The community of the Daintree Rainforest region in Queensland, Australia, will host a “world-leading renewable microgrid,” after the country’s federal government approved funding support for the project.
The Daintree Microgrid Program aims to use renewable energy, battery storage and green hydrogen technology to help increase the affordability of electricity for people in Daintree, lower emissions and improve energy security and resilience against extreme weather events.
It will also provide jobs in the local area and be a platform for knowledge sharing on microgrids that can be applied to other regional and remote communities.
The solar-to-hydrogen project will pair 8MW of solar PV with 20MWh of battery energy storage and a 1MW hydrogen electrolyser.
This morning Australia’s Minister for Industry, Energy and Emissions Reduction Angus Taylor made the announcement jointly with his assistant minister Tim Wilson and Warren Entsch, who represents the divisional area of Leichhardt in Queensland at the federal level.
The government is awarding AU$18.75 million (US$13.87 million) funding over three years to project lead company Volt Advisory Group.
It follows a feasibility study that was carried out through the Regional and Remote Communities Reliability Fund which pledged AU$50 million to evaluating opportunities for microgrids and other technologies to serve those areas.
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