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Comment by paul bruce on December 10, 2010 at 18:31

Waitati Energy Project meeting
Blueskin Bay and Waitati plans to become the first community in New Zealand to own their own power company, build a community-owned wind-turbine cluster, and sell electricity back to the grid. Scott Willis, Project Manager Waitati Energy Project (Blueskin Power, Dunedin) will be giving a talk next Monday in Wellington and linking up with a similar Wellington based group.

A feasibility study produced by Blueskin Resilient Communities Trust with the support of Hikurangi Foundation and EECA, says that New Zealand has the potential to break with centralised think-big generation projects and build a resilient decentralised national grid while providing householders with the keys to moderate their own energy consumptions patterns. Scott Willis with describe the work to date initiated by a community trust (BRCT) in the semi-rural South Island community of Blueskin Bay. Their mission statement includes the desire to “…to seek partnerships with other groups.. and communities who share the key theme of our vision”.

A Wellington based cooperative project was also considered last November with an attendance of 27 people. The Wellington Community Wind Farm Group is now distributing a draft mission statement with a meeting planned for early February.

Meeting :

Monday 13th December 11.45am to 12.30pm
Greater Wellington Regional Council 142 Wakefield St
Ground floor meeting room One.

For more information:

Scott Willis  027 4888314  waitatienergy@gmail.com
Conor Coady  021 0748237
Cr Paul Bruce 021 02719370  Paul.Bruce@gw.govt.nz

Links:

Waitati Energy Project http://www.transitionnetwork.org/projects/waitati-energy-project
Waitati Energy Feasibility study http://www.eeca.govt.nz/node/10898
Other distributed feasibility studies http://www.eeca.govt.nz/distributed-generation-fund
Wellington Community Wind Farm facebook page http://on.fb.me/ePFBE1

Comment by Nick Potter on May 3, 2009 at 17:09

From the Pathways to Resilient Communities website...

The past few years have seen significant global paradigm shifts. We are at risk from increasingly likely external shocks. If resilient actions are explored and put into effect now with the knowledge we have, there is a significantly reduced chance of problematic, or chaotic, situations arising in the future. We are already seeing global economic crises, soaring food prices, erratic weather patterns, and rise in ocean levels and temperatures.

Pathways to Resilient Communities aimed to collectively assess our state of preparedness and develop ideas to improve our position. Possible responses were brought forth and explored, giving our region an opportunity to actively engage and identify the community’s most important vulnerabilities.

Participants had a chance at the end of the day to identify some areas they would be keen to work on collectively. These were:
1. Reducing the gap between rich and poor
2. Shamanic approaches
3. What are the key things for resiliency?
4. Cycling safety
5. Migrant populations - inclusion and issues
6. Common ground for suburbs
7. Role of technology in resilience
8. Local Currencies
9. Digging for ground zero
10. Forestry on urban streets
11. Balanced urban transport planning
12. Effective public participation processes
13. Water and waterways - shared responsibility with Maori community
14. Community connectedness - how and why?
15. Co-housing networks - communal living
16. Good living centre in Lower Hutt
17. Role of creativity, innovators, poets, dreamers
18. Biocapacity - capacity to support people