We asked community how they felt about having a community battery in their specific local area, the benefits they wanted to see created, ideas for specific locations and visual design preferences.

This phase of engagement focussed on neighbourhoods which had been identified as having areas of high technical potential to install a battery.

We ran this part of the engagement in partnership with City of Port Phillip and City of Yarra.

Over five weeks in July and August 2023, we ran an online survey and in-person pop up activations in five CoM neighbourhoods: Carlton, East Melbourne, Kensington, North Melbourne, South Melbourne.

Altogether across City of Melbourne, Port Phillip and Yarra we ran the survey and pop ups across 16 neighbourhoods.

The map below highlights potential community battery locations.

About 550 people across all three councils

Around 180 people from City of Melbourne attended pop ups or completed the survey

25% of City of Melbourne survey respondents had solar panels at home

Less than 10% of City of Melbourne respondents had a battery

25 champions (12 from City of Melbourne). Read the Community Champions program summary here.

Average 88% of City of Melbourne respondents supported a battery in their area

People were enthusiastic about a community battery for its potential to:

• reduce emissions
• share rooftop solar
• reduce pressure on the grid
• benefit community through an affordable retail product or community fund.

Many respondents want City of Melbourne to make a prominent feature of the batteries as an innovative renewable technology project.

Most respondents highly value open green space, and would prefer batteries to be installed on underused land with low visual impact rather than in parks.

Priorities for the benefits a battery could provide included:

• a dedicated renewable electricity plan anyone can sign up to, linked to revenues from the community battery
• a community benefit fund linked to revenues from the battery.
• publicly accessible electric vehicle charging points.

Some participants asked about long term financial viability of community batteries, sustainability and recycling, and possible health or safety impacts.

We heard consistently that people have a great appetite for learning more and staying involved.

Feedback provided in this stage has helped us understand community priorities around locations, benefits and visual appearance for community batteries and will inform our investigation of future potential battery locations throughout City of Melbourne.

Council will announce a retail partner in 2023 and install the pilot network of the first three batteries on Council-owned properties in 2024:

1. Library at The Dock
2. Boyd Community Hub
3. Council House

News about activations around the sites of the first batteries will be published on the Power Melbourne news page here.