At the BREAZE 2022 AGM on Monday 14 November, at Lake View Hotel it was welcome to old friends and new members. Our Guest Speaker was Jane Lean from Renewable Newstead (RE), a former member of the BREAZE Board, Chair of the BREAZE Public Trust, and member of the Ballarat Community Power Hub Project Control Group of 2017-2020. The BREAZE Board also welcomed two new Board members, Lydia Mzondo (second from left in the picture) and Peter Morison who was unable to attend on the night.
Jane gave a presentation on the process the RE Committee followed in establishing the Newstead Solar farm, launched last month by Minister for Energy and the Environment, Lily d'Ambrosio.
When Jane moved to Newstead in 2019 she joined the Renewable Newstead (RE) Committee, which was committed to establishing a local solar farm to off-set the town's emissions. The Renewable Solar Farm has a commercial operator, Flow Power. Jane explained much of RE's thinking behind the choice of Flow Power was their substantial backer, a Canadian Superannuation Fund, which mitigates against some of the challenges facing smaller Green Energy companies in current times. Jane covered the three mains steps in the pre-development process: Building social licence, assessing technical feasibility and ascertaining financial feasibility. You can download a pdf of Jane's presentation.
The 2022-23 Board above L-R; Dina Jones (Secretary), Lydia Mzondo (Board member), Simon Reid (Board member), Paul Tant (Treasurer), Sue Broadway (Board member), Campbell Mercer (Vice President), Mary Debrett (President) - Board members not present: Vany Gunaratnam, Sally Missing, Peter Morison, Sue Nunn and Cathy Oakes.
Members can download the Presidents Report 2022 and the BREAZE Inc 2022 Financial Statements
Mary Debrett