Sustaining the energy

Sustainability has become the buzzword of industry and government in Australia over the past 10 years. At the moment, it is a modest group of companies and government agencies who are setting up sustainable frameworks that can inspire and teach using energy from renewable sources.

There is financial assistance available for developing such systems, however for them to become commercially viable the changes need to go deep.

The organisations Waste Streams spoke to suggested that different attitudes to energy usage and economic incentives were the keys to change.

Here they explain more about their investments in renewable energy systems and the differing rationales behind them.

Examples of forward thinking

Many companies looking at more efficient ways to power their businesses and work with the broader community have looked to Germany, France, the USA and Netherlands.

These countries, as well as Japan and China, have developed strategic frameworks in ESD that influence national plans, investment and actions towards sustainability through education.

In the case of Adelaide Brighton, the industry was so far advanced in Germany that the company followed its lead in installing a state-of-the-art kiln that is robust enough to adapt to different types of renewable fuel sources.

"We have replaced 20% of the natural gas that we were using with timber. We're saving 80,000 tonnes of this construction waste from going into landfill," says Michael Jones.

Adelaide Brighton is among the top five buyers of natural gas from Origin Energy, powering a plant that produces cement clinker.

It made an initial investment in sustainability of around $10 million, about half on its own site and the rest in setting up a processing facility for its waste timber 'fuel'.

Jones says the company is particularly proud of its achievements in being able to reduce its use of fossil fuel, its greenhouse gas emissions and its ability to burn timber at such high temperatures that all organic chemicals are destroyed and the resultant ash is incorporated into the final product.

"We didn't receive any financial support from government, but it helped a lot to be able to set protocols with the EPA and have their support in community discussion meetings."

The main driver behind this development was a long-term financial plan. Adelaide Brighton wanted to reduce its biggest variable cost, natural gas, become more competitive against Asian imports and produce 'knock-on' effects for the environment. Its financial analysis hasn't gone strictly to plan, as government levies on landfill have not changed as much as expected, however Jones believes it is only a matter of time.

The company was acknowledged in the inaugural Greenhouse Challenge Plus Awards, announced in September, through a Special Commendation earned by the Cement Industry Federation.

Another development in the use of mixed fuels for industry was discovered this year, through the Australian Museum Eureka Prizes, this time from a scientist, Professor Veena Sahajwalla.

She has shown that waste plastic bottles can be used to make steel. The plastic replaces up to 30% of the coal used as a source of carbon in the steel-making process. It's been a hard sell in a conservative industry, but now steel-makers in Australia are picking up her ideas, and could take advantage of more than 800,000 tonnes of waste plastic generated every year.

Different takes on 'green' power

In a contestable market it is difficult to obtain details of how much 'green' energy is being sold in Australia, although there are around 20 accredited providers of energy that derives from renewable resources - primarily wind, solar and biomass. Ergon Energy says that it is selling 'green' electricity to more than 27,000 of its franchise residential customers, representing 4.5% of that consumer group.

The Australian Gas Light Company (AGL) and Symex Holdings Ltd announced in August that they will build a co-generation power plant at Port Melbourne over the next 12 months at a cost of $4.2 million.

This type of model is another way that organisations can power their operations from renewable sources. One example is the Suncoast Gold Macadamias processing site at Gympie, north of Brisbane, that converts 5000 tonnes of waste macadamia nut shells each year into electricity. This $3 million capital investment was undertaken with energy partners Ergon and uses only 20% of the power generated on-site, exporting the rest into the electricity grid.

Dr Stephen Schuck, of Bioenergy Australia, says that if we are serious about reducing carbon dioxide we should focus more on developing bioenergy.

"...there has been a lot of uptake of wind energy but a recent study (Clean Energy Future for Australia) suggests that 29% of our future energy will come from biomass," Dr Schuck said.

The resurgence of Flower Power

Energy and resource manager for Newcastle City Council (NCC), Peter Dormand is one person who believes that Newcastle is Australia's testing ground for new ideas and local government is better placed than anyone to go into unchartered waters.

"We undertook our program to transform the market, to really set an example. Before that it was like the chicken or the egg - we had a company that could produce but no market."

He's referring to the Council's alternative fuels project (or Flower Power project) that has seen 13 different models within its fleet test a new biodiesel for the first time in Australia.

Biodiesel is a cleaner burning fuel made from renewable sources such as recycled restaurant oils and can be used in unmodified diesel engines using current fuelling infrastructure. NCC is using a 20% blend of biodiesel, which is commonly known as B20.

The NSW Roads and Traffic Authority conducted comprehensive emissions testing on the vehicles with results showing a 30% reduction in black smoke and a 39% reduction in particulates when using B20.

If used by the entire fleet, biodiesel would replace 20% of the estimated 1.2 million litres per annum of petroleum-derived diesel consumed by NCC with a renewable fuel. This equates to a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions of approximately 590 tonnes per annum, or a 14% reduction in the City's overall vehicle fleet emissions (including both diesel- and petrol-powered vehicles).

The same vehicles are now subject to a maintenance analysis program that aims to identify benefits or drawbacks associated with the use of B20, and the results of this will be available in early 2006. Given that biodiesel is currently cheaper than regular diesel the only project costs have been for the analysis program, of around $70,000.

Up until 12 months ago, there was no Australian Standard for biodiesel and there are no contracts with the NSW government's supply office for alternative fuel. But Dormand believes there are a large number of organisations waiting on the outcome of the NCC trials that are in the market for this new product.

"The NSW supply office buys 200 million litres of fuel a year...Add to that all local government...about 174 in NSW plus state government departments and they'll all soon have access to normal diesel or biodiesel," he says.

A new city 'flagship'?

Probably one of the most talked about commercial office buildings projects being undertaken in Australia is the new Council House Two (CH2) building in the heart of Melbourne's Little Collins Street. Seen in the light of 20 years of political momentum, director of City Projects Arts and Culture for the City of Melbourne, Rob Adams, says this is not the most ambitious project the city has seen.

"We see this as not so bold, more as common sense in long-term planning. It reflects the philosophy of the city..."

He says as a one-off project it looks ambitious because of the investment - just over $77 million in project costs including $51 million for the CH2 building that incorporates over $11 million in sustainability features - but Adams cites the closing of Swanston Street and the return of residential to the city under the Postcode 3000 scheme as more revolutionary.

Nevertheless, the design and building of Australia's first 6-Greenstar rated building, in CH2, is considered part of the next big agenda item for the City, the environment.

It is predicted the building will save the City of Melbourne up to $1.45 million a year through reduced energy and water consumption and improved productivity, when compared to 2004 costs of salaries, energy and water.

By April 2006, the first employees of the City of Melbourne are expected to move into the 10-storey office building that has sustainable technologies incorporated into every conceivable part of its design.

A water-mining plant in the basement, phase-change materials for cooling, automatic night-purge windows, wavy concrete ceilings, a façade of louvres (powered by photovoltaic cells) that track the sun - even the pot plant holders have involved a whole new way of thinking.

The money came from an investment fund that originated with the sale of the state electricity supplier under the Kennett government, and it is a requirement of the fund that any investment needs to achieve 150% of the current bank rate. "We considered all the commercial components of the project, including retail, and the long-term capitalisation of the building. We also sold one other building and then the rest of the project paid for itself at current bank rates," says Adams.

It is estimated that in 10 years time the sustainability features will have paid for themselves, made up partly by an estimated 4.9% increase in productivity arising from high quality air, increased ventilation rates and improved thermal comfort of occupants.

"When we were putting this together I'd worry about whether it was a sensible thing to do...just based on energy savings it was hard to justify. Then I considered the cost of absenteeism...What if we could reduce that by just one per cent?"

"I think we're quickly coming to the stage where buildings won't be able to afford not to do this...to provide fresh air and wellbeing for employees," says Adams.

Most air conditioning or ventilation systems in commercial buildings use only 10% fresh air and the risks of cross-infection between sick occupants are high, compared to the 100% fresh air performance and underfloor distribution system built into CH2.

A total of 48 square metres of solar panels will provide about 60% of the hot water supply and 26 square metres of photovoltaic cells will generate about 3.5 kW of solar power.

A gas-fired co-generation plant will provide 60 kW of electricity, meeting about 40% of the building's electricity with much lower carbon dioxide emissions. Recycled waste heat from the co-generation plant will provide 40% of the building's supplementary air heating/cooling system.

All these features will mean that CH2 is designed to produce only 13% of the greenhouse emissions of the current Council House during operation.

It hasn't been decided where the remaining 60% of CH2's electricity will be sourced from.