Environmentally-aware Australians now have a green energy option.

South Australian power provider ZEN Energy announced Tuesday (PDF) it would become the nation's first "dedicated community renewable energy provider."

Using solar energy as well as wind, hydro and biomass combined with battery storage, homes and businesses will be able to end their reliance on electricity providers that are often powered by coal-burning power stations.

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As well as connecting homes and businesses with renewables, the new company will also help regional cities and townships become self-sufficient. For example, one key part of their vision is to build micro-grids around communities that will deliver low cost, sustainable community power.

"It's almost like going back to the future, to the old township-based power station, with the community owning and running it rather than ... importing their energy," ZEN Energy’s Director of Innovation and Business Development Richard Turner, told Mashable Australia.

In such locations, Zen Energy is positioning itself to generate the power, help build the micro-grid and large-scale energy storage, and retail the power back to the community at a fraction of current costs.

"The big thing we want to portray to people, is you don't have to live like a hippy to get off the grid anymore," he said. "It's modern off-grid living with no compromises to lifestyle."

Not all communities or homes will be able to go completely off-grid, though, because there's always a chance the sun won't shine or the wind won't blow — you've got to have backup.

"If the grid is nearby, it makes sense to have one gateway," Turner said. "If there was a community of 500 homes, rather than having 500 connections to the grid, they would have one connection to the grid as their main gateway. If there's no grid nearby ... we'd have the backup operation inside the community or micro-grid."

A Zen Energy storage unit. Image: Zen Energy

The company's services are not yet available across Australia, but Turner said it is quickly building capacity over the next three to six months.

"ZEN Energy represents a new and unique model of sustainable power generation, storage, delivery and retailing," leading economist and Zen Energy chairman Ross Garnaut said in a statement emailed to Mashable Australia. "Households, businesses and entire communities can now become genuinely self-powered completely or substantially depending on their circumstances and preference ... Australia’s energy transformation has begun."

Turner agrees, stating renewable energy, such as solar and wind power, will soon be the lowest cost option to generate power. "We live in a country that has the best renewable resource in the world," Turner said. "If we can deliver the lowest cost energy ... to our industries, that will be transformational."

The news comes as climate change research non-profit, the Climate Council, released a report on Oct. 20 suggesting Australia may become one of the world's largest markets for solar energy storage.

Tyalgum, a small town in New South Wales, is also attempting to become Australia's first off-the-grid cities, ABC News reported. By disconnecting from electrical providers, its hopes to depend entirely on renewable resources.