President’s Report: Aug 2025

David Craven on behalf of Graeme Martin

If a week is a long time in politics then a month could be an eternity in the world of community batteries. And there has been a lot of progress for Village Power since we were in touch in July.

Firstly I’m happy to report that on 28 July Darebin Council voted unanimously to grant a lease to our project partner Acacia Energy for the establishment of a battery at 2 Wingrove Street. Given that,we are hopeful that Acacia will soon have finalised negotiations and have a lease agreement in place.

I’m also very glad to report that Village Power has now executed a variation to our agreement with the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action confirming that the project can proceed using the Local Renewable Energy (LRE) model.

With these two significant achievements we can now move forward with the delivery of the project by June 2026. Our next task is to start work on the detailed design of the Local Renewable Energy program, which we will be finalising over the next two months. We hope to bring you more information on this shortly and give you an opportunity to provide feedback.

So, here’s to getting on with the job! I hope you enjoy the latest edition of the newsletter, and please reach out to us at info@villagepower.com.au if you have any questions or feedback.