Chiltern off-grid festival hits back at Sky News’ latest slap down of renewable tech

A solar array with a thrumming diesel generator underneath is catnip to the likes of the Murdoch Media’s Sky After Dark, and it’s a visual cue that turned the Chiltern Off-Grid Living festival into the latest victim of the conservative quest to slap down renewables. 

But the real story – the one uncovered by a quick chat with festival founder Kate Nottingham – shows that it’s more a lesson in how much of a mindset change is needed to go off-grid.

Last week, the Chiltern off-grid festival blew up on social media, then on Sky, after conservative pundit Topher Field took a video of a solar array set up to support a section of food vendors – and the puffing diesel generator underneath. 

Conservative media gleefully took the bait, selling a story of solar failing to do the job and fossil fuels stepping in to save the day.

The real story is of an off-grid system working perfectly to handle unexpected energy draws.

The solar array, which Nottingham says was about 17 kW, and battery backup was set up to power food vendors over the two day festival over April 6-7.

“We’d pre-organised who would be plugging into that, we’d figured out who was using what, how much was required, and then at the last minute one of the vendors decided to plug in an entire refrigerator truck without asking,” Nottingham told RenewEconomy. 

“That took the system above capacity, and when combined with a cloudy day it drained the battery and then obviously the diesel generator kicked in.”

The following day, the sun was out and, importantly, the refrigerator truck was no longer plugged in, and the solar and battery system worked as planned. 

It takes a change in mindset to go off-grid

Nottingham says the episode shows just how much more education is needed to teach people that going off-grid means losing a plug-in-and-forget mindset.

“People who are interested in off-grid power need to know that you must keep tabs on how much power you’re using. I have an off-grid system at home and I’m regularly checking how much I have left to use in a day,” she says 

“Once we get to 5-6pm in the evening I have to make a decision whether to leave [my second-hand Nissan Leaf] plugged in or pull it out.

“There’s a little bit more work to do when living off-grid.”

A spokesperson for the company that supplied the solar hub, Commodore Australia, said generator backup with limited run time each year is necessary for an economical sweet spot for solar-first power systems.

“Festivals with extremely high short-term usage with minimal space for solar are a challenge, particularly with unforeseen additional loads/appliances,” he said in a statement.

“However, the Off-Grid Living Festival still remains as one of Australia’s most sustainable festivals, whereby the generator in Commodore’s Power Skid only ran for less than 20 per cent of the operation Sunday.”

Going bio next year

The Chiltern festival, located in central Victoria and not “across the river” from Deniliquin, NSW, as Chris Kenny on Sky suggested last week, runs predominantly off solar, which this year powered seven talks stages and a music stage. Most exhibitors use small solar and battery systems. 

In previous years the food vendors, who weren’t necessarily off-grid specialists, were supplied with power from a diesel generator, a common off-grid backup system, but this year were moved to the solar power hub.

Next year’s festival will still have a generator backing up the food vendor solar power supply, but this time they’ve secured a biodiesel version. 

And to prevent accidental plug-ins, Nottingham says they’ll also be talking more with exhibitors about what can be plugged in and where.