Disrupting the power industry status quo

PRESS RELEASE

14 November 2018: In the face of continuing government failure to act on climate change, a social enterprise is paving the way for communities across Australia to go it alone in terms of electricity supply.

Set up to disrupt the energy market and do it differently, Enova Community Energy is already facilitating communities to take control of their own energy solutions – building a decentralised energy system where households and businesses can produce and share their own renewable energy and lower costs.

As a retailer, Enova is the piece of the energy industry puzzle that allows the sharing and trading of electricity to take place, provides the systems, and covers off the risks.

With Australia dominated by three big retailers, Enova regularly lobbies the government to help ensure survival of smaller retailers. It has also consistently offered one of the best feed-in tariffs for solar, which forced some of the big energy companies to improve their offers.

“Given wholesale prices controlled in the market by Origin, Energy Australia and AGL have doubled over the past two years, and yet production costs have not, the government needs to understand that if they want to keep small retailers in the market to retain competition, they need to act,” explains Enova Chair Alison Crook. “They could do that by either providing all small retailers with access to a slice of one of the purchase contracts they set up to purchase power for government, or they could simply stand behind us as a guarantor to say they would buy any power we had contracted for into the future.”

Over the past two years Enova (which is a social enterprise) has been proving its model works in the Northern Rivers in NSW and now it has big plans to expand its community-based renewable power solutions across all of NSW and into Victoria, South Australia and Queensland.

Enova is Australia’s first community-owned renewable energy company and was established by hundreds of Australian shareholders who believe in Enova’s goal of helping local communities take back their own power, while quickly helping them reduce the impact of fossil fuels on climate change.

A current shareholder offer has attracted more than 412 new individual investors who have committed $748,149 in funds. Enova is hoping to attract even more shareholders in the next few days before the crowd-sourced funding offer ends this Saturday 17 November. This capital boost will allow Enova to embark on its expansion plans.

“Communities right around Australia are demanding an alternate to the current fossil fuel dependent energy industry. Enova’s community-owned energy model and our commitment to communities generating, storing and sharing their own renewable energy while keeping the revenue local strikes a chord,” said Ms Crook.

“Add to that the fact that we are a social enterprise and half of our net proceeds go back into community renewable energy projects, education and energy efficiency services, and the fact we’re developing innovative projects like microgrids and solar gardens which allow renters and those who traditionally are unable to benefit from solar and it’s clear why Enova is of such interest.”

“Enova’s community-owned energy solutions such as our recently announced partnership with Border Trust in Albury-Wodonga to create Border Community Energy means money stays circulating in local economies to benefit people, jobs and businesses,” Ms Crook said.

To learn more about Enova go to www.enovaenergy.com.au or to become a shareholder go to www.crowd88.com/en/company/enova-energy/overview/ In deciding whether to apply for shares always consider the Crowd-Sourced Funding Offer Document: https://www.crowd88.com/en/company/enova-energy/overview/ including the general risk warning.

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