WHAT WE DO & WHY
– We believe that local, people-powered clean energy projects will bring social, environmental and economic benefits to communities across Australia.
– We believe that involving communities in all scales of renewable energy development will make our electricity system better and enable us to act on climate in the timeframes required.
– We believe by collaborating we can remove systemic barriers to community energy and clean energy access.
Our approach
– Capacity Building: Supporting and building the capacity of community projects through workshops, training, mentoring, research and resource development.
– Innovation: Developing and enabling innovative social-impact business models and practices.
– Advocacy: Engaging in sector level advocacy, collaboration and policy development.
HISTORY & IMPACT
The Community Power Agency was founded when two people, Nicky Ison and Jarra Hicks, decided to take positive action toward a clean energy future. After years of passionate and dedicated campaigning against a broken and polluting energy system, Jarra and Nicky turned their efforts towards finding a solution to the energy crisis and building a fairer and cleaner system for all. In 2010, they visited community energy projects of all shapes and sizes in the UK, Europe, North America and India and were inspired by the great things that local communities had achieved. This energised them to help make community energy a reality in Australia. In 2011 the Community Power Agency was formed. In 2015 it was incorporated as a not-for-profit workers’ cooperative and has grown to a small but high-impact team. Now with over 2,000 supporters, the story of our success grows with us.