Melbourne tests new model for renewable energy

The City of Melbourne has established a group of large energy users that have signalled their interest in testing a new approach to drive investment in renewable energy.

Lord Mayor Robert Doyle said the City of Melbourne must lead the way to meet our goal of zero net emissions by 2020.

“The City of Melbourne has united other like-minded local governments and businesses to challenge the market to supply us with the right energy at the right price,” the Lord Mayor said.

“We have launched a Request for Information Process to combine our purchasing power and signal our interest in securing a competitive price for a long term electricity supply from renewable sources.

“We hope this scale of demand will stimulate investment in a new renewable energy project that is shovel-ready and has planning approvals in place.”

The group has a collective energy consumption of around 100 GWh worth of energy, which under current market conditions is equivalent to around 250,000 solar panels or 15 wind turbines.

Chair of Council’s Environment Portfolio, Councillor Arron Wood, said the City of Melbourne has a target of sourcing 25 per cent of the municipality’s electricity from renewables by 2018.

“Goals are easy to set but harder to meet. Achieving this ambitious target requires substantial structural, economic and policy changes in Melbourne to help decrease our reliance on carbon intensive fuel sources,” Cr Wood said.

“The target cannot be achieved through council actions alone and we can’t currently access the level of renewable energy we require from within the municipality of Melbourne,” Cr Wood said.

“What we are proposing is a new model for securing renewable energy. If it works we would encourage other organisations to adopt a similar model.”

Partners involved in the group are:

City of Maribyrnong

City of Yarra

Federation Square

NEXTDC

Mirvac

bankmecu.

An evaluation process will begin in 2015 to determine the overall viability of the model and whether to proceed to a full tender process.

For more information visit: www.melbourne.vic.gov.au/Sustainability