Yes, born into what was an effectively dark world, my grandmother witnessed and experienced remarkable technological and practical advances, probably the most enlightening being the development and consolidation of electric power.
Shifting from a life of relative darkness to a light-filled world was not a simple task or journey — it was complex, full of twists and turns, failures, and deadly and blatant mistakes.
Just a few years ago, a university professor explained to a day-long seminar in Melbourne how engineers and others had taken nearly a century to perfect the electric energy system Australia had relied on for decades.
And here we are now on the cusp of a totally new energy system, this time powered by renewables, and its critics frequently point to the confusion, missteps, mistakes and its demonstrable shortcomings to declare the idea wrong and a failure.
They argue we should stick with what exists even through science has explained repeatedly that the fossil fuel-powered energy we presently rely on is taking us into an existential crisis from which there is no escape.
Those critics seem unable to acknowledge or recognise the historic difficulties and challenges we faced in achieving what we have and subsequently can’t see, and won’t admit, that migration to something new is an equally complex task, demanding patience and tenacity.
However, the migration from fossil fuel-powered electric power to energy derived from renewable sources has begun; it’s under way and with it comes the wellbeing of everyone from your neighbour to the broader human community.
Just last week, a VicGrid roadshow arrived in Shepparton, explaining in detail how renewable energy would be rolled out across Victoria.
Unlike what exists — a fossil fuel-powered system that was something of a patchwork process expanded in response to demand, wherever it was — VicGrid has a plan with an established start point, understood steps and an endpoint.
What appeared to be missing, however, was advice to local people on how to live in a more energy-effective manner, acknowledging that the cheapest and most efficient energy is that which never gets used.
Although staff at the VicGrid event knew every detail about what was to happen at a statewide level, giving advice at the household level was a step beyond their remit.
Conscious of that, it seems the Goulburn Valley needs what might be described as a “local energy hub”, and, interestingly, we already have one — GV Community Energy, which began in 2008 at Murchison, growing from a volunteer organisation to a not-for-profit company managed by a volunteer board.
GV Community Energy has the knowledge and experience, and if resourced by the Victorian Government could easily step into the void, the need, for a Goulburn Valley local energy hub.
My ‘Ma’ watched as a man walked on the moon, and I’d like to watch as the remarkably far-sighted group behind GV Community Energy was recognised and acknowledged to become, officially, the Goulburn Valley’s local energy hub.
Robert McLean is a former editor of The News.
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