When does the Alice Springs Future Grid project finish and what will...

The project was designed to run over two years. It was officially launched on August 14, 2020, through coordinated press releases from Federal Energy Minister Angus Taylor and ARENA. Initial activities were heavily concerned with the negotiation of various contracts and agreement upon scopes of work. Project activities got underway towards the latter part of 2020, beginning with a whole-of-community survey which provided a baseline view of knowledge, attitudes and behaviours amongst the residents of Alice Springs regarding renewable energy. Future Grid is currently on track to wrap up in late-2022. The survey process will be repeated towards the end of the project, to assess the extent to which the renewable energy landscape has changed in Alice Springs.

One of the project’s major outputs will be the Roadmap to 2030 report, which its expected will be considered by the Northern Territory Government for development of policy and implementation of recommendations to reach the 50 per cent by 2030 renewable energy target. Future Grid will have many other legacies; notably relationships between industry players and other experts which otherwise wouldn’t have existed. It is also intended that the website will remain in place as a one-stop-shop through which to access broad renewable energy knowledge relating to Central Australia.