Victoria Bitter and Clemenger BBDO Melbourne have launched the VB Solar Exchange – a new program that enables beer lovers to trade their excess solar energy for slabs of Victoria Bitter.

There are now more than 2.6 million households and small businesses with solar PV on their roofs, and the forecasts are that by 2030, some 6 million households – 50 per cent of us – will be using a distributed energy resource such as solar PV, batteries or electric cars to power our lives.

Australia, the world’s biggest exporter of coal, will soon export solar power to its Asian neighbors if a massive solar farm backed by billionaires goes ahead.

Australia could wipe out 80% of its greenhouse gas emissions – all of those from fossil fuel energy – in two decades by doubling the pace at which solar and wind power is being rolled out, academic analysis suggests.

This annual 1.8 GWh of green power came out of a long-nurtured passion project, and can now provide a successful template for other community groups to think big in their renewable energy aspirations.