Anyone in the Inner West who’s been involved in climate campaigns will have met, or at least heard of, Jenny Curtis, pictured above with husband, Rafael and daughter, Hazel. Around these parts, she’s a legend for her climate work.
Fired up with concern about the impact of climate change, 15 years ago Jenny and five other mothers from Rozelle Public School set up Climate Change Balmain-Rozelle, which to this day is one of the most successful local climate groups in Australia. She went on to run State- and national climate campaigns.
She’s always bought 100% renewable energy but finally, last month, she could finally afford to do what she’s always wanted: install rooftop solar.
“We were planning on visiting Europe to visit family,” Jenny told us. “And because of Covid we couldn’t do that, so it meant that we had our airfares that we could use to pay for solar panels.
“And we’re more than a little bit excited about it. Because it’s taken us 15 years. It means that we can actually be doing something, that we’re part of the solution not the problem.”
When Jenny and her husband Rafael realised they now had the money for rooftop solar, they asked their old friends at CCBR for ideas on where to start. CCBR referred them to us, and we facilitated the project.Now their Lilyfield house is pumping 100% renewable energy into the Inner West grid from 18 Canadian Solar panels and an SMA inverter, with Solar Analytics monitoring to keep an eye on its performance.
Rafael says for him, the decision was purely environmental. “It was not about the money whatsoever,” he says. “I used to travel a lot for work. And I’m from Germany. So I used to travel a lot around Germany, and there’s solar and wind everywhere. And it was a long, long dream of Jenny’s, through her activism.
“And I’m just so happy that we have finally done it, and that I’m part of it, because everyone I know in Germany has done it. You travel through Germany on the train and it’s just solar, solar solar. You don’t see a farmhouse that doesn’t have a barn full of solar cells.”
If you’d like to find out how Inner West Community Energy can help you install solar, our next Solar Information Night is next Monday, November 23, at 7pm at the Merton Hotel, Rozelle.
It’s a free event but numbers are limited so book through Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/solar-information-night-tickets-128097885223
Gavin Gilchrist
Mob: 0407 663 125
Email: gavin.gilchrist@innerwestcommunityenergy.org.au
ABN: 34236517710