{"id":45158,"date":"2020-11-26T06:58:51","date_gmt":"2020-11-25T20:28:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/?p=45158"},"modified":"2020-11-26T06:58:51","modified_gmt":"2020-11-25T20:28:51","slug":"victoria-sustainability-awards-mb1777","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/victoria-sustainability-awards-mb1777\/","title":{"rendered":"TRY&#8217;s VPP A VIC Premier&#8217;s Sustainability Awards Finalist"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-45159\" src=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/try-sustainability-awards.jpg\" alt=\"Totally Renewable Yackandandah\" width=\"1200\" height=\"630\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/try-sustainability-awards.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/try-sustainability-awards-300x158.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/try-sustainability-awards-1024x538.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/try-sustainability-awards-768x403.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Totally Renewable Yackandandah&#8217;s Virtual Power Plant project was recently named a finalist in Victoria&#8217;s Premier&#8217;s Sustainability Awards 2020 &#8211; community category.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>The town of Yackandandah (population: ~1,800) is situated in northeast Victoria around 300 kilometres from Melbourne, in the Indigo Shire Council local government area. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/?s=Totally+Renewable+Yackandandah\">Totally Renewable Yackandandah<\/a> (TRY) was launched in 2014 with the goal of achieving \u201cenergy sovereignty\u201d for the town by 2022 through the use of renewables, including solar powered microgrids backed by battery storage.<\/p>\n<p>TRY&#8217;s Virtual Power Plant is a network of ten publicly owned buildings generating, storing and sharing electricity. After at least three years of effort, the VPP was launched in September last year. It involved the installation of 74.8 kW of solar panels, along with 36 kWh of battery storage capacity across three buildings &#8211; Yackandandah Public Hall, Sports Park and the CFA station. The VPP is generating 104MWh of clean energy a year and reducing carbon emissions by an estimated 88 tonnes annually.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;It\u2019s an exciting project which is already saving community groups operation costs (although due to pandemic restrictions we don\u2019t yet know how much as many buildings have been closed) and will provide extra resilience during emergencies to organisations that have batteries, such as the CFA,&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/totallyrenewableyack.org.au\/2020\/11\/a-local-hero-and-finalists-for-a-sustainability-award\/\">says TRY<\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Other recent recognition for the TRY project and those who power it included its founder <a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/yackandah-renewables-nomination-mb1729\/\">Matthew Charles-Jones being nominated<\/a> as a contender in the 2021 Australian of the Year Awards Victoria Local Hero category.<\/p>\n<p>Solar also features among other finalists in the Premier&#8217;s Sustainability Awards this year, among them:<\/p>\n<h2>Frasers Property Australia \u2013 Built Environment Category<\/h2>\n<p>Frasers Property Australia&#8217;s Burwood Brickworks Shopping Centre has a 6 Star Green Star Design rating. Contributing to its sustainability street cred are 3,300 rooftop solar panels that generate equivalent to 40% of the Centre&#8217;s electricity requirements. Other interesting aspects of Brickworks include a closed loop system that treats all grey water on site for reuse and a 2,500m2 rooftop urban farm.<\/p>\n<h2>Mirvac Group &#8211; Built Environment Category<\/h2>\n<p>Mirvac\u2019s fully electric &#8220;House With No Bills&#8221; features appliances with the highest star ratings available, but still at an affordable price. The home features 5.7kW of solar PV and a 1<span class=\"aCOpRe\">7kWh battery<\/span> system, glazing upgrades, insulation, LED lighting, zoned air conditioning and smart monitoring systems. While it didn&#8217;t quite reach the zero energy bills target, across 12 months it used only eight per cent more electricity than it generated, and operated as \u2018energy positive\u2019 for five months.<\/p>\n<p>On a related note, if you&#8217;re interested in achieving tiny electricity bills for your home with solar power, check out <a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/good-solar-guide\/contents\/\">The Good Solar Guide<\/a>; free to read in its entirety online.<\/p>\n<p>After a record number of entries, twenty-eight finalists were announced across 10 categories for this year&#8217;s awards. More information on the Premier&#8217;s Sustainability Awards and all the finalists <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sustainabilityawards.vic.gov.au\/2020-Finalists\">can be found here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The 2020 winners will be announced at an online ceremony hosted by meteorologist and weather presenter Jane Bunn on December 16. Lily D\u2019Ambrosio, Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change, will also be in attendance to announce the winners.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Totally Renewable Yackandandah&#8217;s Virtual Power Plant project was recently named a finalist in Victoria&#8217;s Premier&#8217;s Sustainability Awards 2020 &#8211; community category.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":45159,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[678],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-solar-battery-news","entry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.2 (Yoast SEO v27.2) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>TRY&#039;s VPP A VIC Premier&#039;s Sustainability Awards Finalist<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"TRY&#039;s Virtual Power Plant project was recently named a finalist in Victoria&#039;s Premier&#039;s Sustainability Awards 2020 - community category.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/victoria-sustainability-awards-mb1777\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"TRY&#039;s VPP A VIC Premier&#039;s Sustainability Awards Finalist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"TRY&#039;s Virtual Power Plant project was recently named a finalist in Victoria&#039;s Premier&#039;s Sustainability Awards 2020 - community category.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/victoria-sustainability-awards-mb1777\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"SolarQuotes Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SolarQuotes\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-11-25T20:28:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/try-sustainability-awards.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Michael Bloch\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@solar_quotes\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@solar_quotes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/victoria-sustainability-awards-mb1777\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/victoria-sustainability-awards-mb1777\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Michael Bloch\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/66afd571aa00c2e442f0192ebac2f6f1\"},\"headline\":\"TRY&#8217;s VPP A VIC Premier&#8217;s Sustainability Awards Finalist\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-11-25T20:28:51+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/victoria-sustainability-awards-mb1777\/\"},\"wordCount\":518,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/victoria-sustainability-awards-mb1777\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/try-sustainability-awards.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"General Solar &amp; Storage News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/victoria-sustainability-awards-mb1777\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/victoria-sustainability-awards-mb1777\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/victoria-sustainability-awards-mb1777\/\",\"name\":\"TRY's VPP A VIC Premier's Sustainability Awards Finalist\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/victoria-sustainability-awards-mb1777\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/victoria-sustainability-awards-mb1777\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/try-sustainability-awards.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-11-25T20:28:51+00:00\",\"description\":\"TRY's Virtual Power Plant project was recently named a finalist in Victoria's Premier's Sustainability Awards 2020 - community category.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/victoria-sustainability-awards-mb1777\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/victoria-sustainability-awards-mb1777\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/victoria-sustainability-awards-mb1777\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/try-sustainability-awards.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/try-sustainability-awards.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":630,\"caption\":\"Totally Renewable Yackandandah\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/victoria-sustainability-awards-mb1777\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Blog\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"General Solar &amp; Storage News\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/category\/solar-battery-news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"TRY&#8217;s VPP A VIC Premier&#8217;s Sustainability Awards Finalist\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"SolarQuotes Blog\",\"description\":\"An independent reckoning of the Aussie solar scene\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"SolarQuotes\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/solarquotes-logo.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/solarquotes-logo.png\",\"width\":592,\"height\":600,\"caption\":\"SolarQuotes\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SolarQuotes\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/solar_quotes\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/solarquotes\/\",\"https:\/\/au.linkedin.com\/company\/solarquotes\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/SolarQuotesAustralia\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/66afd571aa00c2e442f0192ebac2f6f1\",\"name\":\"Michael Bloch\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c65d1fbade4404d88617552594a54366d8ca4a78bd617a48e64f9340c0b5dc09?s=96&d=monsterid&r=r\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c65d1fbade4404d88617552594a54366d8ca4a78bd617a48e64f9340c0b5dc09?s=96&d=monsterid&r=r\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c65d1fbade4404d88617552594a54366d8ca4a78bd617a48e64f9340c0b5dc09?s=96&d=monsterid&r=r\",\"caption\":\"Michael Bloch\"},\"description\":\"Michael caught the solar power bug after purchasing components to cobble together a small off-grid PV system in 2008. He's been reporting on Australian and international solar energy news ever since.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/author\/michael\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"TRY's VPP A VIC Premier's Sustainability Awards Finalist","description":"TRY's Virtual Power Plant project was recently named a finalist in Victoria's Premier's Sustainability Awards 2020 - community category.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/victoria-sustainability-awards-mb1777\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"TRY's VPP A VIC Premier's Sustainability Awards Finalist","og_description":"TRY's Virtual Power Plant project was recently named a finalist in Victoria's Premier's Sustainability Awards 2020 - community category.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/victoria-sustainability-awards-mb1777\/","og_site_name":"SolarQuotes Blog","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SolarQuotes\/","article_published_time":"2020-11-25T20:28:51+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":630,"url":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/try-sustainability-awards.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Michael Bloch","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@solar_quotes","twitter_site":"@solar_quotes","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/victoria-sustainability-awards-mb1777\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/victoria-sustainability-awards-mb1777\/"},"author":{"name":"Michael Bloch","@id":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/66afd571aa00c2e442f0192ebac2f6f1"},"headline":"TRY&#8217;s VPP A VIC Premier&#8217;s Sustainability Awards Finalist","datePublished":"2020-11-25T20:28:51+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/victoria-sustainability-awards-mb1777\/"},"wordCount":518,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/victoria-sustainability-awards-mb1777\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/try-sustainability-awards.jpg","articleSection":["General Solar &amp; Storage News"],"inLanguage":"en-AU","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/victoria-sustainability-awards-mb1777\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/victoria-sustainability-awards-mb1777\/","url":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/victoria-sustainability-awards-mb1777\/","name":"TRY's VPP A VIC Premier's Sustainability Awards Finalist","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/victoria-sustainability-awards-mb1777\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/victoria-sustainability-awards-mb1777\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/try-sustainability-awards.jpg","datePublished":"2020-11-25T20:28:51+00:00","description":"TRY's Virtual Power Plant project was recently named a finalist in Victoria's Premier's Sustainability Awards 2020 - community category.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/victoria-sustainability-awards-mb1777\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-AU","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/victoria-sustainability-awards-mb1777\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-AU","@id":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/victoria-sustainability-awards-mb1777\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/try-sustainability-awards.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/try-sustainability-awards.jpg","width":1200,"height":630,"caption":"Totally Renewable Yackandandah"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/victoria-sustainability-awards-mb1777\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Blog","item":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"General Solar &amp; Storage News","item":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/category\/solar-battery-news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"TRY&#8217;s VPP A VIC Premier&#8217;s Sustainability Awards Finalist"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/","name":"SolarQuotes Blog","description":"An independent reckoning of the Aussie solar scene","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-AU"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/#organization","name":"SolarQuotes","url":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-AU","@id":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/solarquotes-logo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/solarquotes-logo.png","width":592,"height":600,"caption":"SolarQuotes"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SolarQuotes\/","https:\/\/x.com\/solar_quotes","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/solarquotes\/","https:\/\/au.linkedin.com\/company\/solarquotes","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/SolarQuotesAustralia"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/66afd571aa00c2e442f0192ebac2f6f1","name":"Michael Bloch","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-AU","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c65d1fbade4404d88617552594a54366d8ca4a78bd617a48e64f9340c0b5dc09?s=96&d=monsterid&r=r","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c65d1fbade4404d88617552594a54366d8ca4a78bd617a48e64f9340c0b5dc09?s=96&d=monsterid&r=r","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c65d1fbade4404d88617552594a54366d8ca4a78bd617a48e64f9340c0b5dc09?s=96&d=monsterid&r=r","caption":"Michael Bloch"},"description":"Michael caught the solar power bug after purchasing components to cobble together a small off-grid PV system in 2008. He's been reporting on Australian and international solar energy news ever since.","url":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/author\/michael\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/try-sustainability-awards.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2FF2s-bKm","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":51949,"url":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/vic-community-power-hubs-mb2070\/","url_meta":{"origin":45158,"position":0},"title":"More Victorian Community Power Hubs Energised","author":"Michael Bloch","date":"July 9, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"16 solar energy projects will be delivered before the end of this year by Community Power Hubs supported by the Victorian Government. The Andrews Government announced yesterday it is investing $6.5 million to establish seven new Community Power Hubs and for the provision of grants for community groups to install\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General Solar &amp; Storage News&quot;","block_context":{"text":"General Solar &amp; Storage News","link":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/category\/solar-battery-news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Community Power Hubs - Victoria","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/community-power-hubs.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/community-power-hubs.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/community-power-hubs.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/community-power-hubs.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/community-power-hubs.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":44123,"url":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/yackandah-renewables-nomination-mb1729\/","url_meta":{"origin":45158,"position":1},"title":"Totally Renewable Yackandandah Founder Local Hero Nominee","author":"Michael Bloch","date":"October 21, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"The founder of an initiative in Victoria to take a town to 100 per cent renewable energy has been named as a nominee for the 2021 Australian of the Year Awards. Matthew Charles-Jones - founder of Totally Renewable Yackandandah (TRY) - was nominated as a contender for the 2021 Victoria\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General Solar &amp; Storage News&quot;","block_context":{"text":"General Solar &amp; Storage News","link":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/category\/solar-battery-news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Matthew Charles-Jones - Totally Renewable Yackandandah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/renewables-yackandandah-founder.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/renewables-yackandandah-founder.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/renewables-yackandandah-founder.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/renewables-yackandandah-founder.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/renewables-yackandandah-founder.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":21682,"url":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/try-solar-award-mb0596\/","url_meta":{"origin":45158,"position":2},"title":"TRY Wins Rural Councils Of Victoria Award For Energy Efforts","author":"Michael Bloch","date":"May 23, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Totally Renewable Yackandandah has scored another award, winning the Saving Energy category of the Community Innovators Awards at the Rural Councils of Victoria Summit. Yackandandah is a small town in northeast Victoria, home to around 1,800; but with a big reputation on the renewables scene. Totally Renewable Yackandandah (TRY) was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General Solar &amp; Storage News&quot;","block_context":{"text":"General Solar &amp; Storage News","link":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/category\/solar-battery-news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Totally Renewable Yackandandah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/saving-energy-award.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/saving-energy-award.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/saving-energy-award.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/saving-energy-award.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":14822,"url":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/yackandandah-solar-power-mb0198\/","url_meta":{"origin":45158,"position":3},"title":"More Steps Towards 100% Renewables In Yackandandah","author":"Michael Bloch","date":"September 7, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Excitement is building in the small town of Yackandandah in northeast Victoria as it moves towards a fossil fuel-free energy future. Totally Renewable Yackandandah (TRY) was formed in 2014 and aims to achieve \u201cenergy sovereignty\u201d for the town by 2022 through 100% renewables. The group has been working with the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General Solar &amp; Storage News&quot;","block_context":{"text":"General Solar &amp; Storage News","link":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/category\/solar-battery-news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Yackandandah solar panels","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/solar-panels-yackandandah.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/solar-panels-yackandandah.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/solar-panels-yackandandah.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/solar-panels-yackandandah.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":15933,"url":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/mcgowan-community-energy-mb0256\/","url_meta":{"origin":45158,"position":4},"title":"Cathy McGowan : Community Projects A Vital Piece Of Australia&#8217;s Energy Jigsaw","author":"Michael Bloch","date":"October 18, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Independent Member for Indi Cathy McGowan AO has called for more funding for community energy projects across Australia. On Monday, Ms. McGowan introduced the Renewable Energy Legislation Amendment (Supporting Renewable Communities) Bill 2017 to Parliament. The purpose of the bill is to ensure community energy projects have access to financial\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General Solar &amp; Storage News&quot;","block_context":{"text":"General Solar &amp; Storage News","link":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/category\/solar-battery-news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Cathy McGowan on community energy","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/cathy-mcgowan-community-energy.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/cathy-mcgowan-community-energy.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/cathy-mcgowan-community-energy.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/cathy-mcgowan-community-energy.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":25155,"url":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/solar-microgrid-yackandandah-mb0790\/","url_meta":{"origin":45158,"position":5},"title":"Funding For Third Microgrid In Yackandandah","author":"Michael Bloch","date":"October 18, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Victoria's Andrews Labor Government has announced funding to go towards a microgrid project in Yackandandah, the third for the town. Yackandandah is located in northeast Victoria in the Indigo Shire Council region and is around 300 kilometres from Melbourne. While it has a small population (around 1,800), it's a mover\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General Solar &amp; Storage News&quot;","block_context":{"text":"General Solar &amp; Storage News","link":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/category\/solar-battery-news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Another solar microgrid for Yackandandah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/yackandandah-microgrid-funding.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/yackandandah-microgrid-funding.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/yackandandah-microgrid-funding.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/yackandandah-microgrid-funding.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45158"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45158\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45161,"href":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45158\/revisions\/45161"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}