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City of Greater Shepparton
URL: http://www.greatershepparton.com.au/news/greenpower.html
Please note: this is an archived news article release.
This article was published on 31 August 2010. The information contained within may be out of date or inaccurate. News articles and media releases older than 60 days are archived for future reference.
Council using 10 per cent Green Power
News article released on Tuesday 31 August 2010
Greater Shepparton City Council was recently accredited for using green power for 10 per cent of its electricity consumption.
GreenPower is a government accreditation program that certifies that the renewable energy purchased is generated from sources like mini hydro, wind power and biomass which produce no net greenhouse gas emissions.
Council's Manager Environment and Sustainability Greg McKenzie said Council's commitment to purchasing 10 per cent green power for all municipal facilities would reduce Council's corporate greenhouse gas emissions by 1,183 tonnes of CO2 a year, or equivalent to 23 million black balloons!
"Council is pleased to be able to switch some of its electricity to green power in an effort to be more environmentally friendly," Mr McKenzie said.
"The more people and businesses that commit to using renewable energy, the better it will be for our environment. Council has made this commitment and encourages the local community to follow our lead.
"Our homes and businesses are connected to this grid so we can all access this green power electricity to reduce our carbon footprint and make a real difference on the world around us.
"The benefit of switching to GreenPower accredited renewable energy is that it does not burn fossil fuels and therefore does not produce greenhouse gases.
"More than 90 per cent of electricity used in Australia comes from generators that burn coal, and only a small amount of energy comes from renewable sources such as the sun, wind, water and biomass waste.
"This makes the electricity sector the biggest single contributor to Australia's greenhouse emissions, so by switching to green energy it can make a big difference."
Benefits of GreenPower include:
• reducing household or business greenhouse emissions by about 50 per cent by switching to 100 per cent GreenPower
• driving demand for renewable energy, helping it to compete with polluting coal and gas-based generation
• helping to reduce water consumption as renewable-energy generators use much less water than coal and gas-powered stations.
For more information visit www.greenpower.gov.au.
Background on green electricity:
Companies generate this green electricity at a range of sites across Australia and supply the electricity to a central power grid. The green energy is then bought by the energy provider on behalf of customers. Energy suppliers who sell accredited GreenPower products buy electricity that is generated from accredited renewable-energy generators, and feed it into the National Electricity Grid. Only renewable-energy products that display the GreenPower ‘tick' are government accredited.