BY ISABEL EVERETT
A first-of-its-kind solar power sharing project for Australia has launched in the Hunter .
The Beehive Project, being led by Enova Energy, will trial a shared community battery and peer-to-peer solar energy trading project next year involving up to 500 households.
The project aims to help transform how neighbourhoods use and share rooftop solar energy and large-scale battery storage, allowing them to buy, sell and trade solar power with excess being sold off to the grid.
The 1-megawatt battery powering the project will be based at an Ausgrid substation in Kurri Kurri.
It will be around the the size of a shipping container and can power approximately 50 homes each day, based on an average usage of 19kWh per household.
University of Newcastle researchers, Associate Professor Hao Tan, Dr Sidsel Grimstad and PhD student Arsalan Mohammed will monitor data from the project.
Enova is inviting at least 500 households with, or without, roof top solar to participate.
They can live anywhere in NSW.
"So it's sort of a virtual community as well, if you want to sign up you can contact Enova and apply to become one the house holds," says Professor Sidsel Grimstad.
