Creating a Community Positive Precinct & disrupting the energy market
Incorp, the WELL Institute, a renewable energy engineering company and the t3 Initiative are collaborating to create a cleaner energy future.
Incorp is leading the development of a Community Positive Precinct with private investors by combining the WELL1 Communities tool, the t3 Initiative2 strategy of diverting current expense lines and district cooling infrastructure. In the first CPP instance, by utilising district cooling systems and renewable energy purchased through Urban Solar Farms, the precinct will be carbon neutral.
The collective goal is to create healthy community precincts that have economic, environmental and social benefits for all involved. In the first detailed site review, the following outcomes are possible:
For the building owner/developer:
– Lower cap rate for the Precinct, ensuring a very positive financial position, even with a mix of new and existing buildings.
– New model for power purchase financial agreements from decentralised renewable energy located on industrial buildings.
– Lowering the cost of energy for the precinct and becoming carbon neutral.
For building tenants:
– Lowers costs and improved health and well-being.
For the community:
– Lowered pressure on power prices.
– Creation of local jobs in advanced manufacturing.
– Assistance in creating valuable community space in a CBD.
Planet Ark Power (PAP) is a key partner in delivering this initiative. PAP is a renewable energy engineering company focused on providing a total solution to save businesses on electricity costs and help power a cleaner energy future. To this end they have developed dStatcom, a significant breakthrough in the power engineering world.
How dStatcom is a game changer
dStatcom will disrupt the energy market by allowing you to control the volts/VAR that feed into the grid. This means you will be able to have as much localised power generation as possible, in contrast to the 25% restriction that currently exists. All of a sudden, you can have a decentralised energy model for a network, creating opportunities for innovation.
Click here for more information about dStatcom vs the standard statcom.
The Uber of power networks is coming
This creates a new long-term income stream and, as it is ‘behind the meter’, lowers pressure on electricity grid prices. With the ability to push power into the grid at any level locally, it will only be a matter of time before solar panels, or other future energy generation options, will be found on all roof spaces. This will create the opportunity for local trading and peer to peer – possibly making the old energy model redundant.
This means when we create the t3 financial model for putting energy on a commercial building, we can allow for income from feeding power into the grid. Sites with battery storage can also act as on-call generators, playing the energy market, creating additional income with the option to act as a component of grid base load.
t3 plan for renewable energy generation
Working with one real estate investment trust we have modelled their industrial portfolio for solar under the t3 structure. We estimate that their tenants will have from 30% to 100% of their power provided at 50% of current electricity prices. After approx. 5 years this will mean, across a portfolio of circa 1million sqm, it is possible for 66MW of solar installed across 100 industrial sites. This will be cost neutral over five years, and then generate $1M per annum from year 6 onwards (very high level at the moment).
Expanding this to the wider community (all commercial properties), Incorp believes that the t3 Initiative will lower the cost of power and help building owners and tenants transition to a renewable energy network, and help smash the clean energy targets set by governments. Achieving our purpose to create a better world for our partners, the community and planet.
To discuss t3 and Community Positive Precincts further:
1 About WELL
The International WELL Building Institute fosters a holistic formula for better health and wellness outcomes in buildings and communities globally. This in turns leads to improvements in things like employee productivity, engagement and retention.
Click here for more information on the International WELL Building Institute Precinct tool
2 About t3 Initiative
The t3 Initiative, developed by Incorp and sustainability agency CitySmart, is a strategic way of diverting current expense lines to optimise a building for both productivity and environmental performance. This gives both building owners and their business tenants an incentive to upgrade premises during an existing lease period.