When we first started doing this quite a few years ago, we're like, surely you can just put solar on the roofs and then we're done, right? 

"But actually, the regulatory environment in the Northern Territory is one of the least mature in the country and there's all these barriers to people being able to put it on their roofs, depending on whether it's run by government, who the landlord is, whether it's a rental rental property or social housing. So, who's gonna own the asset in 20 years' time, whose responsibility is it, who pays for it?

"Some of those things are solvable for sure", Karrina Nolan, Chair of the First Nations Clean Energy Network told ABC Alice Springs.

"That's part of the work we've been doing at the Network at a national level — some of that policy reform, both with jurisdictions around the country and the federal government.

"What we're seeing is 4 million households around the country have access to rooftop solar, but very few of those are First Nations households. 

"Diesel generators are a huge part of what happens out bush. And some of those remote communities actually are easier than some of the more grid connected rental properties, so there's a little bit less policy work to do there."

Karrina described how the remote NT community of Marlinja built Australia's first First Nations-owned microgrid, with Borroloola community looking at developing one next year.

She says for communities aspiring to lead and own clean energy, there are some issues that are going to be technical and others that are about finding the finance, making sure you've got the right community entity that's going to own and operate that asset, building up your local workforce.

“But it's all doable,” says Karrina.

"We're getting there and partly programs like PowerMakers are making sure that we've got the support in place.

"We're changing the story about what's possible when it comes to the transition. It has to be done at pace and it has to be done at scale, and our mob really want to be front and centre.

"So we want to make sure people have got the tools and skills and connections with each other to build projects, and make sure all of our mob have access to clean, affordable power."

Karrina says there are 26 First Nations people from around the country doing PowerMakers in Mparntwe (Alice Springs) from 13-16 October 2025.

“They’re a very skilled group of people — community leaders, lawyers, cultural practitioners, housing experts — people who really are either just starting out in clean energy or have projects already underway, and what they're looking for is a bit of backup, some skills, resources, and the ability to share lessons with each other and other PowerMakers from the other cohorts that we've been building around the country.

"It's a couple of days of making sure people can sit down and talk through everything from how do you get your community on board through great community engagement, how do you set up the governance right, what does the design and development look like, what's the right technical solution for you, how do you remove the policy barriers, how do you get finance — so all of the things sort of beginning-to-end of clean energy work."

This extract of an interview with ABC radio Alice Springs was first published on 14 October 2025.