Byron Shire Council will investigate whether solar-fuelled batteries can be installed on its community facilities to ultimately provide energy back to the grid as well as electricity in an emergency.

The project is being driven by Council’s Community Battery Working Group.

Alicia Lloyd, Team Leader Sustainability, said the working group has spent five months looking at community batteries and operating models before concluding that the best option for collaboration with the Byron Shire community would be the installation of batteries on some of its buildings.

“Putting batteries on Council-owned community facilities where there are existing solar panels or solar potential would see energy able to be fed back into the grid at night, and this would provide a financial benefit,” Dr Lloyd said.

“Because the batteries store energy, they would also be very useful during emergencies, providing another level of resilience if the power is out for long periods of time,” she said.

Staff will now work with a renewable energy consultant to do a feasibility study, which will determine which Council facilities could support energy storage batteries, the benefits for the community, and cost estimates to get the technology installed.

This will be overseen by the Community Battery Working Group, which will report back to Council on the findings of the feasibility study.

“This is exciting technology and many councils around Australia are investing in projects like this which benefit Council, the community and provide a good environmental outcome as well,” Dr Lloyd said.