This article comes from the Yarra Valley Leader, journalist: Elaine Phelan.
A HYDRO-ELECTRIC plant proposed for Warburton has the potential to generate enough energy to power 50 houses.
The $450,000 plant would be on Warburton Golf Course and use water from Ythan Creek.
A portion of the electricity created by the plant would be used to power the golf course with the remainder being fed into the grid.
Funds generated by selling electricity to the grid would be re-invested in community projects.
The initiative has won $50,000 from the Upper Yarra Community Enterprise, a Community Bank franchisee of the Bendigo Bank, to fund an investigation into its environmental viability.
Warburton Micro-Hydro project leader Luke Whiteside said if the study ticked all the boxes the Upper Yarra Community Enterprise would cover the total cost of the plant and work would begin early next year.
Upper Yarra Community Enterprise executive Geoff Vickers said the project was an exciting prospect for the bank.
“We have an abundance of running water which flows out of the hills around Mt Donna Buang and we are very aware of the need to generate electricity by clean means,” Mr Vickers said.
Mr Whiteside said in addition to the environmental and financial benefits, the plant could serve as a model for energy income generation in towns across Australia.
“We believe there could be up to 1000 towns that could run similar projects,” he said.
The scheme was featured at a national power conference in Bendigo this month.
yes2renewables.org 
“We have an abundance of running water which flows out of the hills around Mt Donna Buang and we are very aware of the need to generate electricity by clean means,” Mr Vickers said.
Hey, hang on a minute! Prof Tim Flannery said ages ago that due to climate change we were in for long-term drought, maybe forever, and that water would be as scarce as rocking horse doo-doo.
Mr Vickers is likely to be at odds with the good Prof….. or could Flannery just be wrong with his predictions? (Oh slap my hand and call me naughty boy for making such a suggestion).
Just for the record, I think the idea appears to have merit.
So even more reason to close down old clunky power stations like Hazelwood that use vast quantities of water. Just recently in Texas the drought was putting the operation of coal power stations at risk due to shortages of water for cooling.
It’s important not to confuse climate with weather. Just because I’m going bald doesn’t mean there will be not a single hair on my head. Increased incidence of droughts doesn’t mean there won’t be any water, anywhere, all the time. But this is basic logic and commonsense which I suspect you know already.
Just for the record, spring (just gone) has been warmer and wetter than the long term average.
Best of luck with the mini hydro.
Wonder why we need all the red tape. Are we all not aware that the entire town of Waburton was powered by hydro from around the 1920s through to connection to the grid in the late 40s. Fifty grand for a study. Typical political crap. How many tons of brown coal do fifty houses burn creating power? Simple maths really. As for environmental impacts, the section of creek which is to have the equivalent of a 200mm diameter pipe’s worth of water diverted for the length of 800 meters. Brown coal burnt = carbine omissions.Gee I’II need a qualified expert consultant to work that out. Why not use the original set up, then we don’t have to disturb the ground and any possible artifacts or bones that may or may not be there. I do know these particular studies can be very expensive. Common sense will work. A pity it will never be applied . If it was it would be built and running by now. The actual building of it would be the easy part.