up fair opportunities for economic and social development.

A community-led approach, like Hepburn Energy, brings a lot of benefits. When our members came together to take action, the co-op gave them a voice, helping them connect with each other and engage in their community. This led to them building their own resilient and self-sufficient community asset which fostered even more empowerment and solidarity.

Our co-op has also offered energy literacy, not just with our members but with the broader community too, which has been transformative. This has helped ease climate anxiety supporting people to take action in ways that matter.

By focusing on solutions that fit our local area, our co-op has spotlighted our community and serves as an example for other towns in Australia to follow.

24/04/2025

Hepburn Energy’s new battery will have a capacity of 5,015 kWh and will be the size of a 20-foot shipping container. Our battery will be set in the Hepburn Energy Park, next to Gale and the SMA-2500 inverter we installed back in 2021. Its main job will be to store energy and strategically choose when to send it out to the grid.

We’ll also be putting in some smaller gear along with it, like four DC-DC converters and a transformer, each about the size of a bar fridge. Everything is set to arrive and get installed on-site between June and July 2025, and we’re looking forward to what this will bring!

22/04/2025

Sustainability and inclusivity are at the core of co-operative models, making them vital partners in achieving the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.

Sustainability is at the heart of our co-operative's purpose. Our co-op is committed to making real change in tackling climate change, and our energy park generates enough green power to offset our local towns from Leonards Hill through to Daylesford and Hepburn!

Inclusivity is a big part of what we do, and we’re always welcoming new members. To make it easier for locals to join in, we set a lower buy-in for shareholdings. We really want as many people from the community to get involved as possible!