MyTown Energy is designed to help community groups wade through the myriad of options and direct them to community energy projects most likely to suit them.

We took a list of around sixty project models, most of which have been developed in the community energy sector, and gave them scores across many different dimensions. As you go through the questionnaire, you make choices which affect the order of projects you are offered. We also filter these into three categories depending on whether you are likely to be ready to tackle this project now or later, and if it is likely to be suitable in your location.

Here are the key decisions we make based on your choices in the questionnaire:

• Your location and your choice of urban, rural or remote:

  • Your state gives us some ideas about who your electricity network provider is, so we give you a shortlist to choose from.
  • We don't recommend projects about buying and selling power for states that don't have competitive retailing.
  • We don't recommend larger renewable projects in urban environments because there probably isn't land available.
  • We ask you some extra questions about microgrids because only some rural locations will suit. Rmote sites are already microgrids and urban locations won't suit microgrids. We only recommend microgrids for communities at the end of a single line with motivations to improve their energy reliability or redirect network expenditure.

• Your ranking against 7 values: Reliability, cost, sustainability, self-sufficiency, equity, innovation and having more say in energy decisions. The most ambitious projects tend to have the greatest impact against one or more of these values so they will be ranked first.

• Then you answer a series of questions that will move projects to the 'later' or 'no-go' bucket if you are not ready to do them now:

  • Projects have been slotted into three innovation phases: early stage - means you need to be prepared to experiment with innovative technologies, adoption - means you are happy to promote proven ideas until they become mainstream and final stage - means you really want to overcome the barriers to help those who've missed out.
  • To measure your readiness and willingness to tackle ambitious projects we ask about the size, the funding, the timeframe and the effort that you think you are ready for.
  • Finally we ask about the partnerships you might consider. Some projects rely heavily on your ability to build relationships in the energy industry.

• The final section asks about the renewable resources available in your community so we don't end up recommending something impossible.