Energy Infrastructure Report

January 2016

CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION 2. OBJECTIVES 3. ENERGY PROFILE 4. ENERGY EFFICIENCY 5. RENEWABLE ENERGY Option A: Option B: Option C: 6. EDUCATION AND INNOVATION 7. CONCLUSION

1. INTRODUCTION

The Witchcliffe Ecovillage vision is to create a highly sustainable, self-sufficient community in a rural, small village setting. In order to realise this, the latest renewable energy technology will be employed to allow the Ecovillage to provide an Australian model of best practice sustainable energy provision at a subdivision level.

2. OBJECTIVES

The Witchcliffe Village Strategy Planning Policy Statement recommends the development of Cell 8 as an ecovillage with features including “sustainable energy use.” In the provisions of AMRSC LPS1 Scheme Amendment 28, the proponents defined the requirement for energy sustainability as “energy neutral” and required the inclusion of an Energy Infrastructure Outcomes and Implementation Plan that would demonstrate how the ecovillage would achieve “ a high level of self-sufficiency in energy (including on-site power generation, solar passive housing design and lot orientation).”

3. ENERGY PROFILE

Anticipated household energy requirements There is a distinct lack of data on energy usage by efficient households in Australia, particularly homes utilising batteries as a means to store energy. Josh Byrne’s house, located in Hilton, Fremantle, provides us with a good example of what we expect the daily energy usage in a family sized home at the Witchcliffe Ecovillage to look like. This three bedroom plus study home, housing two adults and two children, was designed with the assistance of Mike Hulme, director of Sustainable Settlements Pty Ltd and includes very extensive monitoring systems, with all data freely available to the public at www.joshshouse.com.au. Josh’s house uses approximately 11.15kWh per day and has many similarities to the typical Ecovillage family home, including:

· Building size · Number of occupants · Use of a rainwater pump · Efficient appliance selection

While the houses in the Witchcliffe Ecovillage will be more efficient, Josh’s house, being 250km north of the Margaret River region, receives greater solar radiation. Josh also runs a bore and an extensive irrigation system, something that the Ecovillage houses will not have, however, our energy modelling and system design assumes 12kWh/day for our family homes to be conservative (we believe that the family homes will be able to achieve closer to 8kWh/day). In addition, homes will not require any active cooling as they will be ideally oriented, with excellent cross ventilation and insulation. Due to solar passive design and insulation, active heating will only be required rarely in winter and will likely take the form of reverse cycle aircond or highly efficient wood or pellet burning stove. As heating and cooling is the largest electrical load in a typical household, efficient building design saves a significant amount of energy and money over the lifetime of

the building. Homer Energy software has been used to simulate various models, including individual residences and microgrids as a whole. Weather data Data from the Bureau of Meteorology's weather station, located on the Witchcliffe Ecovillage site, has been used in the design of the energy systems for the village. 1997 was the lowest year on record for solar radiation (therefore a 1 in 30-year event) and is the year used when modelling and simulating the operation of the proposed microgrids. Designing for the worst possible year adds robustness and reliability to the system, ensuring it will operate to the expectation of residents through even the most challenging weather conditions.

4. ENERGY EFFICIENCY

Every aspect of the Witchcliffe Ecovillage, from houses to waste water treatment, from community facilities to transportation, has been designed to achieve a high level of energy efficiency. These measures will be stipulated in the Strata By-Laws, and have been achieved by:

• Building lots are orientated to ensure optimum solar passive design is possible. Larger lots are on an east-west axis, with smaller lots on a north south axis, enabling full solar access to living rooms.

• Building envelopes have been designed to guarantee solar access into the future.

• Building design guidelines will ensure buildings utilise solar passive design as well as other energy efficiency features, exceeding the standard BCA requirements, creating comfortable homes and workplaces. The majority of energy used in the average home is for heating and cooling. By ensuring only energy efficient, solar passive buildings are constructed, an immediate impact is had on the size and capacity of the energy infrastructure. This is further increased by the use of energy efficient appliances in homes and the planned education programs for residents, teaching them efficient building management strategies and energy saving measures.

• The project being at least net neutral renewable energy supply, i.e. net energy produced by renewable means on site exceeds net non renewable energy supplied by Western Power grid.

• Food grown in the community gardens and surrounding agricultural holdings will significantly aid in reducing the community's energy footprint. A study done by CERES found that in the average Australian's weekly food shop, the sum of the distance travelled by the food was over 70,000 kilometres. This highlights the importance of buying local food or growing it yourself when living a sustainable lifestyle.

• Education will be provided for residents, ensuring they have the knowledge they need to manage their homes efficiently and live an energy conscious lifestyle. Classes on the operation of the microgrids and the distributed generation and storage equipment found in each home will empower residents to self- manage their energy and live a more conscious

lifestyle. Other learning opportunities will be available in the village to engage residents with all aspects of it's operation and get them involved in sustainability and permaculture from many different angles.

• Energy monitoring and reporting tools 5. RENEWABLE ENERGY

In recent years, the cost of solar PV has fallen rapidly; 6-8% per year according to a 2014 study by NREL (Feldman, et al, 2014). Likewise, the cost of battery storage decreased 11-fold between 1991 and 2005, shown in a study by David Anderson at Duke University and is projected to adopt a similar exponentially decreasing cost curve as PV in the near future. In addition, the cost of grid power in Australia rose over 58% between 2007 and 2012 according to a study by Lynne Chester. Costs have decreased even more rapidly over the past three years, to a point where it is now possible to achieve the level of net neutral self sufficiency required in this project. The proponent has explored several options to achieve the “energy neutral” renewable energy requirements identified for the project in LPS1 Scheme Amendment 28. Energy neutral can be defined as “net neutral,” which means that the project will produce as much energy from renewable sources, namely solar/wind, as it consumes from both renewable and non renewable sources. Whilst this would be significant in an Australian residential development of this scale, it is not difficult to achieve with a combination of Western Power’s grid and rooftop solar PV’s. Whilst this would satisfy the provisions in Scheme Amendment 28, it is a long way short of being self sufficient in renewable energy, as considerable non renewable energy is still required at peak demand periods in the early morning and evenings, and the non renewable energy supply for the Margaret River region is generated from coal power stations, producing significant CO2 emissions. The proponent hopes to go considerably further than this by making the Witchcliffe Ecovillage Australia’s first self sufficient/off grid community of this scale, with around 99% of all energy used within the homes and businesses coming from renewable energy produced on-site. Therefore it is proposed that there are three distinct energy infrastructure options available for the Ecovillage:

a) Net neutral renewable energy supply; b) Self-sufficient/microgrid supply; and c) Self-sufficient/household supply.

Option A: Net Neutral Renewable Energy Supply Western Power have confirmed that they are able to supply to meet Option A’s requirements of supply. Strata by-laws and sustainable building design guidelines will mandate the minimum rooftop PV’s required for each home to achieve net neutral supply.

Table 1. PV requirements Proposal 1: Net Neutral Renewable Energy Supply System Configurations Net Neutral Renewable Energy Supply Affordable lot Cottage lot Family lot Lifestyle Lot PV array 2kw 2 kw 2.5kw 3kw

Option B: Self Sufficient / Micro Grid Supply

To achieve Option B, each stage will require its own microgrid to share clean, renewable energy between homes and businesses, (see Figure 1, Ecovillage Self-sufficient / Microgrid Energy Plan). The microgrids would be fitted with extensive monitoring equipment, enabling data to be gathered for use in research and other projects. This level of self sufficiency in renewable energy, in a project of this scale, will set an international precedence. The proponent has applied to the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), through an EOI process, for assistance in funding to achieve a self-sufficient/microgrid model, as a National model, as such a system is still cost prohibitive, particularly in a regional development trying to achieve affordable housing objectives. ARENA have assessed the EOI and identified the proposal as a project of high merit and invited the proponent to proceed to the next stage of the funding application process. The proponent is committed to installing Option B if the application for funding assistance is successful, therefore the benefits and management of this option are detailed below. The following sets out how such an off grid renewable energy system will work.

• The ecovillage has the capacity to supply around 100% of its electrical energy through renewable sources, through solar PV, with each house having its own PV array and battery bank while also being connected to a community micro grid with additional central battery storage and backup bio-diesel generator (the backup generator is only required a few days in winter each year and, even when in use, has a significantly smaller carbon footprint than Western Power’s grid.).

• The micro grid will also supply power to light pathways and pump water in the common garden area central to each cluster.

• The common infrastructure, including microgrids, will be owned by the strata body. Maintenance, management and depreciation costs of the microgrids will be factored into the annual strata fees, and will be equal to or less than non renewable network access fees.

• The ownership of infrastructure, governance, management responsibility and asset management of all energy components external to household survey stratas, will rest with the Strata Body Corporate. The result is a

village which deals with many of society's energy infrastructure issues in a sustainable, inclusive, conscious manner.

• Regulations will require the Strata to be registered as an Energy Retailer in order for the energy generated within the microgrids to be traded amongst residents.

• As a Network Operator, a relationship will be developed with EnergySafety (Department of Commerce) to ensure third party compliance with legislation.

• As a natural monopoly, the Strata will be regulated by the Economic Regulation Authority (ERA) to ensure a fair and efficient commercial energy environment.

Table 2. Self-sufficient / Microgrid Supply System Configurations Self-sufficient / Microgrid supply Affordable lot Cottage lot Family lot Lifestyle Lot PV array 4kW 6 kW 6kW 7kW Battery bank capacity (local, available)

3.5kWh 7.1kWh 7.1kWh 7.1kWh

Battery bank capacity (central available)

3.5kWh 7.1kWh 7.1kWh 7.1kWh

Inverter size 3kVA 5kVA 5kVA 10kVA

Why Option B is a model of International significance Microgrids: A Model for the Future Whilst developing models to determine the infrastructure requirements for the energy systems of Witchcliffe Ecovillage, it was found that there is very limited information available, both locally and internationally, to aid in the accurate design of energy systems such as the microgrids proposed for the Ecovillage. Additionally, average energy usage figures predominantly feature inefficient housing design and management, an unfortunate trend in Australia today. In order to provide long-term, sustainable energy solutions for efficiently designed off-grid communities into the future, data needs to be collected and a better understanding of the following is required:

• The energy requirements of efficiently designed solar passive homes on a residence and community scale;

• The effect education programs on efficient living and building management has on energy usage patterns; and

• The operation of microgrid management systems in real-world settings The data collected from the Witchcliffe Ecovillage microgrids will answer the majority of questions encountered when designing a sustainable off-grid residential development in Australia. It will provide developers and designers

with the confidence to implement such systems and develop financial models, making this type of community more viable in the future. The proponents are committed to collecting and sharing data on energy generation and consumption, usage patterns, the effect of community wide education programs on efficient living practices, energy use in efficient, solar passive homes and the social impact of microgrids and off-grid energy supplies. This information will assist in the development of sound business models for future projects. Control and Management Many microgrid systems utilise complex communication networks. While suitable in certain scenarios, we have chosen to go with a simpler approach for our staged microgrid deployment. In doing so, we have reduced the amount of redundant functionality and therefore the cost of the systems, while still retaining excellent performance. A considerably more reliable energy supply can be expected from such a system than what is currently experienced from the Western Power grid in the Margaret River region. Use of off the shelf residential scale components will be used throughout to simplify and reduce costs for maintenance, support and parts. Monitoring Our chosen energy equipment comes standard with sophisticated internal processing. Each residence will be suitably programmed upon installation to manage itself within the microgrid. This equates to a semi-independent system for each household or building, while retaining the energy security a microgrid provides. Our hope is that this independence will promote an efficient, energy conscious lifestyle among residents. In addition to these features, smart meters will be installed, allowing energy users to be billed according to the amount of energy they use from the microgrid. These meters are programmable, meaning tariffs and other settings can be adjusted at any time to suit any condition. The main control and monitoring features of the completed microgrid are as follows:

• Individual residences will have an in-home monitoring system which will allow them to view energy generation, usage and flows as well as monitor the level of their water tanks.

• All energy flows, including generation, will be monitored and logged on a local level, with the option of uploading all data to the internet.

• All energy which flows to and from the residence will be metered. • Individual systems are able to manage energy flows on a local level,

deciding when to import or export energy based on the state-of-charge of the battery bank or the load level and duration.

Data access and storage Residents will have in-home access to their house's energy information; generation, battery bank level, energy usage and much more will be shown on a convenient display. System control will be taken care of on a local level at each of the residences as well as at the central microgrid facility in each cluster. System wide data will be made available for residents. Changes to system control settings would be restricted to those with authorised access.

Communications

• All monitoring will take place using Ethernet facilities. • The Energy equipment will update automatically over the internet. • Proprietary RF communications are used in the network.

Electric Vehicles To achieve the Self-sufficient Microgrid supply option, each home requires sufficient PV’s and battery storage to enable reliable renewable supply throughout the more overcast periods of winter. As such there is considerable over supply of renewable energy for 95% of the year.. A small portion of this additional energy supply will be used to pump water via irrigation to the community gardens and public open space, however, there will still be a surplus of around 4000kWh’s per household, per annum. This is sufficient surplus energy to provide each home with enough renewable energy to power an electric vehicle 20,000km p.a. It is anticipated that most new cars will be electric by 2030, at which point ecovillage residents will be able to power their EV’s with renewable energy.

Figure 1. Ecovillage Self-sufficient / Microgrid Energy Plan

DRAWNCHECKEDENG APPRMGR APPR

UNLESS OTHERWISE SPECIFIEDDIMENSIONS ARE IN MILLIMETERS

ANGLES ±X.X°2 PL ±X.XX 3 PL ±X.XXX

NAMELuke de Hoog

DATE15/12/15 Solid Edge

TITLE

SIZEA4

DWG NO REV

FILE NAME: Cluster schematic.dft

SCALE: WEIGHT: SHEET 1 OF 1

To other microgrid residences

DC isolator

DC isolatorAC isolator

AC circuit breaker

AC circuit breaker

AC circuit breaker

Fuse/DC circuit breakerBattery bank and BMS

Color Control GX

BMV700

Victron Energy inverter/charger

VE.Bus

VE.Direct

Current shunt

Only required if DC loads are connected

Solar array

AC Switchboard

DC isolator

DC isolatorAC isolator

AC circuit breaker

AC circuit breaker

AC circuit breaker

Fuse/DC circuit breakerBattery bank and BMS

Color Control GX

BMV700

Victron Energy inverter/charger

VE.Bus

VE.Direct

Current shunt

Only required if DC loads are connected

Solar array

AC Switchboard

Biodiesel genset

AC circuit breaker

Fuse/DC circuit breakerBattery bank and BMS

Color Control GX

BMV700

Victron Energy inverter/charger

VE.Bus

VE.Direct

Current shunt

Only required if DC loads are connected

AC Switchboard

AC circuit breaker

To other microgrid residences

Ecovillage Off-gridEnergy Plan

(Option B)Household energy system Household energy system

Cluster central storage and genset

Option C: Self Sufficient / Household Supply

A self sufficient, off grid subdivision can be achieved for considerably less outlay than the micro-grid option by making each home self sufficient in renewable energy supply from its own PV & Battery storage system, avoiding the costs of the grid and all metering and energy communications systems that would be deployed under Option B. Each home would require an appropriately sized PV array, inverters and battery storage. The proponents have fully costed this option and have found significant savings from bulk buying and importing the components. This option would also be a world first for a project of this scale and will be further considered should the applications to ARENA for assistance with Option B not be successful.

Table 3. System Configurations Self-sufficient / Household Supply Affordable lot Cottage lot Family lot Lifestyle Lot PV array 4kw 6 kw 6kw 7kw Battery bank capacity (local, available)

7kwh 14.3kwh 14.3kwh 14.3kwh

Inverter size 5kVA 8kVA 8kVA 10kVA

6. Education and Innovation

The Witchcliffe Ecovillage will provide the perfect model with which to demonstrate what a wholly sustainable and environmentally conscious future in Australia looks like. It will utilise many technologies important to Australia’s future, with strong national and international energy industry interest growing in the project. Micro grids, electrical energy storage, system control, management and monitoring combine with solar PV to demonstrate the feasible nature of a clean, renewable energy future. The education provided to residents of Witchcliffe Ecovillage on the subject of living a sustainable, energy conscious lifestyle will provide an example of the importance of public awareness when it comes to these topics. The monitoring of the implementation of this knowledge will be a valuable resource for furthering the design of micro energy systems as well as improving education plans for the future. The Witchcliffe Ecovillage has the potential to provide social energy information on a level previously unavailable in Australia. Social dynamics are one of the key considerations when designing communities and the unique nature of the Ecovillage will yield important details when it comes to designing sustainable, highly efficient, people focused, urban environments that are self sufficient in renewable energy.

The proponent will share knowledge through: • providing comprehensive details to government and industry about the

technology and design features utilised and the challenges faced; • preparing an impact study focussing on community education and

stakeholder management during the deployment of each stage; • monitoring the performance of the energy systems, including the

engagement of residents; and • analysing the effectiveness of the energy efficient design and

development of the whole village to demonstrate what can be achieved when such consideration is put into a residential community of this scale.

7. Conclusion

Witchcliffe Ecovillage energy systems have the potential to set the standard for the future, not only in terms of clean energy but also when it comes to steady, predictable energy costs. The knowledge gained through the Witchcliffe project will be invaluable in securing energy efficiency in future residential developments internationally. The proponent will confirm which of the above options will be implemented at subdivision application, to enable WAPC to set the appropriate subdivision conditions.

References: D. L. Anderson. (2009). “An Evaluation of Current and Future Costs for Lithium-ion

Batteries for use in Electrified Vehicle Powertrains,” Duke University, Durham.

D. Feldman, G. Barbose, R. Margolis, T. James, S. Weaver, N. Darghouth, R. Fu, C.

Davidson, S. Booth and R. Wiser. (2014). “Photovoltaic System Pricing Trends.” [Online]. Available: http://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy14osti/62558.pdf. [Accessed 20 12 2015].