Category Archives: Regional energy

Clean Energy: Everybody’s Doing It

Posted on 6 Feb 2012 by | 1 Comment

Stylised Sun radiating in 4 directionsCoal and oil fuels are dinosaurs that hold media and market attention because they’re huge. But while the dinosaurs rampage, all around them thousands of people are entering the new era: the age of clean, inexhaustible energy. In the words of grass-roots organisation 100% Renewable:

Right now Australia faces a choice: we can continue our dependence on fossil fuels, keep mining and burning coal, keep polluting our air and water. We can keep damaging our farmland and heath, be left behind the rest of the world on investment and face an uncertain future with an unstable climate. Or we can make the switch to 100% clean renewable energy, creating a safer, healthier happier future for all.

The excitement of this new era is palpable in the planning for 100% Renewable’s 2-day Big Solar Boot Camp at Port Hacking on the weekend 11-12 February 2012. The programme concentrates on community action: how to make the clean energy message heard above the ruckus of the dinosaurs.

We saw the urgent demand for renewable energy in Wingecarribee shire at CANWin’s Clean Energy workshop last year. Plans such as Zero Carbon Australia 2020 and Sustainable Energy Australia show the ways 100% clean energy can be achieved in less than 10 years.

Big Solar is about solar-powered electricity generators on the same scale as coal-fired power stations. Big solar is one of the technologies that is making coal-fired power redundant. CANWin, along with hundreds of other groups in the Climate Action and 100% Renewable networks, can force governments to learn that the coal-fired dinosaur’s day is done.

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Posted in Energy, Energy generation and distribution, Regional energy, Taking Action

Want to reduce your electricity bills?

Posted on 24 Jan 2012 by | 1 Comment

CANWin can help. We are offering a series of free workshops on ways to reduce your energy bills.

The workshops are part of the CSIRO Energymark program. They consist of eight sessions, held about two weeks apart.

You will receive your own copy of the CSIRO Home Energy Saving Handbook and build on it to:
Cover of CSIRO Home Energy Saving Handbook

  • Identify ways to reduce your energy consumption
  • Develop an action plan to save on power bills
  • Learn more about energy and climate change issues
  • Find and discuss how to lower our carbon footprint at home, at work and in our Highlands communities.

The groups will be small so that everyone can have their say with a minimum of pressure: local people talking about what matters to us in Wingecarribee.

Schedule and location will depend on what suits most participants.

Sign up now or ask for more information: just email Tim Edwards at email hidden; JavaScript is required

Check out the program at www.energymark.com.au

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Posted in Energy efficiency, Regional energy, Taking Action

Draft guidelines for wind farm developments in NSW

Posted on 12 Jan 2012 by | 14 Comments

Two days before Christmas NSW Planning Minister Brad Hazzard released a draft of “the toughest guidelines in the world” for wind farm developments in this State (details of where to find a copy at the end of this post). CANWin member David Tranter kicks off our discussions in this post. You can click “Leave a comment” (under the title) to add your thoughts.

The  NSW Government Draft Wind Turbine Strategy states that it supports Australia’s commitment to deliver 20% of the nation’s energy needs by 2020. If this is true, then the primary goal of the strategy should be to establish a level playing field. Up till now, fossil fuel industries have been implicitly subsidized by allowing them to offload their environmental costs to society.

The Government’s proposed Wind Farm Strategy doesn’t just perpetuate that inequity; it exacerbates it. It proposes an elaborate system of regulations for wind farms, which is not applied in equal measure to fossil fuel industries and will eventually prove to be counter-productive. How could any reasonable person believe that a wind turbine is more unsightly than high voltage transmission towers and power lines snaking inexorably across the rural landscape? Continue reading →

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Posted in Energy, Energy generation and distribution, Global Sustainability, Regional energy, Renewable energy

Taking action for a Clean Energy Future for Wingecarribee

Posted on 8 Dec 2011 by | 2 Comments

Participants at CANWin’s 20 November workshop, A Clean Energy Future for Wingecarribee, wanted more than interesting, or even challenging, talk. The focus was on what we can do. This post is your invitation to join one of the working groups that are forming in response. Just scroll down to the heading, Clean Energy Working Group Participation.

Workshop planning outcomes

Workshop discussion groups outlined their action proposals during the plenary session

The four featured speakers gave an eye-opening overview of the urgency, options, challenges and successes of clean energy generation in regional Australia. You can find this exciting story in the Workshop Proceedings, which are now available for download (PDF 3Mb).

In addition, Matthew Wright, founder of Beyond Zero, has made the slides of his presentation available as a PDF (7Mb).

Workshop participants identified five initial tasks, which will each be tackled by one of the working groups that are now forming. The groups and their initial terms of reference are:

Renewable Energy
Investigate and evaluate the technical feasibility of the various renewable energy options identified at the workshop.
Energy Efficiency/Saving
Evaluate the performance and track record of various energy efficiency appliances/technologies and materials that are currently available in the marketplace.
Bulk Buying Potential
Make a cost-benefit analysis of the potential for an economically sustainable, community, bulk-buying enterprise.
Information Hub
Provide the CANWin website Editor/Moderator with clean energy information and case histories that would advance the aim of a ‘Clean Energy Future for Wingecarribee’.
Community Engagement
Describe/outline the various clean energy options identified at the Workshop to local Community, Business and Council, and find out which each sector would support. Further, to establish a means for the local community to become aware of, and react to, opportunities to save energy and be more efficient with use of its energy supplies

It is expected that the groups will refine their Terms of Reference in their first meetings.

To register your interest, please fill in and send the form below. We look forward to working with you.

Clean Energy Working Group Participation

Your Name (required)

Your Email (required)

Please select the working groups you would like to join:

 Renewable Energy Energy Efficiency and Saving Bulk Buying Potential Information Hub Community Engagement

Any comments or questions

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Posted in Energy, Regional energy, Wingecarribee 2031+ Community Strategic Plan

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Clean Energy Workshop: First reactions

Posted on 22 Nov 2011 by | 1 Comment
Matthew Wright discusses the zero carbon energy generation

Matthew Wright, CEO of Beyond Zero Emissions, gave a summary of existing technologies capable of meeting Australia's electricity needs within 10 years. Some of these are practical for Wingecarribee.

The energy and enthusiasm of more than 100 Wingecarribee locals stored information and set ideas flowing.
Clean energy is practical now.
Keep watching this website for more information.

Updates:

Preliminary draft of the proceedings is now available here.

Press reports from the workshop:
Local champions for clean energy
Think tank yields clean energy ideas
People power behind clean energy

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Posted in CO2 Emissions, Energy, Regional energy, Renewable energy

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