City of Sydney adopts plan for more renewable energy projects

The City of Sydney is embarking on a plan to build more renewable energy projects for the city's properties as an alternative to purchasing GreenPower carbon offsets.
A proposal endorsed by council provides for reinvesting $2 million a year spent on GreenPower into renewable energy systems for council buildings and operations.
Sydney’s Lord Mayor, Clover Moore, says the city purchased green power carbon offsets in the past as an interim measure while it was developing low and zero carbon energy programs.
Ms Moore says now the projects are underway, investing this money in renewable energy for the city’s own buildings will accelerate emission reductions and maintain Sydney’s carbon neutral status. She says while GreenPower has served the city well, it can now achieve more through smarter investment in renewable energy generation.
Ms Moore describes the initiative as a “bold move” that complements council’s program to supply Sydney with low carbon energy through localised trigeneration plants. She says over time, this will replace the city’s reliance on coal-fired grid electricity.
Ms Moore says coal-fired power stations are an extremely inefficient and polluting means of providing electricity, with more than two-thirds wasted in generation and transmission.
She says the new strategy is part of council’s work to reduce its emissions by 20% by 2012 through a combination of energy efficiency programs, building energy efficiency retrofits, installing LED lighting and trigeneration.