City of Subiaco Commits To 100% Renewables (Electricity)

Western Australia’s City of Subiaco council has developed a corporate carbon reduction plan with the goal of achieving carbon neutrality by June this year and 100% renewable energy for its electricity requirements by 2025.

The City of Subiaco local government area (LGA) is located in the inner metropolitan area of Perth and includes the suburbs of Subiaco and Daglish, along with parts of Shenton Park and Jolimont. At the 2016 census the City had an estimated resident population just north of 17,000.

Council has already made a solid start to reducing carbon emissions through activities such as the installation of solar panels and energy efficient systems, electric and hybrid fleet vehicles. The plan, passed at a Council meeting on Tuesday night, builds on those efforts to date.

The plan contains six targets:

• Obtain and maintain certified carbon neutral status 2020–2030
• 100 per cent renewable energy by 2025
• Energy consumption reduced by 20 per cent by 2025
• Fleet vehicles meet Climate Change Authority’s standard by 2025
• Reduce operational greenhouse gas emissions by 45 per cent by 2030
• Transparency and reporting

More Solar Power For Subiaco

City corporate emissions were trending downwards from 2015–16 to 2018–19 financial years, partly due to the City’s installation of solar  systems on some of its facilities. But carbon emissions for the 2018-19 period were still dominated by use grid electricity use (33% facilities, 24% street lighting).

The City currently has a total solar power generation capacity of 162.78kW spread over the following sites:

• Lords Recreation Centre: 100kW
• Subiaco Library: 31.9kW
• Rosalie Park Store room: 10.88kW
• Subiaco Community Centre: 10kW
• Tom Dadour Community Centre: 10kW

More solar power will be on the way, with renewables to be prioritised by City of Subiaco in the following manner:

• Produced and used on a City site (self-generation). The City owns and operates 39 buildings, so there are still plenty of rooftops left that could potentially host solar panels.
• Produced on and then shared between City sites.
• From a nearby project that is in part enabled by the City being a customer.
• Renewable energy from an accredited source.

Council said it is the first local government in the state prepare a comprehensive corporate carbon reduction plan.

“The adoption of this plan is a significant step for the City and clearly demonstrates our commitment to sustainability and delivering action on climate change, which is important to our community,” said Mayor Penny Taylor.

Beyond the climate aspect, the plan is expected to deliver financial savings as well and Council is hoping some of the costs involved with getting the required infrastructure and systems in place will be covered through state, federal and other grants.

City of Subiaco’s full Corporate Carbon Reduction Plan 2020 – 2030 can be viewed here (starts on page 8).

Within City of Subiaco’s boundaries, solar energy is also very popular in the wider community; with an estimated 19.2% of dwellings having solar power systems installed as at September last year (Source: APVI).