Delivering Integrated Climate Solutions – with Simon Corbell | Auckland Council
Thank. You very much John and good, afternoon everyone and thanks thanks, for being here this afternoon it's a real pleasure and an honor to be here in Auckland to be talking about my. City's journey to. Zero. Or a low-carbon, future and some. Of the learnings, and lessons from Canberra, that, hopefully, are relevant, to. The work that you do here in, Auckland so, it's a real pleasure and a privilege to be here so as John says I like, to say I'm a recovering politician I've, spent 20 years in public. Office and and, now working in the private and public sectors. And. It's a real, passion. Of mine to talk about the role of cities, and communities in, making. A real and practical difference. On, climate, action because so much of the. Conversation that we have at. Our political level as often focus on what national, governments are doing what, central governments are doing to drive climate. Action but so much of the innovation and, so. Much of the leadership. Comes. From, cities. Comes. From regional, communities, comes, from, sub-national. Levels, of government, getting. Their act together and, really demonstrating, innovation, leadership, and, influencing. Others so, tonight, this afternoon I hope I'm able to share with you some. Of the learnings from the acct and, how, Canberra. Has a relatively, small place in, Australia, has actually had an impact. Nationally. In terms of policy in, the climate, action. Transport. And clean. Energy space, so. Tell you a little bit about Canberra. To start with. It's. Not a we're not a big city. 400,000, odd residents. And. Unique, in the Australian, context. Canberra. As. A self-governing. Territory, Canberra as a self-governing Territory, has. The, same sort of powers as a state government in. Australia but it also has, local. Council responsibilities. So that's quite unique in, the Australian, context because in other parts of Australia you'll, have three levels of government you'll, have local. State, and federal all in, the acct you just have just to you. Have a CT which is local and state and then. You have the federal government sitting over the top so we, have some interesting. Advantages. I would argue from having that integration, of city, municipal functions, and state-level, functions. So. I, thought, I'd just start many. Of you will be familiar with this this metric. But it's well worth restating, that the, challenge of climate is, a challenge. For overwhelmingly. For urban communities, a. Majority. Of the world's population now live, in urban, environments. In cities or. Other urban, conglomerations. And they. Are fundamentally. Threatened, by, the changes, that are associated with. A warming climate, importantly. We. Also know, that 75%. Of, the world's. Carbon emissions are associated, with activity, in cities so. Cities, are where it's at in, terms. Of taking. Climate, action, so don't ever let anyone tell you that cities. Can't make a difference cities can make all the difference because that's where.
That's. Where the activity. Is generated, that is driving the, impact on climate. And. That's reflected of course in some key, frameworks. That I know Auckland's, heavily engaged in through the c40, cities. Movement. But, also through, other movements, for smallest, states. And regions called. The compact of of. States and regions and also the compact, of Mayors where. These, are. Organizing. Bodies, that are bringing together states, and regions from across the world to, take action on climate so. Whether it's clean energy whether. It's, waste. To energy technologies. Whether it's public transport, whether it's adaptation. These. Are all the frameworks, that these cities are signing. Up for and I think what was really empowering, was to see many, of these, actors. Being, asked to take, part. In the, Paris climate negotiations. A couple of years ago I had the privilege to be in, Paris, for some of the discussions. Watching. What, the Australian a delegation, was doing which was an interesting interesting, thing but. Fundamentally. What was very encouraging. Was, that the. UN recognized. That it was in their. Interests, to get. Cities. And regional, governments to come into the Paris negotiations and. That, was twofold, one was to demonstrate innovation, and, the types of activity, that, was happening in the climate space at a sub-national level but. Also to put pressure on national governments to, lift their ambitions, and, to sign up to. A more rigorous climate. Commitment, so. States. And regions and cities were. Already, engaged in, that climate Paris. Process, and were instrumental, and if you listen to Christiana. Figueres the, the lead UN negotiator. She would say herself cities. And regions were. Critical, in influencing. The positive, outcome that came out of Paris so these are very very important. Global, movements, that we and cities are apart, of. So. I'd like to talk to you a bit about Canberra. The insights, and lessons of, the Canberra sustainability. Journey and how that's relevant potentially, to some of the work that you're doing here in Auckland. So, starting at the beginning the. Acct has three, key, metrics. On, climate. Change passion. The, first is to achieve net, zero emissions, across. The ICT economy, by, the year 2050. The, second, is to achieve a 40%, reduction in. Greenhouse gas, emissions, by. 2020. And, the third is to achieve a hundred, percent renewable. Electricity, across. The ICT economy, by the same year of 2020. These. Are very very strong and, progressive, targets, they, certainly, were when they were implemented, in 2010. And. They remain credible, and relevant targets. Today, they, were based very much on what the science was telling us about what, the proportionate. Commitment, should be from. A city the size of Canberra. To, make. Its contribution. Towards. Achieving a safe climate future which again is to, keep the climate change. To within two, degrees globally. So. These, are, milestones. That, have stood the test, of time this. Graphic that you can see is from, a recent report by the AC T Commissioner for sustainability, and the environment which. Seeks to sort, of outline our, climate, journey and what, it reflects is that in 2010. When, our targets, were first settled upon we. Had gone through a very very, long process of community. Engagement so. In the period from, 2007. Through to 2010. We, saw a real groundswell, of activity, at a community level largely. Led by people out of the university, sector students. Academics. But, then also the broader business community, and we, saw movements, in our city like Canberra, labs 40%, which. Was a ginger. Group established to, promote a 40%. With greenhouse gas reduction, target for our city and that ultimately gave us the political licence, we needed to. Legislate. Our very. Strong and binding. Greenhouse. Gas targets, so in 2010, the. Climate change of greenhouse gas reduction, Act was established it. Puts those targets, into law here. Requires annual, reporting. To, the AC T's Parliament, on progress, against those targets it, establishes, an expert, advisory, panel called the AC T climate, Council to, provide, independent. Expert, advice to government on how to achieve those. Targets and. A range of other reporting, mechanisms, including, an annual greenhouse. Gas inventory. So, this, was very very strong legislation, at the time it was one of only. Two. Legislated. Greenhouse gas reduction, targets, in. The country but, has since been mirrored, by. A number of other jurisdictions in, particular a number of large jurisdictions such.
As Victoria. In, Australia, so, these. Are these. Are the, basis, on which we moved, forward and and worked out well what do we do next how. Do we actually, achieve. These very very strong targets, which the community, and across, government, people have said these are the right things to do so, it's a bit of a topsy-turvy process, but politics is not. Always a perfect process and. Sometimes you set targets, and work, out what you're going to do about them afterwards. So. In, the ACS, case what we realized, was that the, fastest, way to achieve, that 40% reduction and to give you perhaps some of the metrics of this in real terms across. The acct economy. Every. Year we emit, about 4 million tonnes of carbon, a. 40%. Reduction on, a 1990. Baseline year is actually, getting us down from 4 million to a close, to 2 million per. Year so. That's a very very big drop over. A period of just a decade that we had to lock in so. We looked at the emissions profile, of the city and the. Predominant. Source of emissions, 60%, of all emissions that came from Canberra, economy. Was. Use, of energy. In, the. Stationary energy sector so mostly, electricity. And to, a lesser degree gas, in, buildings, so, decarbonizing. The electricity, supply sector, became the, key, task for us to, make, this first step change, and meet this first big milestone, in 2020, so. We, set a target. Ultimately. It was to achieve a hundred percent we didn't start with a hundred percent we only started with ninety percent but. That was the target, that. We agreed we needed to. Decarbonize, the electricity, supply sector, and then, we had to work out well what was the best way of doing. That and the. Best way that we determined, to do that was a combination of rooftop, solar, as. Well. As large-scale. Wind. And solar projects. Contracted. By the AC t government. So the ASA T government chose to use its purchasing, power to. Contract. The, development, of large-scale, wind. And solar projects, and use, the green certificates. That come came from those projects, to effectively, offset. The, emissions associated with. The AC TS electricity, supply. Sector, so, you, can see the photo in the in the slide is, of, the first, renewable. Energy project, contracted, by the AC T it, was a 24. Megawatt. Large-scale. Solar farm at a place called really. It's. About, it's. About half an hour's drive from the city center it's within the AC T jurisdiction, and it. Was the first large-scale, solar, farm. Ever. Connected, to the National electricity market in Australia, it. Was the largest, solar. Farm of its type, at, the time at 24, megawatts in Australia, and. It. Delivered. At the time a record low price for. Renewable. Energy generation, now. This was in 2014. So. In 2014. 24. Megawatts was, the largest, solar farm ever, built four, years later here, in. 2018. Solar. Farms in Australia, are regularly, exceeding, two to three hundred megawatts, in size so. In four years time the, industry, has just transformed. In. Australia, but at the time this was the first and there, was a lot of learnings, about how do you build large-scale. Ground-mounted. In. Australia, now. Since I've been in New Zealand I've discovered there's a lot of discussion, about does. Solar make sense, in. New Zealand then in a place like Auckland. What. I would say to you is that Canberra can be pretty cold cloudy. And. Foggy. In winter, but, we still have a large-scale solar farm and. If you think about the penetration of solar. Into, markets like southern Germany, I think, it'd be fair to say that if it can work in places like Canberra, and southern Germany, there's no reason why it can't work in a place like New Zealand it's about, making.
Making, And developing, your specific, business case to demonstrate, that it can but, I'm based on the solar radiation alone there's no reason why, it shouldn't. So. What, was really striking about this project as well was it was the first time, that. We chose to use a new, contracting. Method called, a reverse option so, a reverse option was. A mechanism where, you, ask for the solar. Developers, to come forward with, their price, that. They need to be paid to get a project built you, choose the lowest price and. Then you offer them what's called a contract for difference which is basically, guaranteeing. Them a set price they. Sell the electricity into, the wholesale, electricity market if. They sell for less than the set price you pay them the difference if they, sell for more than the set price they, pay you the difference and what's, been great about the acct experience, through this, reverse auction program is that. Frequently. ICT. Consumers, are being paid for. The green electricity that they have contracted, because, the wholesale electricity price is higher, than. The contract price that the project's are contracted, to so, this is a very very powerful way to drive, development of. Large-scale, renewables. By using your, government's, purchasing, power to. Drive the, uptake of a new clean energy economies. We, built confidence that. We, could deliver projects, in an efficient way in a cost-effective way that the market would respond, to and we, also built, confidence, in terms of price now just go back to the other slide for a moment and you'll see down the bottom the, price for this project was a hundred and eighty five dollars in May one hour which. Was very competitive. At the time it. Was well below that anticipated. By the, economic. Modelling that was being done at the time by the Australian, Bureau of Resource. Economics. At, the time the Australian Bureau of Resource Economics estimated. The cost of large-scale solar in Australia would be around 220 dollars a megawatt hour but. With some good real, market, price discovery we. Were able to find that it was actually much lower than that and now, large-scale, solar in Australia, is, probably about $80. A megawatt, hour so prices have continued, to come down over the next four over the last four years. So. From that we really got cracking and decided this was a mechanism that worked how. Else, can. We can. We grow, clean, energy generation for, our city and decarbonize. Our electricity supply sector we, ended up contracting. Seven, large-scale, solar farms, across. The country. Two, in South Australia sorry three in South Australia two in Victoria, and two. In New South Wales as well as another two large-scale.
Solar Farms, in the AC t altogether, nearly 700. Megawatts, of large-scale. Generation. And. Importantly. We. Also were. Able to get a lot of Co investment. Or economic, development outcomes, from those projects, so I don't know whether many of you are familiar with the Australian, energy market, but it's. It's, an interconnected, system that, stretches all the way from, sort. Of central South Australia, all, the way up to past Cannes in Far North Queensland, the, national electricity market, is a fully interconnected market. Across the southeast. And, central. Australian. Seaboards, and includes. Tasmania. With a an. Undersea, cable, that takes. Electricity from Tasmania, to the mainland, so, it's, an interconnected, system so, you can contract a, project, anywhere, in that system and still. Get the credit for the green electricity, that's that's. Coming from those projects, so, as a small, jurisdiction. We chose to use the. Broader national electricity, market. To support, development, of our projects, and, by doing that we got very efficient. Sites. With good wind, or solar resources, that would be productive in, terms of generation, but. In but, because we did that we. Had to make sure that the companies, we contracted, with were. Still returning, benefits, to, our city because. If you're building a wind farm in Victoria, or South Australia, that's where the construction jobs are they're not happening in Canberra. Even though we as the, city government were the client, so. What we said - they're in - those, wind. And solar developers, is what are you going to bring to our city, if. We give you a contract as part of this auction what, commitments, are you prepared to make to, economic, development in our city and we've, got some really amazing, outcomes, and these I think are relevant things, to think about if, as a city government you're involved, in contracting, renewable, energy in some, way moving forward, we, got for example for wind.
And Wind. Development. Companies, to open their operations, or headquarters, functions, in, Canberra, so, they make commitments to run their businesses, from Canberra, for the next 20 years and. Not only do they do that they said every time they as a wind or solar business built. A new wind farm in some other part of Australia, or in some circumstances, in some other part of Southeast. Asia even, they. Were going to run that project, from Canberra so, every time they, open a new wind farm every time they open their solar farm they're running that business from the AC T and they're. Employing more. Technicians. And engineers and. Other people in, the AC T so he's growing, an employment, base in our city so, we ended up with four, significant. Global, wind developers, opening, their businesses, in, Canberra, neo, in a French wind. Developer. CWP, and wind, lab our Australian, wind developers, and a Spanish wind developer, called. GPG. Also. Opened, their offices in Canberra as a result, we. Also got investment, into our education. Sector so, the AC T is a knowledge-based economy. And export, manufactured. Goods but it exports, training, skills education, knowledge and so. We have a strong tertiary, education, sector we, have four universities. We, have federal research, institutions. Like the CSIRO. We. Have private. R&D. Activity, in the city so, we wanted to strengthen that part of our economy because that was our natural strengths so, we ended up getting over. Five hundred million, dollars worth of investment. Into our city including. Funding. Into our tertiary education, sector to. Fund new training, in wind resource mapping skills. For example at a master's, level at the university, skills. Trade training for, wind turbine maintenance. So. That people who were working on wind farms could actually be trained in how to do that adults adult, safe rather than in some other part of the world which is what was happening previously. And, investment, in new technologies like hydrogen, and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles these. Were all commitments. That, were made by those, winners. In our reverse oxygen programs, so I guess, a message for you there is if, you're using government, contracting. Power you, need to be thinking about how, you leverage Co, benefits, from your partners, these, are not things that are, requiring. Any, taxpayer, subsidy, or grant, they. Are entirely, driven as part of the package you get for, contracting, with. A wind or solar developer. So. This program really had a lot of policy. Influence, and I guess the key message for you today is if you have policy. Innovation, you are going to have influence. On, other, levels of government and, you're, going to be able to get them to do more of what you think is the right thing to do because, you've shown them that it works so in this case the, reverse option program, has since been adopted by the Victorian, Government and, the Queensland Government who have both used reverse auctions, for over, a thousand, megawatts of renewable, energy, generation in. Their jurisdictions. It's, also been used in New South Wales and importantly. Some. Other innovations, that came with the program such as for the first time require. Auction participants. To have, community. Engagement, outcomes, as part of their proposals, and. Co-benefit. And economic development, outcomes as I've just mentioned as part of their proposals, have, been copied by other jurisdictions. So, this really shows that if you've got a really, good sustainability. Innovation, other. Levels, of government are, going to look at what you're doing and, go well, we'd, like a piece of that how do we do that. And that's so for a small jurisdiction. You, can still have, influence, you can still drive, change, and I think that's a really important message from. The acct experience. And. One, other one other thing that's worth mentioning, from. The. ICT reverse oxygen program, was we also established. A, distributed. Battery storage initiative. So. We, have, supported. 36. Megawatts, of distributed. Battery storage across the city it's about 5,000.
Sites When it's fully subscribed, in 2020. And, that's all being funded, by the money that came from the winners of our reverse option program, so again no government, grant no, taxpayer, money, cash. Contributions. Explicitly. Requested, from our bidders as a, condition, in participating, in our last reverse option program and that, it that will. Save us in terms. Of electricity, network augmentation. Somewhere. Between 30, and 80 million dollars worth, of additional capital. That, would otherwise have to occur to manage growth in, our electricity, network so, another, really good. Way that you can drive innovation, but also deliver, real value back. To your community. In terms of avoided, costs, in. Your electricity networks, because, I was making those costs are all passed on of course to. Consumers. I. Do. Like to include the slide this. Is the horns, Dale wind farm stages. 1 2 & 3 were. Supported, by the a city government contracted, to the acct for our green electricity supply, it's. One of the largest wind farms in Australia it's in South Australia and. Importantly, it's, also now the site of Elon, Musk's big, battery project, I'm sure many of you have heard of. The big battery project in Australia it's, the largest. Industrial. Scale, battery, project. In the world to date and. It, is hosted at the horns Dale wind farm so, as a consequence, of the AC T's, contracting. We, gave the South Australian government the platform, to, come in and deploy the. Big battery and importantly. That battery, is managed, by one. Of those wind companies that. Runs its business from the ICT so, again, it just really shows you get this lovely momentum, happening and other things start to come in behind this. Is a project that's attracted, global, interest and it's, really used a platform, of some of the some, of the work that was laid a couple of years before in, the AC T reverse auction program. Oops. So, I guess one, of the things I'm kinda sharing today is there are real opportunities and, sharing the benefits of the clean energy transition. The. Level, of investment in new, build, energy, generation, globally. Is. Estimated. Between now, and twenty, forty, to. Be. Ten. Point two, trillion. Dollars. So. Between now and twenty, forty a cording, to Bloomberg. New Energy Finance the, amount of money that will be spent globally, on new, energy, generation, of all, types of technology ten, point two trillion dollars and breaking. That up eighty percent, of that ten point two trillion will. Be in, clean. Energy, generation. Technologies. So, yes people are still building coal plants and gas plants and so on but. They're building a lot more of clean. Energy. Generation. Facilities. So. The challenge for all of us if we. Are running a city government, if we're running a business if, we're a community based organization, for. Running a regional, government or a central government is how do we make sure our, communities. Get a share of that. Ten point two trillion, dollars, worth of investment, that's, circulating, around the globe over, the next thirty years how, do we make sure we get our fair share of that and get, benefits, for our local community, as a result and, that's, what we try to do with, the ICT you.
Can See some of the metrics there I've mentioned them already. But the headline figures, five, hundred million dollars worth of investment, into the ICT, economy, only. Seven hundred megawatts, of projects, supported, as a result of that but. Investment, in our universities. And research, skills in development, in in, hydrogen fuel cell technology, micro. Grid and battery storage technology, so, really. Those, are enduring, benefits to. Our community, as a result of a one-off procurement. And it's, well worth thinking. About that when you're devising, your own strategies. So. When our on track to achieve 100% renewables. By the year 2020, you can see the emissions drop dramatically. In. The next year or so when all the projects finally come online and are actually generating, a number, of them are still being built but, when they are all generating, the. ACS emissions, will fall. And. We will achieve a 20%. Sorry a 40 percent reduction in our, emissions, profile, but, that leaves us then with the next challenge. Which. Is. All. The other parts of the economy they're actually a lot harder than electricity. So, transport. Waste. Natural. Gas natural, gas is a big. Energy source in Australia, I know not so much here in New Zealand but natural. Gas is used for a lot of home heating and. Obviously. For cooking and industrial, processes, in Australia, so that is a that is an important, emissions. Source. That has to be addressed as. Well as a range of other sectors but, what this chart shows you is if, you look at the the. Green, and. The yellow I, think. That's right I'm sorry I'm colorblind so I don't always get those right. You. Can, see the electricity, sector there, sits. At 57%, in the grain and goes to zero in. 2020. But, Transport. As a share of emissions, goes. From 25, percent to, 62 percent. So. Transport. Emissions become, our next big challenge as a city, how, do we how, do we decarbonize. The transport, sector and to a lesser degree the waste sector, as, well as the contribution, of natural gas so, that is where the attention, of Canberra now from a policy perspective is, shifting, and this. Is a challenge that is familiar with many cities around, the world. So. The first big step change for us is to, make the leap and invest in a large-scale light rail project, for our city camber. Is designed to be a city of the cars anyone been to Canberra. How. Have you found it getting around without a car, it's. It's, hard going so. 90 it's a beautiful city but, it's very very dispersed, and very, Caroline. So, 92%. Of all journeys, all journeys in the city are by the. Car so. Encouraging. Strong modal shift to other forms of transport is critically important, if we're going to reduce the emissions intensity, in, the transport, sector and, when the kilos are going to do that is to focus on bringing.
For The first time world-class. Public, transport, to the city in, the development, of a light rail network this, is stage one a seven, hundred and fifty million dollar, public-private. Partnership, twelve kilometres from the northern, developing. Subversive suburbs. Of the city into. The city center it'll. Be a hundred percent renewable. In terms, of its operations, and its electricity supply, it, will be the first tram, system, in the country that will allow bikes onboard so you be able to bring your bike on board as part of your journey take. It off and keep going as. You, finish, your journey in another part of the city so, we're really focused, on livability. Around. The delivery of this network and we're, also very very focused on urban redevelopment along. The. Light. Rail corridor, so, a lot of redevelopment, activity. And densification, and, transit, oriented development is, occurring along the corridor, associated. With, this very very big. Change for, our city. So. The picture you see there is of the the terminus, in the city centre so. I'm. Talking with that oops. Not. Too far. Showed, you my punchline doesn't matter. So. That's that's, a picture of the light rail network coming, in from the northern suburbs that'll be what so you can see there's already densification. Occurring. And whilst that's an artist's impression that's, actual development, that's already occurred along the corridor as a result of the, decision to invest in this light rail already, so we're already getting densification. As, a consequence. This. Project. Central. To achieving modal, shift what, was very interesting about this project and I'm sure it's not an unfamiliar. Story here in New Zealand and elsewhere is, the debate about the economics, of the project was a really big political. Debate in our city so. We today we did a business case for the development this project, it, had a cost-benefit. Analysis of. About 2.3. So. For every dollar spent there was just over $1, in. Additional. Value, but. That was considered pretty marginal, by. The economists, and, it. Was used, as a critique of. The, project, by those who were opposed to it interestingly.
In. In Australia, just in the last week one. Of our leading economic, think tanks the place is called a group, called the Grattan Institute came, out and said that there should be a change in, the discount rates, used, for. Calculating, large-scale, urban public. Transport projects. And to, reduce, the discount, rate how, to more properly reflect, the value of money over time and the. The relative benefit, of large-scale. Rail, projects, I. Only, wish they'd said that about two years ago when. We were having the debate about the Capital Metro project, and the relative economic value, of it it, would have been an easier argument, to, prosecute, but. It nevertheless highlights. That so much is integral, in how. You devise, the rationale, for these projects, but, also your willingness to stick with them when you know it's the right long-term decision, even. When some. Of the metrics you know are not as robust, as you. Wish they were, because. Of assumptions. Around things like discount, rates which is certainly. Something we're from within the development of this projects. Business. Case. So. It ended up being a. Very. Tough political fight. Unfortunately. The. Decision to build this project led right up to an AC t election. So. We, had our, political opponents, fighting. To say we're going to cancel this project, we're not going to proceed with light rail we're, going to invest in more Road infrastructure, etc, etc, or we're going to invest in things like hospitals. And, things. Like that other than other. Than a seven hundred and fifty million dollar project, it was a very very tough very. Hard-fought. Political. Campaign. But, importantly, the. Government had locked in behind, this business case it recognized, that. This. Was a long-term investment, for the city it was going to make a difference, and we, needed to persevere, even when we, had polls showing us that 45% of people didn't. Support it. So. The question was the, poll that counted, on election, day how did we go. And the answer that is that. My. Colleagues were returned, I wasn't contesting, that election. But. My colleagues were returned to a fifth, term in government and they, committed not just to the completion, of stage one but to build stage two so. That, paradigm, shift in thinking about transport. Already. Paid, dividends, and we, suddenly, had commitment, to say we're going to take stage two to. Take it from the city center at the top of that map across. The lake and down, to the south side of the city through the parliamentary, triangle through, all the national institutions. Parliament. House and so on and then, down to the southern suburbs of Canberra so a really big win.
That, Fundamentally. Remakes, the structure of our city by, investing, for the first time in, dedicated. Public. Transit, using. A light, rail vehicle. So. Where to next, got. Light rail happening, we've got renewable, energy happening some of the areas that we're now starting to focus on is electric buses. Decarbonizing. The electric bus fleet is a really important, task in terms, of the HDR it's own target, to achieve carbon-neutral. Operations. By 2020. 20%, of the government's. Emissions. Are associated, with the operation of the public transport, fleet it's a government-owned, public. Transport, fleet, so, there's. An opportunity to look at using electric. Buses, for the first time rather than the the. Emissions. Euro standard, diesel. Buses, that are currently used and. There are real benefits of this not just from a decarbonisation, perspective, but, also from a, a, urban. Amenity. Perspective, electric. Buses are quiet so. They reduced that noise pollution impact, they're very suitable for operating in, pedestrianised. Environments. But also similarly in closed environments, if you want to bring up a bus, into a semi enclosed mall or something like that electric. Buses work very well in that environment and there's, also no. Particulate. Pollution. Associated. With. The fuel consumption, so. The particulate. Pollution you get from diesel is still, present. Even with the, very high standards, that are applied today in terms of emissions but, still there has a, pollution. Problem in cities, and again that's not particularly, suitable in high or, Benoist environments. So. That's a picture of the electric. Bus that's being a child by the a city government at the moment and both, South Australia, and Queensland. Governments are also trialing. The use of electric, vehicle. Buses, right now. Hopefully. That will work for me shortly.
Okay. And. The great advantage about, electric buses of course is that there are also batteries, on wheels, so, this is a mobile battery, storage. Capability. Not, just a public, transport, benefit. Or a decarbonisation. Benefit so the the illustration, you can see there shows that buses. Tend, to work in a morning peak in an afternoon peak and bus fleets are not so busy in the, middle of the day and many. Buses at least in the acct different. Cities will vary return, to Depot and sit in Depot over the middle of the day and then go back out in the afternoon for, the art noon peak so. This Alliance, very well with, a process, that involves charging first, of all overnight whether you're using say. A wind resource, or some, other form of renewable resource. Excuse me over the night time for charging, buses. Operating, in the morning peak, return. To Depot, and. Certainly in the Australian context the capacity, to have charging, with, solar. Over. The middle of the day so recharge, over the middle of day with rooftop, solar at your Depot or some other location, or through, a power. Purchase agreement, with a large scale solar project, or wind project, and. Then operations. In the afternoon, coming. Back into the depot late in the afternoon and. Delivering. Some electricity arbitrage. In. The late afternoon peak, when. Demand is at its highest everyone's, coming home from school from work switching. On their appliances, switching, on their cooling or their heating whatever it may be and. Those batteries are able to discharge, and. Sell. At value later. In the day so this is a really powerful model, that's now starting to be explored, in the Australian, market. It. Can. We. Did, some figures on what was possible, initially, in the AC t4 40 buses 12. Megawatt hours of storage. Potentially, could be deployed from those 40 buses it, would avoid electricity. Network augmentation. Again in parts of the electricity, network. But. It would still allow you to get that flexibility. In terms of your bus operations. During, the day. And, importantly. It delivers some real savings about 30%. Reduction in your operational, savings against. Business as usual for diesel buses so. That's a really powerful, saving. If you're running a electric. Bus. Fleet or, paying for a bus fleet if you can get a 30% reduction in your, operational, costs mostly, through fuel savings, then. That's a really significant. Reduction, there's also some savings, there associated, with. Maintenance. Because electric buses have less moving parts and so on they're a little bit less maintenance intensive.
Compared. To diesel. Yes. We'll. Look there would be an operational, decision for the bus operator in. The AC t, the. Main price. Is not the main. Consideration. In terms of whether or not people use buses is actually frequency. And reliability, that are the key drivers in people. Choosing, to swap from cars to public transport, so I guess to go a bit further on that we worked out that for. The cost of procuring, 40 diesel buses you could get 45. Electric. Buses in. Terms. Of the the. Net present value saving, over, business-as-usual, so. You could actually effectively. For the amount of money you are spending on diesel buses you could get more electric and have more electric on the road and that's. Probably a better outcome in, terms of more. Of bus availability. Better frequency, and so, on which are the real factors, that drive patronage. Prices. People. In camber pay more for parking, than they do to pay to travel, on public. Transports so it's more about convenience, and and. Frequency. Than it is about price. So. You can see that the two charts they're diesel. Very. Big cost associated with fuel that's. Saving, you. Know that costs greatly reduced. On. Electric. As well as a reduction in. Maintenance, and then you get a little bit of electricity. Arbitrage, on top where you're selling electricity, at. Times, when it has high value, because. You've been storing it and are able to dispatch it. Into the grid so a really powerful opportunity. That's now being explored by a number of state governments, in, Australia, and. Hopefully. Here in New Zealand as well. The. Other. Initiative. I was keen to talk to you about briefly was Zero Carbon communities. And I've chosen one in Canberra, called. Gin and dairy, which. Is out on the urban western, edge of Canberra, so it's not a good place to build a suburb in terms of accessibility. It's, about 30 kilometres from the city centre, it's. Poorly served by public transport cause it's right on the urban edge but. Despite, that the. Developers, here have made a genuine, commitment to improve the. Whole of life costs, for people who are living in the suburb and reduce. The carbon intensity, of a, new suburban development, so, here first of all they're applying the six star green star communities. Tool from. The Green Building Council, of Australia, it'll. Be the first new Australian suburb to trial all new, electric, solutions, so for the first time natural. Gas is being stripped out of the. Suburb development, and. That's that requires, regulatory. Change because you've got to, give. The developer, an exemption from the Planning, and Development code. That. Would otherwise require them, to reticulate, natural gas as standard, through the suburb, and. We're, mandating, rooftop, solar, in. In. That development. And. What, sort of savings, is that delivering, or. Will that deliver for house holds. Sorry. There, we are. Combined. With all-electric. Heating and cooling heat, pumps for hot water, as. Well, as a mandatory, energy. Efficiency rating of six stars for those dwellings. The. Business-as-usual case on the graph which is the, column. On the far left. Is. An average household, price for, energy, of about two thousand five hundred dollars a year for. Gas and electricity it's. Pretty standard in, Australia, it's higher in, Canberra. It's higher in other parts of Australia, but. The option that's been chosen for the child gets that household. Cost down to. Under. A thousand, dollars a year in. Terms of their ongoing energy costs each and every year so. There's a real, opportunity. To. Design. Our, suburbs, smarter. By. Using all-electric. Solutions, and combining, them with distributed. Generation. And. That's without some. Of the other options that would achieve even greater savings, around. Storage, distributed. Storage so. One of the options option, six and option seven involved. Distributed, storage and a micro grid to. Allow electricity to be traded, between. Households, that. Hasn't been implemented but you can see the savings are even greater around six, to. Seven. Hundred dollars a year. Electricity. And energy bill rather. Than the two and a half thousand, the households, are paying at the moment so, a really powerful example, of what's possible to. Get a developer on board who's thinking about the importance, of selling.
Their Subdivision. Not just as a short term land. Availability. Question. But as a long term whole. Cost, of living equation. And I, think that's a really great example that we want to see more developers, mirror in. The actn, in Australia. Finally. The AC does have an adaptation strategy. But. I went to a lot about that except. To note that it's an important, part of the, overall sustainability, picture. For our city. And John's, telling me that we need to wrap up so. I'm going to wrap up and just, leave you with some key messages. And. The first of those, his. Leadership, has influenced, policy, innovation, as if influence, if. You if, you work with community, and if. You get. Some momentum, in, your sustainability, issues. You, really start to build a virtuous. Circle where you get more innovation, and competition, to, show who's best and, I think that's the great outcome you can get from, being on this journey, thanks. Very much your opportunity to talk to you today. Simon. We have. About five minutes for questions and, he. Kind of went everywhere, there in terms of all the solutions that we basis. So if, we can keep it short and sharp with with, a couple few questions and I, don't, know if. It. Has to be all three at once but I think policy, and innovation. Can. Be, very. Powerful in combination, so I think, build build, confidence that your policy solutions, are robust, and work with. Key decision-makers. Show. That and and. Get. An early win find, an early win that helps you build momentum so get a try. And find a little landmark. Project. Doesn't have to be huge but a landmark, project that, demonstrates. That the innovation works. And, that, the assumptions, behind it are robust, because. Then you get political leaders, wanting to go and stand next to it and have their photo taken right and that, that's got to be the best way of building. Momentum to do more in influencing, decision makers so I'd really get. I'd. Lead, with policy, and innovation and get. An early win get. An early landmark, even. Modest win, on the ground that. Allows you to do more. Yes. Yes. Yeah. So waste is a really big challenge in, this giant context and I don't know if you've noticed but. In. A place like Victoria. The. Chinese government's, just refused to take all this recycling, material, from the Australian market is, that happening here - yeah. So it's it's a really big problem, it, sort of puts a lie to our recycling, efforts in a way doesn't it makes us think again about how sustainable. Our solutions, are so. In the AC T -. Things that are being looked at the. First is. Recycling. Or Putra scible waste from. The domestic. Waste stream so household, rubbish collection at, the moment organic waste is not separated, out from the other way stream we do have plastics. And glass and paper, recycling, separated, but, we don't have food. Waste and other general wastes separated, so, the, development of a petrest will waste recycling, facility, to separate, out. That organic waste and use it either. For energy generation or, composting, type. Product. Is what's, being explored at the moment the, other is in terms of. Human. Waste through, the sewage system the, sewage system. There. Is a sludge. Product, created. At the end of sewage, tertiary, sewage, treatments which. In the acct is currently incinerated, using. Heavy fuel oil, so, we're looking at a bio digester. Technology. So. I, create. Methane, and use that for energy generation and, that could also be applied for participa. Food, waste as well so. That's what's happening in the way Singh. Just. Before we. Before. We dive down. Yeah. So that reflects that what that reflects is part. Of our projection, is our proportionate. Share of the. Australian, national target Australian. Greenhouse. Gas emissions and what happened was when the carbon price was repealed, I was asked this last night and I went and I wouldn't, had to think about it and I realized now what it is when, the carbon price was revealed, the emissions intensity the Australian economy went back up.
So. That reflects, our proportionate. Increase. Of, that overall national increase, so. Emissions, emissions, have gone back up, since. The carbon price was repealed, in. 2016. I think that was. 2015.
2018-04-04 01:12
