By AIDAN KNIGHT
YALLAMBEE Traralgon aged care village last week became one of Gippsland’s unlikely hubs for electric vehicle charging, powered by rooftop solar.
The 30KW “destination charger”, kindly installed by RACV, is part of a wider regional network being developed by the Gippsland Climate Change Network (GCCN), funded by AGL.
Speaking at the launch, GCCN chief executive Darren McCubbin said that in the 50 days the charger had been operational (in trial), it had already attracted usage from across the state.
“It’s been used 33 times It’s had 21 hours of charging time already. It’s had CO2 abatement of 286 kilograms of CO2 have been avoided because they’ve plugged it into here rather than fill up with [petrol].”
Drivers have plugged in at Yallambee from Chadstone, Heidelberg, Bendigo, Canberra, Footscray, Dromana, Wollongong and Lakes Entrance, reflecting growing EV traffic through the Latrobe Valley.
Mr McCubbin said he was not aware of another aged care facility in Gippsland with a similar set-up, calling the site “quite unique” in the region.
A number of years ago, a solar partnership was forged with GCCN and Yallambee, establishing the panels featured on the roof of the home’s Margery Cole building, now powering the charger building upon the same project. GCCN manages the infrastructure via a Chargefox interface, the leading Australian EV software platform.
Backed by $100,000 in AGL project funding since 2023, GCCN has rolled out eight chargers across Gippsland, from Lardner in the west to Tubbut in far East Gippsland.
“As people are considering … more electric vehicles, regional chargers are a vital component,” GCCN secretary Carolyn Crossley said
“There’s a fair bit of range anxiety, which actually means, am I going to be able to fill up my battery along the way to get to my destination and home again?”
She said the first seven or eight sites had already hosted around 2000 charging sessions, resulting in 14.3 tonnes of CO2 emissions abatement
Because GCCN is a charity, Ms Crossley said any profits from the network are reinvested into expanding charging infrastructure in “out-of-the-way places” that private industry would be unlikely to service.
AGL’s senior manager of stakeholder engagement Jane Leslie said the company had been a part of the Latrobe Valley community for more than 40 years, and was looking for ways to support the region’s cleaner energy transition.
“We’re really invested in giving back to the communities where we operate, and so projects like this are just one example in which we can support that energy transition,” she said.
