The purpose of Zero Net Energy Town (Z-NET) is to support rural towns, villages and regions throughout Australia to satisfy their own energy needs from renewable energy sources in a way which is competitive with its current system of energy (in terms of price, quality, reliability, security of supply and so on).
This is achieved firstly by reducing energy use and then importing or locally producing enough energy to meet or exceed the community’s demand.
There are hundreds of towns and villages elsewhere around the world who have achieved this goal already.
The current focus of work is to support Hepburn and Uralla to implement their plans; and continue to seek funding to support further zero net energy towns.
The Z-NET Blueprints are models created for towns and villages to be able to assess and design their own plans to achieve 100% renewable energy over a period of 5-10 years.
Z-NET Blueprints are now available.
The second of the Z-NET Blueprints has just been completed in Hepburn Shire. Their goal is more advanced and incorporates agriculture, buildings, electric transport and energy storage. The aim here is zero net emissions, which is above and beyond zero net energy.
This second stage of work on Z-NET was funded by Sustainability Victoria, Hepburn Shire Council, Hepburn Wind, Samsø Energy Academy (Denmark) and Diversicon Environmental Foundation.
The first of the Z-NET Blueprints was developed at the same time as creating a plan for Uralla ~ the Z-NET Case Study Town. This approach has given the model a very practical and ‘real world’ grounding, and includes a business case assessment to quantify the costs, benefits, opportunities and risks of the various options available.
The Uralla Blueprint maps out the first stage of their journey toward zero net energy.
Creation of this original Z-NET Blueprints was funded by the NSW Office of Environment & Heritage.
The full range of resources can be found here.
