We are not insurance experts, but we do understand we can insure an asset that we own against accidental loss. In return, the insurance company will expect us to take reasonable care, and do what we can to protect it. Residents living in the vicinity of Melbourne, Australia recently tried to get community battery insurance, but came off second best.
They Beat the Challenges Except for Community Battery Insurance
It took the folk living in Fairfield, north-east of Melbourne, seven long years to get to the point where they needed insurance. “We thought this would be very expensive for us to obtain. But we did not anticipate that we would not be able to get coverage at all,” the project leader explains.
The community compares their experience to playing a game of Snakes and Ladders, according to One Step Off the Grid. Simply obtaining funding from Victorian Government’s Neighborhood Battery Initiative for their 500 kWh battery took the Village Power team several years.
The Village Power community battery project plan envisaged a subscription model, whereby excess solar energy sold back to the utility grid. Although participating subscribers could also purchase the energy if they desired. Eventually, the project was in a position to agree a lease with the local council, and sign up with their chosen distributor.
And Then the Local Council Insisted on Insurance
“Insurance is an essential safeguard, and it’s also a requirement of our lease with council,” the project leader told One Step Off the Grid. “So no insurance, no lease, no land, no project.” With nothing forthcoming from more than twenty insurance applications, he went cap-in-hand to the local council.
But alas, their officials’ hands were tied too. They only had authority to insure their council’s own assets. The remaining Village Power option appears to be to relinquish ownership of the battery to a third party. Who would have thought that community battery insurance could be such a challenge?
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