Tag Archives: Australia

A Green House – Australian Response to Climate Change a Crucial Role for New Federal Government

11 September 2010

Ray Wills, CEO
Western Australian Sustainable Energy Association Inc. (WA SEA)
Website: www.wasea.com.au
Email: info@wasea.com.au

Australians want to see a serious commitment to action on global warming, and the new Prime Minister must work with the Greens and Independents to make the Australian Parliament, the operation of government, and the Australian economy more sustainable says by the WA Sustainable Energy Association Inc. (WA SEA).

‘Australia has voted and by electing a Parliament with green credentials, Australians have sent a clear message it is time to act on climate change, make Australia more energy efficient, and build renewable energy generation to power Australia in the 21st Century,’ says WA SEA Chief Executive, Prof Ray Wills.

‘The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has been in operation for twenty two years. The world should have acted on global warming in the last century when science delivered the first strong warnings on global warming. Not enough action has been taken, and we are now out of time to avoid significant climate change. But, we must act decisively now if we want to avoid even more dangerous change in our climate,’ says Prof Wills.

‘We must fundamentally change the way we think about energy and how we do business. And we must act,’ says Prof Ray Wills.

‘To this end, specific incentives must be developed to deliver renewable energy projects outside of the National Energy Market and to islanded grids and isolated domestic and commercial energy users,’ says Prof Wills.

WA SEA calls on the new Gillard Government to work with COAG to develop a nationally consistent feed-in tariff (FiT) for renewable energy. The introduction of a FiT in overseas countries has led to significant growth of the renewable energy industry, particularly solar. A gross metered FiT mst be made available to all forms of renewable energy with tariffs set at different levels to reflect the value of embedded generation in domestic, commercial and industrial scale generation. Feed in tariffs are an effective market mechanism that will ensure the most efficient renewable energy technologies, as these deliver the most cost-effective investments under a FiT.

WA SEA, Australia’s largest energy chamber, says a new Federal Government must also walk the talk – measures being encouraged for business and the community must be rolled out and demonstrated as a greater priority in government operations. All government departments and agencies must be instructed to increase energy efficiency and install renewable energy on all existing government facilities and other public buildings. Further, the Government must ensure new buildings built on the public purse are energy efficient buildings and powered by renewable energy.

Further, mandatory installation of the most affordable and appropriate technologies such as solar hot water, solar air-conditioning, heat pumps and geothermal on all new houses and buildings and across new precincts, as well as requirements of all renovation and brown field redevelopment approvals, as well as on all existing government facilities and public buildings, will deliver long term savings to building owners and tenants, and to the tax payer.

The new Government has in place a target of generating at least 20 per cent of Australia’s electricity supply generated from renewable sources within less than ten years. Getting there will require immediate action to put in place the market structures that will allow business to respond and build the required generation facilities to meet the target according to WA SEA.

‘Responding to climate change will create new business, new employment opportunities, and a more sustainable economy in both urban and regional Australia.’

‘Renewable energy generation, combined with measures for better energy efficiency, means future proofing our economy and will produce a sustainable economy with fewer inflationary pressures for Australians,’ says Prof Wills.

‘Australia’s renewable energy sources are vastly greater than our fossil fuel resources, renewable energy is generally more labour intensive, and by the nature of the source, more broadly distributed across regions. With a better employment factor, renewable energy projects can lead to growth of local communities in rural Australia, and bolster a broad range of skills in agricultural regions.’

‘We do not have decades to respond to climate change – we have already had decades. It is time to take the heat out of this problem, and how we produce and use energy is the key to solving it.’

WA SEA congratulates all Minister’s on their appointments and notes that sustainable government will only be delivered with the collaboration of all portfolios:

Full Gillard Government Ministry:

Prime Minister: Julia Gillard
Deputy Prime Minister and Treasurer: Wayne Swan
Foreign Affairs: Kevin Rudd
Jobs, Skills and Workplace Relations: Chris Evans
Regional Australia, Regional Development and Local Government, Arts: Simon Crean
Defence: Stephen Smith
Health and Ageing: Nicola Roxon
Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs: Jenny Macklin
Infrastructure and Transport: Anthony Albanese
Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy: Stephen Conroy
Innovation, Industry and Science: Kim Carr
Finance and Deregulation: Penny Wong
Schools, Early Childhood and Youth: Peter Garrett
Attorney-General: Robert McClelland
Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry: Joe Ludwig
Sustainable Population, Communities, Environment and Water: Tony Burke
Resources, Energy and Tourism: Martin Ferguson
Immigration and Citizenship: Chris Bowen
Trade: Craig Emerson
Climate Change and Energy Efficiency: Greg Combet
Human Services, Social Inclusion: Tanya Plibersek
Home Affairs and Justice, Privacy and FOI: Brendan O’Connor
Employment Participation and Childcare: Kate Ellis
Indigenous Employment and Economic Development, Sport, Social Housing and Homelessness: Mark Arbib.
Small Business, Assistant Minister for Tourism: Nick Sherry
Veterans Affairs and Defence Science and Personnel: Warren Snowdon
Assistant Treasurer, Financial Services and Superannuation: Bill Shorten
Mental Health and Ageing: Mark Butler
Special Minister of State: Gary Gray
Defence Materiel: Jason Clare

Editors notes:

1. The Western Australian Sustainable Energy Association Inc. (WA SEA) is a chamber of enterprises that has a growing membership of over 360 industry members from a diversity of businesses. WA SEA is the largest energy energy chamber in Australia.

2. Prof Ray Wills is Chief Executive of the WA Sustainable Energy Association, Australia’s largest energy industry chamber, and Adjunct Professor with The University of Western Australia’s School of Earth and Environment where he contributes to the academic program and lecturing on the science, economics and politics of environmental change.

3. WA SEA bringing you the Energising SE Asia Conference 23-26 March 2011, Perth.

< Back to Blogs

Perth and Peel Planning Vision can be Renewable

30 August 2010

Ray Wills, CEO
Western Australian Sustainable Energy Association Inc. (WA SEA)
Website: www.wasea.com.au
Email: info@wasea.com.au

Planning Minister John Day’s release today of a new planning vision and direction for Perth and Peel to guide the planning of the city to 2031 and beyond has been welcomed by the WA Sustainable Energy Association Inc. (WA SEA).

WA SEA notes the Minister’s reference to compliance of the Directions 2031 document is in line with the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) national criteria for capital city strategic planning systems for Australian cities that are “globally competitive, sustainable, liveable, socially inclusive and well-placed to meet future challenges and growth.”

‘We must fundamentally change the way we think about energy, and planning for 2031 must simply be a part of planning the 21st Century,’ says WA SEA Chief Executive, Prof Ray Wills.

WA SEA calls for all future developments, whether completely new or urban renewal, be achieved with energy efficiency and renewable energy deployment through a combination of mandated measures and reduced taxes and fees to minimise transaction costs.

A growing raft of projects are already embracing sustainability to grow greater metropolitan Perth in a series of sustainable cities – City of Yanchep, Alkimos, the Stirling City Centre Project, North Port Quay, Cockburn Coast, to name a few.

Further, mandatory installation of the most affordable and appropriate technologies such as solar hot water, solar air-conditioning, heat pumps and geothermal on all new houses and buildings, and tied to all renovation approvals, as well as on all existing government facilities and public buildings, will deliver long term savings to building owners and tenants, and to the tax payer.

Growth brings many opportunities but also threatens to gridlock the city. Directions 2031 must bring on new transport policies that integrate all forms of public, personal and industrial transport.

Public transport utilising low and no emissions mass transit, and particularly light rail, is seeing significant growth in nations around the world, and Australia should ensure it delivers strong investment in infrastructure for the benefit of future generations of Australians.

Various light rail proposals including the Knowledge Arc, Perth Airport to the city, the Stirling City Centre Project, and the Perth Light Rail Project all have merit need to be fairly considered in the context of Directions 2031.

Cities around the world are looking to become more sustainable – existing cities like Reykjavik, Iceland, Portland, Oregon, and Malmö, Sweden, and glamorous new proposals like Masdar City, UAE and Tianjin Eco-City, China.

In WA some of our greenest places to live are already appearing in regional WA as a consequence of the deployment of renewable energy.

Now that Horizon Power has established a new power station in the town of Marble Bar, with one soon to be completed in the neighbouring town Nullagine, in the east, these towns are going quite green almost overnight.

‘Perth has an opportunity to grow with sustainability principles as a guide, and take advantage of the best renewable energy resources in the world to power Perth in the 21st Century – and keep up with regional WA,’ says Prof Wills.

Editors notes:
1.    Planning Minister John Day media release 

2.    Online listing of green cities  

3.    Examples of WA projects
http://www.alkimos.com.au/The-Vision/
http://www.stirlingcitycentre.com.au/
http://www.yanchepbeach.com.au/news.html

4.    Marble Bar Nullagine project

5.    The Western Australian Sustainable Energy Association Inc. (WA SEA) is a chamber of enterprises that has a growing membership of over 360 industry members from a diversity of businesses. WA SEA is the largest energy industry body in Australia.

6.    WA SEA bringing you the Energising SE Asia Conference 23-26 March 2011, Perth.

< Back to Blogs

Australia’s Largest Energy Chamber Turns Eight

11 July 2010

Ray Wills, CEO
Western Australian Sustainable Energy Association Inc. (WA SEA)
Website: www.wasea.com.au
Email: info@wasea.com.au

The Western Australian Sustainable Energy Association Inc. (WA SEA), established on 11 July 2002 to promote the development of a sustainable energy industry as a solution to reducing Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions, turns eight years old today.

The first meeting of the Association in 2002 set a target for WA SEA membership of 100.

As of our birthday, WA SEA now has over 330 members, making WA SEA the largest energy industry chamber in Australia.

WA SEA has a very diverse membership from architects and builders, urban and transport planners, engineers and energy efficiency consultants, lawyers and greenhouse auditors, all the way through to renewable energy manufacturers and generators. In addition, WA SEA has a whole raft of customers who are buying those goods or services and that are interested in seeing a strong market develop to ensure the availability competitive pricing and a diversity of providers, says WA SEA Chief Executive, Prof. Ray Wills.

The diversity of WA SEA membership is reflected in our corporate members & sponsoring members, including the key energy players in Western Australia, make the largest financial contribution to the advocacy work of the Association, ensuring WA SEA is well resourced.

On our birthday, WA SEA acknowledges our Corporate Members: AECOM, Alinta, Austech Solar, BGC, BHP Billiton Iron Ore, Carnegie Corporation, Curtin University of Technology, Edardes Solar Hot Water, Enhance Group, Gull Group of Companies, Horizon Power, Landfill Gas & Power, Mitsubishi Motors, Pacifichydro, Perth Energy, Rio Tinto, SMA Technology Australia, Solahart, Swan Energy, SunPower Corporation, Synergy, Toyota WA, The University of Western Australia, Wesfarmers Limited, Western Power, and WorleyParsons.

We also acknowledge the important support provided by each and every WA SEA Member, many of whom also contribute their time to assist in policy development and advocacy work, says Prof Wills.

This includes many founding members & businesses large and small such as SolaKleen Smalls Solar, Outback Energy Supply, Solahart, Solar Dwellings, Perth Energy, Fremantle Ports, Pacific Hydro Ltd, WA Solar Supplies, Alinta, the City of Gosnells, Exibit, the City of Melville and many more of our earliest supporters who helped establish WA SEA.

WA SEA now gets on average two new membership applications every week, with growth across a broad spectrum of industry and across whole supply chains, a reflection of the strong level of support from the business community to see policy settings from government for urgent and strong action on reducing greenhouse gas emissions to create a strong stimulus in the development of sustainable energy as a part of the solution.

Indeed, our success in growing up to be Australia’s largest energy chamber reflects business desire to see action from all Australian governments to deploy sustainable energy solutions and support measures that reduce Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions, explains Prof Wills.

Leveraging new and existing technologies can make use of Australia’s endless supply of renewable energy & energy that will grow Australia’s energy security and economy without adding to carbon emissions in Australia, says Prof Wills.

WA SEA continues to expand its range of activities with new initiatives including:

– A “Green Fleet Day” in November this year to be run in partnership with WA SEA members, WA vehicle fleet managers and all motor vehicle manufacturers;

– a major international conference: Energising South East Asia conference to be held in Perth 23-26 March 2011;

– facilitation of a bid to create in 2011 a Cooperative Research Centre on electrified transport infrastructure in both urban and regional settings inclusive of both private and public transport, as well as commercial, industrial and mining applications. Key themes of the proposal are network interface and performance, transport mobility and usability;

– WA SEA’s continuing partnership with the Federal Government’s Enterprise Connect program through our delivery of complementary services to the Clean Energy Innovation Centre, not least of which is extensive value chain research on diverse elements of the sustainable energy sector: these include to date algal biofuels, biomass, building energy management, energy efficiency, energy storage, electric transport infrastructure, electric vehicles, microgeneration, solar hot water, solar PV, and wind turbines with many more planned; and

– Skills gap analysis on the sustainable energy sector in Western Australia, work supported by the Western Australian Government that will help support growth of the sustainable energy industry in Western Australia.

And of course WA SEA continues its numerous activities in advocacy and networking, focusing in particular on contributing to the Western Australian Government Strategic Energy Initiative (Energy 2030) consultations.

< Back to Blogs

Energy Smart Government an Inconvenient Truth?

1 July 2010

Ray Wills, CEO
Western Australian Sustainable Energy Association Inc. (WA SEA)
Website: www.wasea.com.au
Email: info@wasea.com.au

The Western Australian Auditor General’s Report on Energy Smart Government released yesterday, 30 June 2010, reveals a lack of leadership and commitment from the majority of government agencies to save energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The Energy Smart Government program was to achieve a 12 per cent reduction in government’s energy consumption but only reduced consumption by 0.1 per cent.

The Auditor General’s Report explained that achieving reductions in energy consumption would have saved government money and reduced greenhouse gas emissions. One-third of participating agencies reporting reductions of 12 per cent or more, but their actions were offset by a lack of progress among the larger energy consuming agencies. The report also concluded a lack of effective strategic management and accountability also contributed to the failure to achieve overall program goals.

‘According to the Auditor General’s report, if agencies had met the target, government would have achieved gross savings of $25 million in energy costs over the first five years – this is about the same amount government is planning to spend on a net feed-in-tariff for renewable energy ’ says Prof. Ray Wills, Chief Executive of the Western Australian Sustainable Energy Association Inc. (WA SEA).

The report noted “The first phase of the program did not result in a reduction in energy consumption largely because energy savings were identified but not implemented.”

‘Some agencies have made great savings in energy intensity and in absolute terms and they should be congratulated. But the valuable lessons are not being rolled out across government – for some agencies being smart has proven to be inconvenient and inaction will now cost the tax-payer,’ says Prof Wills.

‘We must fundamentally change the way we think about energy and how we do business.’

‘The inconvenient truth from the report is that economic reform is achievable – dedication to energy efficiency measures can deliver sustainable economic outcomes for government – and business,’ says Prof Wills.

Editors notes:

1. Western Australian Auditor General’s Report on Energy Smart Government released 30 June 2010 http://www.audit.wa.gov.au/reports/pdfreports/report2010_06.pdf

< Back to Blogs