A group in Beechworth wants to find out if a single battery, or linked series of smaller batteries, would be capable of powering the entire town with renewable energy.
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Totally Renewable Beechworth has launched its strategic plan with details of the "Power-ful Beechworth" project, with an end goal of helping the town become 100 per cent reliable on renewable energy by 2030.
It is asking for $150,000 in government funding to conduct a feasibility study and find out what batteries or other infrastructure would be the best way to proceed.
At a Zoom meeting this week, TRB's Sue Gold said the goal was "to demonstrate that clean energy technologies work".
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"We want communities and regions to be able to generate, store and distribute their own power," she said.
"It seems a bit of a waste to have energy being generated, typically during the day, and then people come home from work - in non-COVID time at the end of the day - and the power's been fed into the grid.
"They then have to draw from the grid at night."
We want communities and regions to be able to generate, store and distribute their own power.
- Sue Gold, Totally Renewable Beechworth
There are currently 30 per cent of Beechworth households that have solar panels, but Ms Gold said Totally Renewable Beechworth wanted to introduce a system where even those who cannot afford to buy solar panels themselves can benefit from renewable energy.
She said another benefit would be the ability to disconnect Beechworth from the main energy grid if needed, even just for a couple of days in the case of an emergency.
"That would be an extraordinary safety mechanism for your town," she said.
"The most recent opportunity for us to have done that, had we had the technology, was during the bushfires.
"When the bushfires came through Buckland Gap, our source of power was cut - we had an emergency response team that had to relocate at the time of those fires because they had no power to operate."
The project has the support of AusNet and Indigo Power, but may not be possible at the moment under the Victorian government energy laws.
Indi MP Helen Haines gave her support to TRB at this week's meeting, saying the plan was "an absolute ripper".
"I am just so convinced that the renewable energy boom is something that rural and regional Australian absolutely must benefit from," she said.
"I think the timing could never be better - we're in the worst economic recession that we've had since the great depression.
"We need new, bold, great ideas."
