New South Wales Plans to be #1 in Energy and Environmental Policy

NSW aims to be the nation’s answer to California, speeding up the use of renewable energy and finding several ways for curbing waste, in a push which puts it at the odds with the coalition counterparts in the other states as well as at federal level. 

The Baird administration is of the opinion that it plans for adorning several of its buildings with the solar panels and ease the pathway to more of the wind farms. The message comes a few days after Abbott administration secured its 5 years quest to axe carbon price and along with the ongoing signs it may weaken the RET. 

Rob Stokes, the Environmental Minister, in a gathering in Sydney told that they are planning to make New South Wales #1 in environmental policy and energy. When it is about clean energy, they aim to be the nation’s answer to California, making a reference to the US state’s goal of achieving thirty-three percent of its power from the renewable sources within 2020 in comparison to twenty percent plus target of Australia. 

Investment in the large-scale renewable energy has all but slowed down in the nation with forty million dollars being spent in 2014’s first half or about 1.5 % of 2.67 billion dollars invested in 2013. The wind farm operators as well as all others are giving a warning that they’ll abandon Australian market for future investments if mandated requirement to supply 41,000 gigawatt-hours of the clean energy within 2020 is discarded. 

The Environmental Minister said that NSW was dedicated to 41,000 GW-h goal. Maverick MP Clive Palmer said that his party will be using the balance of power in Senate for blocking the effort by Abbott government for cutting the target of renewable energy. 

The Resource Efficiency Policy of NSW will take the benefit of administration’s scale to demand the savings. And according to Mr. Stokes, the investment over next decade may reach two hundred ninety million dollars and deliver savings to the energy bills of fifty-five million dollars every year.  All the new electrical gadgets bought by state should have to meet the average energy efficiency star rating for each and every gadget. The department of health will be needed to audit the energy use for fifty-five percent of their electric bills by the mid of the year in 2018; and other departments will need to audit forty percent of their billings. The rate is supposed to rise to ninety percent by 2024. 

In a completely different nod to renewable energy sector, the Environmental Minister said that he has suggested the Environment Protection Authority to treat the noise from the wind farms as this will offer certainty and clarity for the wind farm operators and may facilitate the right and responsible citing of the wind farms in the rural and regional areas. 

You can get more news, tips, advice and information about Australian wind farms, wind turbines in Australia, grant funding opportunities, how different kinds of renewable energy are used in Australia, wind energy in Victoria and other places by staying tuned to our blog.

Germany Outranks United States in 2014 International Energy Efficiency Scorecard

A lot of industry observers will however not be amazed to find out that Germany, who won that FIFA World Cup 2014, outranks the United States in energy efficiency. Moreover, they are moving with the goal of reducing their energy consumption by fifty percent by 2050 in comparison to what it was in 2008. But it is not only the Germans who have become popular for their engineering prowess and efficiency, India, Spain, China and Italy are also a few world economies which ranked above the United States.
 

The countries that account for about seventy-one percent of the world energy consumption were assessed across thirty-one categories for 100 points. The categories mainly fell into 4 areas-energy usage at buildings, transportation, industry and national level. Germany took the top spot in the industry, China scored high in building efficiency, EU led the score in the national efforts and Italy was first in transportation.

There was simply no excuse for US lagging behind the other nations of the world on energy efficiency. Using energy efficient grant in Victoria, states such as Vermont even proved that energy efficiency reduced impact on the environment, saves money and creates a lot of job opportunities.
 

This year ACEEE added a few new metrics such as agricultural efficiency, water efficiency, building retrofit policies and energy efficiency investment by the private sectors. And the US topped the score in building efficiency tying with United Kingdom. In 2012, the country ranked 9th out of 12 countries. So, all these suggest that the nation had not many any such improvements in the last two years. A lot of improvement needs to be made especially in the area like industrial efficiency, where the United States can vastly increase its use of power systems and combined heat and conduct mandatory energy audits like other nations already do. The country needs to do a lot on energy efficiency for remaining competitive in the increasingly competitive global marketplace.