..sign off prospectus for Byron Bay-based Enova, before…4 week road-show around Northern Rivers region to try and raise $3 to $4 million. It is also launching an ad campaign based around the concept – “Meet your new energy supplier – You”. Harris – who came out of retirement to help spear-head what has till now been a labour of love – says money raised in prospectus will be used to for the start up and operating costs for the business, including hiring and setting up systems.

If $3 million is raised, then Enova will need to have 5,000 customers within three years to be viable. It hopes to begin operations by the end of the year. As those figures suggest, Enova is not about to challenge the big 3 utilities. But it does intend to tap into a growing movement towards local generation and renewables that – if replicated across the country – could have a profound impact and provide the “glue” between new technologies, the grid and the community. Harris says Enova intends to tap into deep community interest in renewable energy, and opportunities afforded by plunging cost of solar PV and onset of battery storage, and do what he says bigger companies will struggle to do – adapt to change.

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