Ecologically Sustainable Sydney

• Pollution
  Air Pollution
• Energy
  Carbon Pricing Carbon&Climate CC Action Price on Greenhouse Gas Emissions City Energy Solar&Wind Energy Ratings Coal Seam Gas Consumer Discretion Sydney Turbines Elec Consump & Gen 2011-12 Elec Consump & Gen 2010-11
• Planning
  Context Submission Planning Review Issues Paper National Planning Principles NSW Metro Strategy ESD Stratas Renovation
• Lighting
  Guide LED Lighting LED vs T8 vs T5    LED Solar LED Trials E-Waste LED vs Halogen Standards Packaging
• Biodiversity
  Urban Biodiversity Rozelle Bay Community Native Nursery   Restoration Ewen Park Warratah Park Composting Cocky Traps Weeds Roof Gardens Harbour Park Rozelle Bay Johnston's Creek White's Creek White Bay Water
• Transport
  Carbon Footprint of Traffic Trams & Folding Bicycles Heritage Tram Shelters Sydney Airport's GTP Glebe Island Bridge
• Technology
  From E-Waste to E-Resource Imperatives Course E-Waste Recycling Packaging Energy Ratings Environment and ICT ICT Enablers
• About Us
  About Us Contact Us Marghanita da Cruz Home

Energy

Climate Change Action Watch

Analysis of US Policies to improve energy rating of Commercial Buildings

Employment Estimates for Energy Efficiency Retrofits of Commercial Buildings released in June 2011 identifies job creation in the manufacturing and retrofitting of more efficient/low energy lighting; heating; ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC); water heating, new motors and drives for building energy systems; office equipment upgrades (including copiers, computers, and communications equipment); environmental controls (including controls for heating and cooling, circuits, and processes); and building envelope improvements (including windows, roofing, and insulation).

Productivity Carbon Emission Policies in Key Economies

Research report released on 9 June 2011. Key points:

• More than 1000 carbon policy measures were identified in the nine countries studied, ranging from (limited) emissions trading schemes to policies that support particular types of abatement technology.
  – As policies have been particularly targeted at electricity generation and road transport emissions, the Commission analysed major measures in these sectors.
• While these disparate measures cannot be expressed as an equivalent single price on greenhouse gas emissions, all policies impose costs that someone must pay. The Commission has interpreted ‘effective’ carbon prices broadly to mean the cost of reducing greenhouse gas emissions — the ‘price’ of abatement achieved by particular policies.
• The Commission’s estimates essentially provide a snapshot of the current cost and cost effectiveness of major carbon policies.
  – The subsidy equivalent, abatement achieved and implicit abatement subsidy have been calculated for policies and aggregated by sector in each country.
• As a proportion of GDP, Germany was found to have allocated more resources than other countries to abatement policies in the electricity generation sector, followed by the UK, with Australia, China and the US mid-range.
• Estimates of abatement relative to counterfactual emissions in the electricity generation sector followed a similar ordering, with Germany significantly ahead, followed by the UK, then Australia, the US and China.
• The estimated cost per unit of abatement achieved varied widely, both across programs within each country and in aggregate across countries.
  – Emissions trading schemes were found to be relatively cost effective, while policies encouraging small-scale renewable generation and biofuels have generated little abatement for substantially higher cost.
• The relative cost effectiveness of price-based approaches is illustrated for Australia by stylised modelling that suggests that the abatement from existing policies for electricity could have been achieved at a fraction of the cost.
  – However, the estimates cannot be used to determine the appropriate starting price of a broadly-based carbon pricing scheme.
• The estimated price effects of supply-side policies have generally been modest, other than for electricity in Germany and the UK.
  – Such price uplifts are of some relevance to assessing carbon leakage and competitiveness impacts, but are very preliminary and substantially more information would be required.

NSW Solar Bonus

• Public meeting at Leichhardt Town Hall at 6:30pm on 9 June 2011 to protest the proposed cuts to the Solar Bonus tariff for existing customers from 60 cents per kilowatt hour to 40 cents....www.jamieparker.org.au
• January 2011: new BASIX multi-dwellings are phasing out high emission electric storage and instantaneous hot water systems. These systems were used in 67 per cent of existing pre-BASIX homes in NSW, and now feature in only 0.2 per cent of new multi-dwelling homes...- p6 of Multi-Dwellings Summary BASIX BUILDING SUSTAINABILITY INDEX (PDF)
• 25 May 2011: Sydney metro solar panels checks to commence June 6
• NSW Parliament: SOLAR BONUS SCHEME
• The NSW Government has announced changes to the Solar Bonus Scheme. Legislation will be introduced to Parliament as soon as possible to support these changes.
  • The Scheme will be closed to new applicants effective midnight 28 April 2011.
  • The 300 MW connected capacity limit will be abolished.
  • All applications received by the network businesses before 29 April 2011 will be assessed and if eligible will receive Solar Bonus Scheme tariff payments.
  • 20 cent tariff - Customers already receiving or who applied (but are not yet connected) for the 20 cent tariff rate before 29 April 2011 are not affected by the changes.
  • 60 cent tariff - Customers already receiving or who applied (but are not yet connected) for the 60 cent tariff will receive a 40 cent tariff rate from 1 July 2011 for the remainder of the Scheme.
    ...WWW.INDUSTRY.NSW.GOV.AU/ENERGY Fact Sheet: Solar Bonus Scheme Changes - May 2011 (PDF)
• Solar Bonus Scheme for NSW, Last updated: 13 May 2011:The NSW feed-in tariff scheme, the Solar Bonus Scheme is closed to new applications from 29 April 2011 and the tariff rate is being adjusted for those customers currently receiving (or eligible to receive) the 60 cent tariff. The Government will be introducing legislation as soon as possible to implement these changes.

Australia

• ACT:Stage 2 of the Electricity Feed-in Tariff, passed by the ACT Government on 17 February 2011, will expand the existing Feed-in Tariff Scheme with the following elements: Electricity Feed-in Tariff Scheme
• Australia PM Guillard (May 2011): Critical Decade www.pm.gov.au

US

• America's Home Energy Education Challenge (May 2011): The Home Energy Challenge encourages participants to leverage the power of school spirit to engage rival schools in a local home energy savings competition and inspire widespread participation. The Home Energy Challenge involves students and teachers in a 3-month energy use comparison activity where data from the previous year's energy use for the same 3 months is compared to the current year's energy use period. - homeenergychallenge.org

UK

• The Carbon Plan, first published in March 2011, is a Government-wide plan of action on climate change, including domestic and international activity, which sets out department by department, actions and deadlines for the next 5 years.The Carbon Plan

www.ramin.com.au/eco-sydney/climate-change-action-watch.shtml © Ramin Communications 2010. Last modified 29 Nov 2013.