Newcastle Herald
Tuesday 15/5/2007 Page: 43
DURING the past decade, people in the Hunter Region have been working to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by tapping into a wind farm in Newcastle and a solar farm at Singleton. The wind turbine on Kooragang Island, Newcastle, generates enough energy to power approximately 230 houses," said Peter White, an EnergyAustralia electrician.
Mr White said there was a solar farm south of Singleton that was one of the largest in the southern hemisphere and it produced enough energy to supply electricity to power approximately 70 houses. In addition to the solar farm, Mr White said some buildings in the Upper Hunter area had solar panels installed. Each of these produced enough energy to power about 20 standard light globes.
Some installations had the ability to sell the energy they produced back into the power grid, Mr White said. "The Upper Hunter Shire is discussing a proposal to erect a wind farm with four turbines on the Liverpool Ranges near Murrurundi and it would have the potential to provide enough energy to power approximately 900 houses," Mr White said.
EnergyAustralia offers customers the option of buying Green Power, which is generated from accredited renewable energy sources including solar, wind, biomass and hydro. EnergyAustralia has teamed up with the Newcastle International Sports Centre Trust to help EnergyAustralia Stadium go green for the 2007 NRL season.
Renewable energy such as solar power will play a major role in this EnergyAustralia initiative. Mr Tilse, a Scone builder, spoke of a NSW State Government initiative called the Building and Sustainability Index (BASIX), which outlines requirements for new homes. Some of the requirements include the installation of solar hot water systems and insulation batts. Each house that has the BASIX requirement has its own water tank, which is connected to gutters for rainwater collection," Mr Tilse said.
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