Our early history
On the 9th Jan 07 a small meeting was held at the Bowling Club with about 20 people present and a decision was made to form a group and join CEFE from Bega with a chapter called Snowy Mountains CEFE. A committee was formed with 7 people. Committee meetings have been held every 2 weeks till recently when everybody has been too busy so we reverted to monthly meetings.
Sunday 11th Feb.07 we assisted Friends of clean Energy with an Expo. in Jindabyne. A community forum, chaired by Mayor Richard Wallace, was held in the Memorial Hall Jindabyne on 9th March 07. Guest speakers were Owen Pearson and Emily Matenson , from the two schools in Jindabyne, Ray prowse from ANU.Centre for Sustainable Energy, Erwin Jackson from the Climate Institute, Matthew Nott CEFE founder, and Rashida Nuridin from Friends of Renewable Energy. Dr. Cath Newman ,of Jindabyne then moved that the meeting adopt the target of 50/50 by 20/20. and join with Bega. This was carried unanimously by the 120 residents present.
The next week the Snowy River Shire adopted this target. We had an open house day for 25 people on 17th June 07. Things on show were, passive solar design. solar off the grid, geothermal heating , worm farm toiles, and thermal design bricks. We have been working on the Action plan that CEFE Bega produced converting to the local needs. A global warming column is in the Summit Sun weekly with tips for people for sustainable living, Also articles in th Echo. The S,R,Shire Council has a Jindabyne Sustainability Plan happening and we have 2 people involved. We have met with council and have asked for a member to regularly meet with one of our group to help each other in ways forward to meet our target.
We are looking at perhaps getting the churches here to go solar and or wind like the surf clubs are on the coast. The Sailing club which is the local surf club sometimes is looking into this as well. Another open house day is planned for the 14th Oct.07 again with passive solar, solar connected to the grid, solar heating for the house with hot water flowing through the the concrete floor. and a small wind generator.. Cities for Climate Protection C,C,P. a worldwide organization with more than 800 councils involved has been shown to the council and they seem interested in adopting the program.
A community owned solar farm
The first event in a big weekend in Jindabyne was a public meeting on 8/2/08 to discuss a community owned solar farm for the mountains. Speaking were Mayor Richard Wallace, Sue Edmondson(CEFE), Matthew Nott(CEFE), Steve Garrett from Pyramid Power, and a representative from Mike Kelly’s office.
A 5 person committee was established out of this meeting, chaired by Richard Wallace, to assess the viability of a solar farm.
The farm would consist of an array of solar photovoltaic cells. The approximate vital statistics would be 2mW of power, enough to provide electricity for 350 homes (or 700 energy efficient houses), covering an area of 10-20 hectares, costing up to 10 million dollars, and owned by the community. The project seems very possible after a Federal Government promise of funding of up to 1.1 million dollars. We have had a further boost, with out Mosman CEFE’s main objective for this year to raise funds for solar farms in SE NSW.
What a team!
On 20/2/08, 20 swimmers made $20000 for renewable energy for the Jindabyne sailing club. All 20 swimmers made the 7km swim from Kalkite to Jindabyne, with strong support from the Tathra and Jindabyne surf clubs. An heroic effort. See Big Swims for photos.
LifeSaving Energy…mountain style
250 people forming the human sign LifeSaving Energy. Clean Energy For Eternity aim to get all surf clubs in SE NSW set up with renewable energy by the end of the year. LifeSaving Energy is gaining momentum, and we aim to get the Cooma soccer Club, the Tathra primary school and the Anglican Church in Bega set up with renewable energy in the near future.
Snowy Mountains Climate Forum November 6 2008