A $1 MILLION grant handed to Lockhart Shire Council by acting Prime Minister Michael McCormack on Tuesday morning is set to transform the town of Lockhart's fortunes.
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The money will go towards establishing Lockhart as Australia's first town powered wholly by renewable energy and operating on a micro grid.
The money will be held by council and released in tranches as milestones are reached by developer Better Energy Technology, headed by Gordon Hinds.
These funds will also pay for the project's compliance, access to the electricity grid via Essential Energy, local government approvals and a technical assessment of the project's fundamentals.
The town's residents will be offered discounted energy rates, about 20 per cent less than that being offered by major energy retailers, and the council will be offered the opportunity to buy the generation facility in 10 years if it so chooses.
Townsfolk will also likely be exempt from part of the access segment of their bill, because BET wants to absorb it.
The renewable project will employ four people full-time, but it is the potential for offering businesses discounted rates of electricity that looks set to offer Lockhart the ability to grow.
Already a business that grows food in containers is looking to locate itself in the town, representing potentially a $40-million investment and the promise of 40 full-time jobs.
Meetings between Lockhart councillors and that project's proponent are slated for Sydney within six weeks.
"That sort of thing gets people having a look at Lockhart," said Lockhart's Mayor Rodger Schirmer.
"It can then gain momentum and things can fall in a row.
"The pluses really go on and on, small communities like Lockhart have an urgency to progress themselves and this project can really help," he said.
Mr Schirmer said the town's location was also attractive to the project's developer, with the Sturt Highway running east-west and the Newell north-south and both in close proximity to the town.
He said there had been two years of planning behind the project that "seeks to prove small country communities can generate power and not only make themselves a viable power source but can contribute to the entire country as well".
Mr Schirmer said it was time to decentralise.
"Anyone who spends any time in Sydney tears their hair out with traffic and people - we can give them a great lifestyle, if that lifestyle also gives them job security and job opportunities, then that's got to be a win-win for everybody."
Acting Prime Minister Michael McCormack said the project was transformational.
"This will re-energise, literally, Lockhart and this is a project almost the entire town, if not the entire community has gotten behind," he said.
This will re-energise, literally, Lockhart, and this is a project almost the entire town, if not the entire community has gotten behind.
- Michael McCormack
"This is something the Lockhart shire has pushed because it ticks all the boxes.
"It ticks the regional development box, it ticks the renewable box, it ticks off getting a country community to take responsibility for its own energy source and it's also going to make money for the town.
"So not only will the town provide its own energy, it will also be able to put back into the grid to make money out of it.
"When it comes to jobs, when it comes to infrastructure, this project was always something that I was very keen on, the mayor Rodger Schirmer and his council were right behind it and, most importantly, the community were too, because you can't do these sorts of projects unless the community gets in and behind it.
"And it stacked up, when the government ran the ruler over it, it just made good sense.
"This could be the catalyst for something bigger and greater."
Mr McCormack said Lockhart had always been a town with its eye on the future - whether that be farming practices or this time, clean energy - making sure it takes advantage of the assets the town has.
"I think also this is something Tim Fischer would be very proud of, because this is Tim Fischer's hometown and I know Tim was always looking at pushing the boundary as far as we can to make towns sustainable, what can we do to make towns grow and this project, I think, ticks all those boxes."
Mr McCormack said he thought towns taking responsibility for their own energy was the way of the future.
"This could be a microcosm of something much larger and if Lockhart can do it, why can't other towns, be they smaller, the same size or indeed, much, much larger?"
BET's Mr Hinds said it was clear country towns wanted to take control of their energy futures.
He said just as country communities exported food for the cities to eat, so too they could export power.
"It's the same model, 20 per cent of the power will be sold to the town and 80pc of it exported."
He said remaining on the grid was important because it gave the town an opportunity to trade excess electricity, "we're lucky to have the grid", he said.
"We're introducing both proven and innovative storage technologies so the town will also be a testbed for new technologies, which will attract research interest as well."
Mr Hinds said Mr McCormack had shown leadership where others had not.
"This will pave the way for a lot of investment in rural Australia, and that is something we're all very grateful for. He's really backed us."
