Patrons of The Post Office Hotel in Sydney Road, Coburg may not realise that the pub has a 50kW solar generation system installed above their heads and that, at times, the pub sells its renewable electricity directly into the National Electricity Market.

The Post Office Hotel is connected to South Street Energy’s Distributed Generation Network - a collection of small scale solar, wind and biogas generation systems, each individually managed by South Street Energy to allow owners to self-consume renewable electricity or to trade the electricity on the wholesale market when energy demand is high.

Labor MP for Wills Peter Khalil believes this is the future for renewable energy generation.

“This is a great example of how innovative Australian companies are working together to take action on climate change,” Mr Khalil says.

“This is how we will hasten the transition to renewable energy, by making it easier for the owners of small and family businesses to operate renewable generation systems and participate in the energy market.”

Post Office publican Danial Caneva says installing solar makes environmental and financial sense.

“We installed solar because we had the available roof space and want our business to be as sustainable as possible,” says Mr Danial Caneva, owner of The Post Office Hotel.  “But it also needs to make financial sense.” 

“So far this year we’ve sold about 20% of our solar electricity and received payments of $1,200 from South Street Energy.” 

Managing Director of South Street Energy Marco Bogaers says this is a solution that can be added to any existing generation system, to maximise the value of renewable electricity for the owner. 

“Our goal is to encourage greater take up of renewable generation systems by delivering more than electricity bill reductions,” Mr Bogaers says. 

South Street Energy won the 2022 Victorian iAward in August, in the Sustainability and Environmental Solution for the Year category, for its pioneering Distributed Generation Network. South Street Energy enables the owners of small scale solar, wind and biogas generation systems to sell renewable electricity to the wholesale electricity market.

Each of the state winners will compete for the National iAwards title to be announced at the AIIA Gala event in October.