Looking into the future of renewable energy

ATTENDEES at next month’s Commerce Ballarat Biznet Breakfast will hear speakers from the Ballarat Energy Network (BEN) and Committee for Ballarat talk about the future of renewable energy.

It is the BEN’s vision for Ballarat to become Australia’s first regional city of more than 100,000 people to be powered by 100 per cent locally generated renewable energy.

Speakers Committee for Ballarat CEO Michael Poulton and BEN Advisory Group chair Bill Mundy will provide details of the project, its timelines and how business, industry and the community will benefit.

Running for over 20 years, Biznet Breakfasts are Ballarat’s longest running business networking forum.

They are held on the first Tuesday of each month, providing attendees with the opportunity to hear from a range of business and industry professionals

“Biznet Breakfasts are a great opportunity to network and hear interesting speakers,” Commerce Ballarat CEO Jodie Gillett said.

“We are pleased to share this one with our friends from Committee for Ballarat and look forward to learning more about the BEN project.”

Mr Poulton said he is looking forward to sharing news of the project.

“The Ballarat Energy Network project is designed to be Australia’s first-of-its-kind community led, commercially viable distributed energy network at the scale of a regional city,” he said.

“It will demonstrate how a population of 100,000-plus people, together with business, industry and government, can generate, store, orchestrate, and trade 100 per cent locally generated renewable energy.

“Ballarat and the region has an abundance of renewable energy sources including wind, solar and bioenergy.

“All that can be aggregated, optimised and managed to ensure our region can be part of a renewable energy future that will help enable our regional development and prosperity.”

The breakfast will be held at North Ballarat Sports Club from 7am to 8.45am.

The cost is $36 for members and $46 for non-members.

Registrations can be made via Eventbrite.