It is an absurdity that must have other developed nations totally bemused.

Recent stories in the news have included the revelation of a European project where a vast investment in wind technology promises to easily meet future energy demands on the continent.

Just this week, as some quarters have despaired at China's gluttony for coal, there was the report outlining the quickly growing consensus that "green" energy sources promise to be a far cheaper alternative.

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But then that's the apparent quandary; there's too few in Australia with too much influence who are getting too much of a bang for their buck from digging the black stuff out of the ground.

And so once again, the community has been forced - albeit with bucket-loads of verve and ingenuity - to go it alone. A stand-out example is Indigo Shire.

The council itself has long been an innovator and promoter of those with a far-sighted approach, with Indigo Power the most recent example.

The company's community energy hub, for all its green credentials, relies on the old-fashioned capitalist bent of supply and demand.

Put simply, the company will give Yackandandah residents - a whopping 55 per cent of them already use solar - the opportunity to either buy solar energy or sell their excess energy.

But the scheme is not restricted to those who have already invested in some panels on their roof, as those who haven't can buy renewable energy generated elsewhere.

What is especially impressive about the scheme is it won't be restricted to these solar leaders from Yackandandah, as the aim is to have 31 community energy hubs across the North East from 2020.

Indigo mayor Jenny O'Connor quite rightly paints this as a national and international model "for communities to get together - particularly with the lack of leadership we've seen, to get up and say 'we're going to do this without you'."