This New Sustainable Melbourne Suburb Could be the World's First 'Tesla Town'

Melbourne seems to be following the pattern of another day, another new development. But instead of completely decimating the environment around it, Melbourne's newest mini suburb development in the city's inner-northeast looks like it might the most sustainable yet. It's set to become the world's first 'Tesla Town', with Tesla Powerwalls built into every home along with solar panels and electric car recharging points.

The new 2500-home development is called YarraBend, and it will border Alphington, Ivanhoe and Kew in Melbourne's northeast. It's being developed by local property group Glenvill, who, on the YarraBend website, have billed the new residential space as "a world-first Tesla suburb" which is "designed to achieve the highest level of sustainability and quality of life".

So what exactly does having a Tesla Powerwall in each home mean? Well, quite a lot. A Tesla Powerwall is a battery that not only powers your home but one that stores power for when you need it. It's designed to hook up with your power source, which is either solar power, or the grid, where most people get their electricity from. And it's really smart, because depending on which power source you have, the Powerwall will either store the solar energy for later or charge itself from the grid in off-peak times. This not only saves you and your household some cash, but it's a step away from Australia's reliance on dirty coal and fossil fuels for power, and means that we can move towards cleaner energy like solar, wind and geothermal. Plus, with Australia only getting its first shipment of the batteries earlier this year, this will be the first large-scale project to utilise them.

According to the Urban Development Institute of Australia, YarraBend will be one of the most environmentally sustainable developments in the country.

"This development leads the way in sustainability," the UDIA's Danni Addison told the Heidelberg Leader. "Some areas that are a standout include water reduction of 43 per cent, landfill reduced by 80 per cent and the potential to reduce energy use by 34 per cent."

Along with the Powerwalls, solar panels will also be a standard on houses in YarraBend. Making it even more futuristic, residents will also be connected through their own app and have access to a complimentary tech-concierge, who'll be on hand to help when your internet goes down. Which, if your internet connection's anything like ours, is all the goddamn time.

Via Heidelberg Leader.