Page 971 - Week 03 - Tuesday, 29 March 2011
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signed an MOU with Better Place to support the rollout and supply of green energy. The ACT government had an MOU with Nissan-Renault to share information relating to EVs, and we are in active negotiations with Better Place and other providers to support the rollout for charging infrastructure. From a government perspective, we are also ensuring that our fleet is as sustainable as possible and will incorporate EVs. Once the sustainable development directorate becomes operational on 1 July, the government’s action on sustainability policy, including transport policy, will be further strengthened.
One of the greatest opportunities to reduce the territory’s electricity-based emissions is through the use of low carbon distributor generation systems, including cogeneration and trigeneration technologies. It is staggering to think that traditional power generation systems allow most of the heat from combustion to be wasted and that, as a result, sometimes as little as 30 per cent of the energy in primary fuel actually gets transformed into usable electrical energy.
Cogeneration systems make use of the hot water for cleaning, space heating and other applications. Trigeneration systems produce hot and cold water, with the cold water being used primarily for air conditioning in commercial applications like offices or data centres. Making use of the waste heat for heating and cooling purposes can increase the utilisation of the primary energy to over 80 per cent, displacing demand for other energy sources. Further benefits of distributed generation systems are that, by reducing our dependence on the national grid, we can enhance the security and reliability of our local network. They can also virtually eliminate electrical losses in transmission and distribution networks which can account for over six per cent of all electricity generated.
The case for the territory to embrace low carbon distributor generation systems is, I think, compelling. Our government is committed to exploring its full potential at the Canberra Hospital and in new residential developments such as Braddon-Reid. We look forward to updating the Assembly as these complex projects develop. Through measures such as our feed-in tariff schemes, our support for green power and innovative distributed generation technologies the territory can continue our transition to a clean economy. We will continue to provide leadership on the national stage both through our advocacy and our actions.
MS HUNTER (Ginninderra—Parliamentary Convenor, ACT Greens) (4.02): I rise to talk today on this very important matter before us. It is a challenge that will be before our jurisdiction and many jurisdictions across the country and across the world in the coming decades. I was quite surprised by Mr Coe’s contribution today. Mr Coe is a young man who has shown that he wants to have many, many years, I would guess, as a representative of his community in public office. His speech was a little bereft of content, I have to say, but I will pick up on some of the issues that he put forward. He really seems to be out of step with many of his peers across the ACT, across the country and even across the globe.
We know that there are around 50,000 young people who are part of the youth climate change coalition, for instance, who are very concerned about a number of environmental challenges, including peak oil, that are going to be facing us into the
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