The Castlehill Community Grid and Battery project is on its way!
Come and join us for our first community discussion scheduled for Saturday 12 October, 3pm at the Castle Hill Community Hall. We’d love to see you there.
This project has been accepted as part of the first Community energy accelerator, run in collaboration with Orion Energy, Ara Ake and the Community Energy Network . It is the only one of the 9 successful projects that are in the accelerator programme to be based in Selwyn district.
The three project objectives are:
- An off-grid, low carbon solution to support the Castlehill emergency response and recovery in the event of a disaster.
- Reducing/offsetting the carbon emissions of the village and its associated infrastructure (e.g. Waste water treatment).
- The possibility of creating a Virtual Power Plant with grid stabilisation capabilities.
Starting in September 2024, the project team have access to expert mentors who will guide us through the process of creating a framework for the project, defining the scope and helping us to gain a better understanding of it’s overall feasibility.
We also have the opportunity to learn from the other projects selected, many of which are further down the track than ours. We will keep the community updated with any developments through the newsletter and may be asking for your feedback from time to time.
This is a really exciting and timely project- it is being closely watched by the Electricity Authority and others- and we are looking forward to sharing more details with you all.
Please do get in touch with Kate Hodgins or Helena Parsons at castlehillenergyproject@gmail.com if you have any questions in the meantime.