In April 2011 Rhodes Watson and Martin Carlin were awarded a SEEDS fellowship with the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) to develop a community based community bulk buy solar power group called Watt Else.
Watt Else are facilitating a community meeting in Gladstone to give you a chance to learn about solar and ask questions.
The latest bulk buy pricing will also be announced if you are interested in getting solar before the STCs/RECs reduce in June this year.
Time: Wed 8th Feb 2012 @ 7pm - 8.30pm
Location: Rex Metcalfe Theatre, CQ University (Gladstone Campus)
Watt Else is about connecting with the community and buying solar power systems in bulk and thus saving the community a lot of money.
Watt Else is different to retail solar companies because we don’t sell Solar systems.
We educate the public. We help the householder reduce their power consumption and then show them a solar system that will cover their power use.
All solar suppliers say they have the best systems.
We don’t claim this… We put out tenders to industry and have the technology assessed based on warranties, cost, efficiency and the credentials of the manufacters.
We will compromise on price with our suppliers but never on quality.
This means we are not just going by the salesman spin. We are getting the best system available with all warranties and guarantees.
How did this come around?
The idea originally came from Yeppoon resident Rhodes Watson in 2009.
The reason it was started it was because Rhodes couldn’t afford solar power.
Rhodes read an article in a magazine called “Renew” which is published by the Alternative Technology Association based in Melbourne.
The article was about a small bulk buy group in Brisbane and it spoke of great savings.
The idea was to start a bulk buy group mentioned to a few friends and before he knew it Rhodes was holding a meeting with 30 people at the CWA hall in Yeppoon. The group grew to 120 interested members and installed 48 systems are greatly reduced prices.
“In 2009 a 2kw system installed was about $14,000 we did it for $3750 installed” Mr Watson said.
The group as a whole spent $800,000 and saved at least $2,000,000.
Rhodes was asked again to run a group in 2011.
At the first meeting more than 100 people interested people attended and filled the hall past its capacity.
A story was then run in the Spectator News Magazine, ABC radio and the Morning Bulletin and held another meeting this time we had 450 people at the Yeppoon Primary School Hall.
Group 2 is currently installing almost 300 systems this year and reduced the price for the 2kw system down to $2750.
The benefits of Bulk Buy Solar are:
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Saving money
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Helping to save the environment
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Using local suppliers and installers
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Making our region greener
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Reducing the Carbon footprint
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Creating a community of people on green issues
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Education on sustainable living.
Community Bulk Buy has saved the community more than $3 million dollars and at the same time created great awareness here in Central Queensland for Solar power.
One of the best parts of Bulk Buy Solar has been able to use local suppliers and local installers…. So we have kept all the money in our local area.
