A parliamentary committee has commended an ambitious proposal from Federal Member for Indi Helen Haines, to place regional communities at the centre of Australia’s r.
22 February 2021
Federal independent MP Helen Haines will introduce legislation to the federal parliament on Monday in a bid to establish a new, dedicated community power agency to support investment in new community owned renewable energy projects.
The
Australian Local Power Agency Bill, to be tabled by Haines, would establish a new Australian Local Power Agency, a federal authority that would sit alongside other clean energy funding bodies like the Australian Renewable Energy Agency and the Clean Energy Finance Corporation.
Haines told RenewEconomy that the legislation would target three core barriers to greater local and community ownership of renewable energy projects: supporting community organisations to conquer the technical challenges of creating a community owned project, providing financial support for the construction of medium-scale projects with community ownership models, and a requirement for large-scale projects to offer local communities the opportunities to tak