Hepburn Wind

Hepburn Wind is an energy co-operative established in 2007. It is located near the town of Daylesford, approximately 100 kilometres north west of Melbourne. The co-operative manages a 4.1MW wind farm with two wind-turbines, that generate power to service the needs of more than 2,000 homes. The co-operative is governed by a board of seven volunteer directors.

Hepburn Wind is one of 52 community energy enterprises in Australia. Its origins can be traced back to 2005 when a wind farm developer held a community meeting to establish a large-scale wind turbine power facility in the Central Highlands region. This initiative was blocked by opposition in the local community but it seeded the idea for a smaller scaled wind farm which utilised the successful Danish wind co-operative model.

Per Bernard, a local architect, formed a steering group and sought to engage a wind park development company to help create a local wind turbine farm in the area. But most developers were unwilling to engage with a small-scale project, and the community seeking to build the project lacked both money and experience. However, the project was eventually supported by Victorian based wind power developer Future Energy. Since then Future Energy has completed a further project, the Chepstowe Wind Farm near Ballarat, which commenced operations in April 2015.

Future Energy agreed to take on the majority of the early financial risk associated with the project in return for a development fee. The vision of a community-owned wind farm led to the creation of the co-operative with the assistance of the Hepburn Renewable Energy Association, now Sustainable Hepburn Association – Renewing the Earth (SHARE). The role of SHARE was to help enlist community support for the project.

SHARE quickly recruited over 200 members who invested $10 each to purchase shares in the new co-operative. This served as a catalyst within the community and membership soon began to build with more than 30 new member subscriptions each month. Today the co-operative has around 2000 members who contributed $9.8 million to the construction of the wind farm. Further support came from the Victorian state government. An application for funding secured a grant of $975,000 to help move the project to completion. State government grants have amounted to over $1.7 million and the Bendigo Bank has contributed a loan of $3.1 million.

The creation of the co-operative came about as a result of the community deciding that the co-operative business model was the most appropriate structure for the project.

Hepburn Wind has four local part-time employees and has enhanced the capacity and skills base within the local community. A Community Fund has been established to share the benefits from the wind farm with the neighbourhood, and dividends will be paid to members, although the co-operative is committed to keeping ownership in local hands and thereby retaining any economic benefits within the community. Power generated from the turbines is retailed through Powershop which is collaborating with Hepburn Wind to help develop future energy projects locally.

The extended version of this case study is presented in Australia’s Leading Co-operative and Mutual Enterprises in 2016, which is part of the CEMI Discussion Paper series.