Sphere No.46 (Mar 2019)

>> Sphere #46 2019 17 uch has been made of the power of renewable energy to slow down the pace of change in the global climate. However, two solar power projects are rapidly transforming communities – in a good way – in two Australian towns. When Beon Energy Solutions under Victoria Power Networks, a member company of CK Infrastructure Holdings Limited, commits to a project, it commits to a community, the people and their lives. Australia is a fantastically successful country by all accounts of human development. Uniquely among developed nations, it has not had a recession for over 27 years. However, no country has created a perfect society and so some people need more help than others. By making community development an integral part of their expansion plan, Beon’s efforts to help those people have been good business sense that makes a long-term impact in communities, families, and individual lives. Hughenden, Queensland, and Mildura, Victoria, are two towns hosting Beon projects. The Beon philosophy is to ensure that local communities benefit from new projects in their area. Rather than importing goods and labour that flood in and then out again, Beon seeks to collaborate with local institutions to spread project development benefits to the entire community. Their experience holds lessons for companies working in remote and semi-remote areas around the world. Sunshiny business Beon specialises in complete management and installation of large and small renewable energy and electrical infrastructure projects. From financing and design to construction and implementation, they have worked with utilities on more than A$3 billion worth of projects to deliver high-quality solutions including energy generation, transmission, substations and distribution. In the two towns in Queensland and Victoria (see map), Beon has been contracted by BayWa r.e. Solar Pte., a German renewable energy company, to deliver complete and ready-for-business solar power operations. The second collaboration between Beon and BayWa r.e. is the Karadoc Solar Farm in the Victorian town of Mildura, about 400 km east of Adelaide and 600 km north-northeast of Melbourne. But the first collaboration was outside the small town of Hughenden in the Shire of Flinders in the middle of Queensland. Hughenden, Queensland Hughenden is not the bustling Sydney that served as the backdrop for movies like The Matrix and Mission Impossible 2 , nor does it project the laid-back surfer vibe of Australia’s Gold Coast. It is a small town of just over 1,100 souls, a 16-hour drive north and inland from Brisbane. Even the next ‘big city’, the modest city of Townsville (population approximately 178,000) is a four-hour drive away. Hughenden’s main landmark is the Muttaburrasaurus – a replica of a dinosaur whose bones were discovered not far from Hughenden. Located in the Shire of Flinders, it has an abundance of sunshine and flat, relatively affordable, land with access to the Ergon Energy grid. These key factors made it an attractive place to establish the 20 MW Hughenden Solar Park. But it was the construction that made all the difference to the community of Hughenden. M Hughenden, Queensland Mildura, Victoria Brisbane Sydney Melbourne When Beon looked at the local talent and business base, they saw there were skill shortages that needed to be addressed to allow it to ramp-up for the construction of the high-tech solar farm. It had two choices. One was to pay to import all the labour, supplies and equipment to make the construction happen. Instead, it chose another direction – to commit to training local workers and to sourcing from local businesses to make the project a reality. Beon committed early to developing local staff. General Manager Glen Thomson explained that they weren’t just going to build a new solar energy farm, but also “generate regional investment and jobs” in the area. The project was going to need about 100 staff working full time. Beon set about seeing how it could make use of the local, often long-term unemployed, workforce. The Beon philosophy is to ensure that local communities benefit from new projects.