Developing energy literacies for meaningful community engagement

The Donald and Tarnagulla Microgrid Feasibility Study, led by the Centre for New Energy Technology (C4NET) is a large-scale, three-year study to assess the technical, cultural, and social, elements of introducing microgrids as an alternative energy solution. The feasibility study was conducted in the rural and regional communities of Donald and Tarnagulla in Victoria, Australia. While technological advancements and reductions in cost have made microgrids more commercially viable than they once were, a feasibility study was needed to better understand the community needs (e.g., reliability, cost, self-sufficiency) to determine the suitability of these two towns. This report contains four sections, beginning with learnings from talking to microgrid and community engagement experts in roundtable sessions, followed by illustrative quotes provided by members of the two communities that volunteered to be interviewed for this study. Both sections are analysed qualitatively, and emerging themes from each are presented. The authors also present three case studies of community engagement in practice; that is, the kinds of interventions that were trialled to incorporate a creative process to both boosting digital literacy in the community (a need highlighted from the expert roundtables in Part 1) and increasing engagement with the community on the topic of microgrids. In the final section, the authors share ten tips for meaningfully engaging with communities around emerging energy solutions, based on their experiences in conducting and delivering the research and practice in Parts 1-3.