Chris Baker
The first tender shoots of the idea for this company started when I was living in a sustainable community. The community needed energy storage and I started looking at how that might be done. First I envisaged a micro pumped hydro station. However, the more I explored these ideas the bigger things became and the possibilities of what could be achieved increased. It soon became clear that I needed a company with like-minded individuals to carry this forward, and so Sunshine Hydro was born.
Soon after we started Sunshine Hydro, we were clear on the mission: to be able to provide green energy 24/7. We knew that what our society needed to replace coal-fired power stations was a way to produce green electricity at the time when it is required, and with the reliability of a coal power station.
At first, we didn’t see how we could do that. It seemed an insurmountable task. However that didn’t stop us — we figured we just hadn’t worked hard enough at the problem to find the solution.
“I have not failed 700 times. I have succeeded in proving that those 700 ways will not work. When I have eliminated the ways that will not work, I will find the way that will work.” Thomas Edison.
So, we did persist and indeed found that when we untangled the patterns of wind and solar and worked with it, not against it, there was a way to make it work.
We found we could make the delivery of clean green electricity even more reliable by adding a flexible load into the mix. Production of hydrogen and other green fuels allows a larger group of wind farms and solar farms to be brought into the picture.
And, we had to make software that would help us in this task — it had to consider weather, forecasts and historical patterns of weather, energy storage, wholesale pricing and a whole lot more.
So now we have the solution to make renewable energy reliable.
We are developing projects in Qld and in NSW to implement this technology. The most advanced is in Queensland where we have partnered with the traditional owners — the project was named by them as Djandori Gung-i meaning “Spirit in the Water”. It’s right next to Gladstone and we are proceeding through the planning process for this project.
We wouldn’t have arrived at this place without the amazing support of investors who have contributed to our operations so far. Last year we wanted to open the opportunity for the wider communities to join us on this journey. We had an overwhelmingly positive response and the crowdfunding got oversubscribed mid-way through our campaign.
The new year is a time to reflect on the past and to look forward. While the news on climate science is ever more worrying, we are ever more committed to making a change as fast as we can. We are working through some opportunities that will accelerate our impact and will be able to share more about them over the coming months.
If you believe in what we are doing and want to hear more about our plans or the future opportunities to invest, sign up for our newsletter and we will keep you posted.
Together we can keep the lights on with 100% green energy every hour of the day, everywhere.
