The City of Sydney has announced the biggest standalone renewables deal for an Australian council. Valued at over $60 million, the plan will see the City meet its electricity needs using only wind and solar.
Renewable electricity will power all City-owned properties from 1 July 2020, including pools, libraries, playing fields, depots and council buildings.
It is estimated that the 100 per cent renewable electricity commitment will save the City up to half a million dollars a year over the next 10 years.
The City is committing to buy electricity from the 270 megawatt (MW) Sapphire Wind Farm near Glenn Innes in northern NSW, the 120MW Bomen Solar Farm near Wagga Wagga in the south-west of the State, and not-for-profit community-owned solar scheme near Nowra on the south-east NSW coast.
Lord Mayor of Sydney, Clover Moore, said by 2020 all pools, libraries, playing fields, depots and council buildings, including the historic Sydney Town Hall, will be powered using only wind and solar.
“The science is clear, without urgent, co-ordinated and global action to reduce emissions in the next decade, we face a very high risk of triggering runaway climate change,” she said.
This new commitment will see the City’s operations cut emissions by around 20,000 tonnes a year – which is equivalent to the power consumption of 8,000 local households.
The agreement with Flow Power will see three-quarters of the City’s power sourced from wind generation and one-quarter from solar.
Flow Power CEO, Matthew van der Linden, said the City’s commitment to buy its electricity from renewable plants was an important step in Australia’s transition to a low-carbon future.
“If just 20 per cent of the market followed the City’s lead, it would drive investment in 11 gigawatt of new renewable generation – that’s double the current pipeline of renewable projects,” he commented.
The City has been certified carbon neutral since 2011 and will now achieve its commitment to reduce emissions by 70 per cent, six years ahead of its 2030 deadline. The City has already reduced electricity usage by 26 per cent since 2006 by investing in energy efficiency initiatives, resulting in significant savings for ratepayers.
Projects include:
- Replacement of 6,500 City-owned street lights with LEDs, saving $800,000 a year in electricity costs and reducing carbon emissions by 2,400 tonnes a year
- Alexandra Canal Depot in Alexandria is powered by 1,600 solar panels and has the state’s first utility-installed Tesla batteries. The battery can store up to 500 kilowatt-hours of electricity, enough to meet the daily needs of around 50 City homes and equivalent to the storage capacity of 50,000 mobile phone batteries
- The City has partnered with Ausgrid to fast-track the upgrade of 9,500 Ausgrid-owned street lights to LED. The switch will save 3,500 tonnes of carbon each year, equivalent to the electricity used to power 3,000 households, and around $1 million in annual maintenance and energy costs
- The City has installed solar panels on more than 30 of its office buildings, pools, libraries and community centres. It plans to have more than 7,800 solar panels generating power for its buildings by mid-2021
- The City has also upgraded 40 buildings within the City’s property portfolio with new energy efficiency equipment, reducing 6500 tonnes of carbon emissions/year and $2.3 million of energy savings.
Other investments include energy-efficient technology at several swimming pools, including the Ian Thorpe Aquatic Centre in Ultimo and the Cook + Phillip Park Aquatic Centre near Hyde Park, saving nearly 1,000 tonnes of emissions each year.