Look around Bendigo and see how many solar panels are on people’s rooftops.

People are already preparing for electricity price rises by making their homes more energy efficient and less reliant on coal-powered electricity.

Yesterday a forum put on by the Bendigo Sustainability Group invited people to discuss how this city of almost 100,000 could be powered by clean energy.

There were lots of ideas and overseas examples presented.

The big one, though, is reducing how much energy we use from day to day, to make the switch easier to whatever system takes its place.

In Newstead, they have gone an incredible way to making that happen.

House by house, the township of 450 is undergoing energy assessments, retrofitting and replacing older energy with cleaner renewable sources, like solar hot water and panels.

They aim to be the first Australian town to run on 100 per cent renewable energy.

Today and tomorrow another forum – the Community Power Conference – will bring other community-run energy projects from across the country to Bendigo to tell their stories of transformation.

They will hear from projects such as the Hepburn Wind Farm, the first community-owned wind farm in Australia and the new Warburton micro-hydro turbine.

It’s inspiring stuff. Could we do it here?