Empower Parramatta

Who: Empower Parramatta

When: Winter 2016

Where: Western Sydney

Community-driven solar power brings exciting possibilities to generate low-cost renewable energy in the city. However it also brings challenges, particularly  for many of the apartment complexes that are spreading through Parramatta and other urban corridors in Western Sydney. Is there another way?

Empower Parramatta was looking to raise awareness of community solar, plus develop a business model and technical proof-of-concept for a peer-to-peer decentralised energy network, targeting apartment blocks that currently have little incentive to invest in solar (distribution among different unit owners etc). 

The team brainstormed a proposal for peer-to-peer energy distribution from solar panels, so that users in e.g. apartment blocks don't have to use power companies as brokers if they want to share generated power with their neighbours.