Bio Breakaway

Permission to proceed

I had a follow up call from the same council member. The initial advice he had given me had been weighing on his mind, especially since the council have no policy or procedures in place for wind and solar.

He and some other colleagues had consulted their legal beagles throughout the day, which had elicited an alternate response.

Since there was no council laws stopping me, or directing how to install renewable energy devices - and since I was in a specific zone that didn’t disallow this - I have permission to proceed without requiring any application. I’m to expect this advice in writing as well!

Wow…. Just wow. A local government not bogging one down in red tape. I’ll post a copy of the document when I receive it.

The next stage approaches.

Local Government makes contact

I was contacted today by a Council representative. He advised that they had received my request and that there where a number of things I should do to get permission and approval.

He stated that this form of request is rare for them and they have no bylaws or provisions to cater for it. Although this is the case he advised that I:

• Obtain an updated title search to determine feasibility;
• Construct a site plan to show intended locations of things like wind turbines;
• Get details of products intended to be used from the suppliers of wind turbines and photovoltaic devices;
• Submit a permit application form to the council.

Government Approval

I need to approach my local Council (Casey Council) regarding approval on getting Solar and Wind power devices added to my property. The only thing I can find on their site is a document called the “Greenhouse Strategy Local Action Plan”. This document written in 2001 aims at “Reducing community emissions by 10%” with the target year of 2010. This is an old plan, and 2010 is practically here. The first thing is the online approach to see how they respond, and if they don’t a good old fashioned letter will follow. Here is what I wrote the council:

I want to enquire about any planning permissions that may be required for (a) solar power in a domestic property, grid connected or not; and (b) wind turbine use on a domestic property to augment solar technologies. With an average wind speed of 4.46m/s month to month the combined use of solar and wind in my area would almost reduce to zero the carbon footprint of our household with respect to energy use from the current coal powered grid. This would go towards helping Casey Council achieve the 10% community greenhouse reduction by 2010 according to your Local Action Plan. I would be happy to speak to someone before I get a quotation from an energy systems supplier to see if I need approval or how to proceed.

Welcome to Bio Breakaway

Hello all. The aim of this Tumblog is to informally document, with short posts - video - and audio, my attempt to move “Off the Grid”.

I mean multiple things when I say “Off the Grid”. For one a move to power generation that is domicile centric and as carbon neutral as possible. Secondly a move to growing my own produce for all the households needs, and where it is not possible to produce in an urban environment, to buy local produce. I think this will become more important as we slide down from Peak Oil - and food prices go up. Bartering and trading produce in a local community will probably become the focus. Third is to attempt to reduce the household power consumption by cutting back, using “greener” devices or eliminating inefficient and wasteful products. Lastly to try and become less reliant on the city water supply and store my own water, even though Australia is in drought.

Additionally as an urban dweller who commutes, I’ll document less regularly the state of public transport in my city (currently Melbourne, Australia) and my attempt to rid myself of the heavily polluting vehicle that one is reliant on to travel any distance. My ultimate aim is transportation that I can fuel from self generated renewable energy.

I’m starting this now because I’m sick of the governments debating, arguing and releasing policy - effectively doing nothing. The change won’t come from the top down, but the bottom up. We need to change. Each of us - NOW. The technology is already here and the time to use it to reduce our emissions and impact on the earth is now - not 2015, or 2050.

I’ll also be posting audio recordings - probably as a podcast, and eventually video when the time is right.

I hope you enjoy the ride. I certainly will.