The Moreland Energy Foundation Limited, with $112,400 funding from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, is to investigate a model for shared solar pv generation and energy storage capacity in metropolitan suburbs.

The Moreland Energy Foundation Ltd is a not-for-profit organisation established by the Moreland City Council to work with communities, partners and governments to implement sustainable energy projects.

This project will look at how communities in medium-density Melbourne suburbs can draw on pooled renewable energy generation and storage for cheaper power and greater control over their energy. It will explore the logistical, regulatory and financial challenges involved in adopting micro-grids in existing suburbs to see whether  generation and storage across a number of households, using a neighbourhood “micro-grid”, could address some of the challenges that individual residential consumers face in generating and storing their own solar power.