Lucy Brake discovers a small South Island community that’s taking back control
Power generation, like rubbish collection, is one of those things you might assume is the business of government – or at least big business. Lucy Brake discovers a small South Island community that’s taking back control
Mist rises over Blueskin Bay, Dunedin. Ross Land/Getty Images
Boris Baeumer is much like you and me; he lives a busy life, values time with his young family and cares about the environment. He’s not a worrier by nature, but seeing his family’s electricity bills going up and up made him wonder if there was anything he could do about it.
Boris lives in Blueskin Bay, an area located about 25 kilometres north of Dunedin City that includes the townships of Doctors Point, Waitati, Evansdale, Warrington, and Seacliff. It’s a typical rural, coastal Kiwi community, but with one big difference: the locals are on the brink of controlling the way they power their lives through a voulunteer-led project called Blueskin Power.
The idea for the project was born in 2006 amidst the chaos of extreme flooding. Though locals struggled to cope with the impact the natural disaster had on their lives, out of this came an enthusiasm for change. The community joined the global Transition Town movement and took on a range of sustainability initiatives, including formulating a plan to generate its own energy.
Scott Willis is an unassuming local who’s taken on the role of Blueskin Power’s project manager. Born in Dunedin, he returned from living overseas to raise a family in the bay. He says his inspiration came from the thought of an unstable future with the challenges of climate change, peak oil and potential social unrest on the horizon. Throwing caution to the wind, he resolved to do what he could to help Blueskin Bay generate its own electricity.
The scheme involves installing three or four 500- kilowatt Windflow turbines in a ‘wind cluster’, with the community retaining majority ownership. The turbines are expected to generate around 4.5 million kilowatts per year. If everything goes to plan (and all signs indicate that by early 2014 it will) the wind cluster will supply Blueskin Bay with more renewable electricity than the thousandodd households know what to do with.
The motivation for creating a sustainable energy source isn’t just economic. It’s also about a community gaining more control over their own power supply. And the involvement of locals is crucial. “We need the majority of the community to support the wind cluster, otherwise it just won’t happen,” says Scott.
As with any voluntary community-led project, one challenge is that people have other demands on their time, and involvement waxes and wanes. And unlike countries such as Belgium, Denmark and the United Kingdom, our government doesn’t provide subsidies or a feed-in tariff for renewable electricity generation. This means it’s difficult for small-scale projects to get off the ground. As Scott says, the aim is to “take the possible and make it happen, rather than aim too high and fall over badly”.
There are a handful of groups around the country working to create sustainable energy for their local communities, including the proposed Long Gully Wind Farm in Brooklyn and the Otaki power project.
And as New Zealand heads into an increasingly uncertain future over the price and sustainability of electricity, supply initiatives such as these are likely to proliferate.
The ultimate reward for the locals of the bay? Switching on the heater and no longer wondering just how high the next electricity bill will be – because they’re generating it.