Few Homes Make Switch

Newcastle Herald

Saturday July 19, 2008

MATTHEW KELLY ENVIRONMENT

FEW Hunter households are making the switch to green power despite a decade of concerted marketing to encourage the use of renewable energy.

Cost and doubts about the credibility of green power appear to be significant factors deterring residents from making the move.

About 200,000, or 8 per cent of the state's households, subscribe to either full or partial green power. The figure has tripled in the past year.

Although an overall Hunter figure was not available, energy providers said take-up rates in the region were similar to elsewhere in the state.

EnergyAustralia Hunter spokesman Allyn Hamonet said about 5500 of its 61,000 NSW green power customers were in the Hunter.

The slow take-up was reflected in a 2006 Hunter Valley Research Foundation survey that found 76 per cent of residents said they would be prepared to pay more for green power but relatively few were signing up.

Newcastle City Council energy and resource manager Peter Dormand said he believed more consumers would buy green power if they could see a local return on their investment.

"If people were actually able to see what they were investing in, I think it would make a significant incentive for people to make the change," he said.

Instead of buying green power, the council adopted a strategy of energy conservation, he said.

The strategy had resulted in the administration building reducing its energy consumption by 63 per cent since 1995.

The reduction was 40 per cent across all council properties.

NSW Energy Minister Ian Macdonald said since its introduction a decade ago, green power had been responsible for cutting greenhouse gas emissions in Australia by about 5 million tonnes.

"In NSW we have introduced laws that require retailers to offer a least 10 per cent green power to new or moving residential customers," he said.

"NSW leads the nation in the amount of green power purchased, [with] 2007 figures indicating that NSW customers represented 34.2 per cent of voluntary green power purchases."

© 2008 Newcastle Herald

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