Like many of the Indigenous (土著的) communities across the Australian continent, he remote communities in north-west New South W ales are struggling. Many of the 300 or 50 residents rely on welfare. Higher electricity bills—up to $3,000 a quarter for some households—further worsen the poverty. They' re always at the end of the power line, so the service that is there is quite extraordinary in terms of cost. It' s a real problem that needs to be fixed.
To that end, Anderson and other Indigenous leaders have formed the First Nations Renewable Energy Alliance (FREA) to push for renewable energy in Indigenous communities. They partner with private enterprise to support Indigenous communities looking to switch to renewable energy.
" We can build a power station where the community exists," Anderson says, " so people are able to successfully live in the environment the way they want to live and have access to power which enables them to better determine their economic future. "
Only a handful of Indigenous communities have set up renewable energy projects in Australia. The Indigenous -owned and -operated company AllGrid Energy, for instance, has installed solar panels and battery storage systems to replace diesel (柴 油) generators n the communities of Ngurrara and Kurnturlpara in the Northern Territory' s Barkly Tableland. Within two months of the system being installed in May 2016, people were moving back to their homelands, the communities growing from just two permanent residents to about 40.
But FREA will go one step further, working with community leaders and acting as a conduit (纽带) between the communities and the businesses they are dealing with. This is essential, says Anderson, to avoid predatory (吞并) practices they have seen in the past, with companies " playing on the psychology of poverty" to gain advantage. The FREA has drafted terms of agreements that will guide how companies engage with Indigenous communities for renewable energy projects.
One of the next steps for FREA will be to identify a community that can act as a test case for a renewables project. " Our experience is that if we can make it work for one community, it will work in every other community," Anderson says.
