[url=http://www.abc.net.au/environment/articles/2010/12/08/3087143.htm]Trigeneration for Sydney[/url] points a better way for Australia

A plan from the City of Sydney to generate its own electricity could be just the thing to bring about much needed electricity efficiency Australia-wide. [We could copy them in Brisbane!]

The City of Sydney’s energy master plan launched last week should make the whole of Australia face up to a serious issue that we’ve been ignoring for too long. There will be hot debate about whether the [url=http://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/environment/EnergyAndEmissions/GreenDecentralisedEnergy.asp]Trigeneration Master Plan[/url] is the right answer but one thing is certain – it’s the right question.

Over the last 50 years Australia’s energy market has been very cheap very dirty and very wasteful. And this is leading to soaring energy bills.

Our coal fired generators are sited near coal mines because they use huge amounts of cheap fuel. However more than 60 per cent of the energy in the coal is wasted as heat in places like the Hunter Valley and Hazelwood – places where we can’t use it.

More energy is lost as it travels down wires to our towns and cities and then we waste even more in our homes and businesses. For a standard lightbulb [b]less than three per cent of the energy in the coal is converted into something useful[/b] – light!

Unsurprisingly all this waste has become very expensive. [b]Households and businesses don’t just pay for the energy that they use – they also pay for all the energy that the system wastes[/b].

We’re about to start paying through the nose for all this waste. Over the next five years the monopolies that manage the grid are going to spend over $40 billion on poles and wires to carry more energy – most of it wasted. This is the largest single investment in the electricity grid ever. [b]The network rather than renewable energy is the main cause of our spiralling energy bills.[/b]

We can do things very differently. Big power plants will remain part of the picture whether they’re renewable or something else but [b]smaller local generators and energy efficiency could play a much bigger role[/b].

Trigeneneration systems use gas to generate electricity and use the waste heat to warm water and cool buildings. [b]Trigen can turn more than 70 per cent of the energy in the fuel into a useful service. And because the electricity is used locally very little is lost through transmission. Combine this with energy efficiency programs that help households and businesses [/b]and you’ve got something really special.

This isn’t just a local issue it’s a national issue. On the same day that the City of Sydney released its plan senior figures from all of the political parties met with Australia’s top experts in energy efficiency and trigeneration at the Energy Efficiency Council’s National Conference in Sydney.

International expert Dr Eoin Lees spoke to the conference about the UK’s energy efficiency scheme which puts an obligation on energy companies to save energy in their customers’ homes and premises. The UK’s energy retailers now invest AUD$1.3 billion a year to keep energy prices low and help homes and businesses become more efficient.

The Prime Minister’s Task Group on Energy Efficiency found that a national energy efficiency scheme would reduce expenditure on infrastructure by $12 billion cut energy prices by six per cent and cut energy use saving households around $296 a year.

On Thursday 2 December Greg Hunt Shadow Minister for Climate Action Environment and Heritage announced that the Opposition would work with the Government to develop a national energy efficiency scheme at the Energy Efficiency Council’s National Conference in Sydney.

It’s time that we stopped asking “should we do this?” It’s time to roll up our sleeves and make it happen. The Energy Efficiency Council congratulates the Federal Opposition for supporting a National Energy Efficiency Scheme and the City of Sydney for putting out a plan that will move the debate forward.

The Energy Efficiency Council is the peak body for commercial and industrial energy efficiency and cogeneration.