Big savings in energy ideas
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HUNDREDS of thousands of ratepayers’ dollars could be saved if Goulburn Mulwaree Council was more open to sustainable energy technologies, according to local community advocates The Goulburn Group (TGG).
Senior TGG members Urs Walterlin, Peter Fraser and Catherine Falk met with Mayor Geoff Kettle, general manager Chris Berry and engineering services director Terry Cooper last week to discuss new sustainable energy technologies that would reduce Goulburn’s energy bill and boost efficiency.
The TGG advocates witnessed the benefits of these technologies first-hand at the recent two-day ‘Energise Central New South Wales’ Conference in Cowra, and brought home five initiatives they felt were most suitable for Goulburn to promote to Council.
Number one on the list was new LED streetlight technology that uses 70-80 per cent less electricity than standard street lighting.
TGG estimates savings to council of up to $250,000 if the technology was introduced here.
Peter Fraser said introducing the LED streetlights was financially a ‘no brainer.’
“And not only that, they’ll obviously make a huge impact on their carbon imprint, and there’s a whole bunch of federal government money (grants) available to do it… there’s quite a lot of money specifically for projects like street lighting in communities like ours. So we’ve pushed that one (initiative) hard,” Mr Fraser said.
The group also pushed Geoexchange heating and cooling systems for Council infrastructure, which uses the stable 16-18 degree temperature of the earth just under the surface to heat or cool air more efficiently, saving up to half off heating and cooling costs.
TGG says this would be particularly suited to the Aquatic Centre, again saving thousands of dollars per annum.
Also on their list was a Pyrolosis generator that produces electricity from organic waste, bio-diesel generators, and biomass power generation, producing green energy from the humble Mallee tree.
Mr Fraser said the point of the meeting was not to promote green energy for the sake of it, but to make a business case for the five initiatives. This was not a global warming campaign, he said.
“We waste a lot of air time talking about global warming, but really, that’s not the point here. It’s all about dollars.”
Mayor Geoff Kettle welcomed some of the new initiatives.
“I thought a lot of the stuff they presented was quite relevant for us,” Cr Kettle said.
“It’s all common sense stuff really. Obviously some of the initiatives they put to us would require significant funding that of course we don’t have, but some of the stuff can be looked at to work on or be initiated reasonably quickly.”
Yet the Goulburn Group said without Council taking the lead on sustainability, Goulburn risked being left behind in infrastructure, and overspending on energy.
This is an issue of leadership,” Urs Walterlin told the Post.
“The technologies are here, and some of them are not even new technologies…The LED initiative could be done tomorrow.
“If we want to bring this community forward into a more sustainable future, we have to start bringing these technologies here.
What we need now is leadership and not just pushing it off on to someone else,” he said.
