What is GreenPower?

GreenPower is renewable energy sourced from the sun, the wind, water and waste that is purchased by your energy company on your behalf. Companies generate electricity at a range of sites across Australia and supply the electricity to a central power grid. Our homes and businesses are connected to this grid so we can access electricity. Traditionally, electricity on the central grid comes from generators that burn coal. Only a small amount (about eight per cent) comes from renewable sources such as sun, wind, water and biomass waste. Energy suppliers who sell accredited GreenPower products buy electricity generated from accredited renewable energy generators on your behalf and feed it into the National Electricity Grid. In Western Australia, the same applies to the South West Interconnected System. Only renewable energy products that display the GreenPower ‘tick’ are government accredited.

 

How does GreenPower work?

When you purchase GreenPower for your event, you are supporting the production of electricity from renewable sources that meet a strict set of environmental criteria. This clean energy does not feed directly into your power supply, but is added to the electricity grid on your behalf through Large-scale generation Certificates (LGCs) that are purchased from the power station by your electricity supplier. When a retailer sells you GreenPower, the sale is registered in their database. At the beginning of the following year, they must purchase the amount of electricity from renewable energy generators (in the form of LGCs) to match their sales. State government audits of GreenPower providers are conducted each year to ensure the number of LGCs match customers’ GreenPower purchases. The more GreenPower that is sold, the more renewable electricity will be generated to match the demand. So using GreenPower for your events is a great way to push for increasing renewable energy supplies in Australia.

Large-scale Generation Certificates (LGCs ) are a form of renewable energy currency that retailers use to buy electricity from power stations. Click here for a detailed explanation of how they work:
http://www.orer.gov.au/power-stations/index.html

How can I see that GreenPower LGCs are surrendered?

The annual transfer of LGCs can be seen on the Office of the Renewable Energy Regulator (ORER) website at https://www.rec-registry.gov.au/getSearchPublicRecHoldings.shtml?recType=LGC. Nearly all the voluntary LGCs surrendered come from GreenPower.

Is GreenPower part of the Government Renewable Energy Target?

No. GreenPower is fully additional to the Government’s Renewable Energy Target. So you know that when you purchase GreenPower you are helping to increase the amount of renewable energy generated in Australia.

To find out where GreenPower generators are located in your state, click on this link.

Currently there are more than 169 new renewable energy generators that are accredited under the GreenPower program.

GreenPower only accredits companies that produce electricity from ‘eligible’ renewable energy resources. List of GreenPower accredited generators (PDF 59KB) To understand more about how renewable energy is processed you can read about a selection of GreenPower accredited renewable energy plants from around Australia by clicking on the examples below.

Albany Wind Farm, WA (PDF 800 KB)

Melbourne Water’s Western Treatment Plant, VIC (PDF 798 KB)

The Mugga Lane and West Belconnen landfills, ACT (PDF 727 KB)

Suncoast Gold Macadamias, QL (PDF 700 KB)

GreenPower is considered carbon neutral electricity consumption under NCOS, and as such, no emissions are added for the part of GreenPower purchased.

For further information, please refer to the Carbon Neutral Program Guidelines: http://www.climatechange.gov.au/government/initiatives/low-carbon-australia/~/media/publications/australian-carbon-trust/carbon-neutral-program-guidelines-pdf.ashx annexe 3

The higher the GreenPower component of your electricity use, the more you are doing to promote the use of renewable energy and reduce the impact of climate change.

As such, offsetting your power as renewable energy can help position your company as a responsible corporate citizen. Offsetting 10 per cent or more of your electricity allows use of the GreenPower logo to promote an environmentally conscious image to your clients and customers.

An offset of 50 to 100 per cent allows you to gain exposure by being listed on the GreenPower website.

An accredited GreenPower product will always carry the ‘tick’ label.

This accreditation label is supported and managed by governments throughout Australia. When you decide to purchase renewable energy make sure you look for the accredited GreenPower ‘tick’ label.

These labels tell you the amount of accredited GreenPower your energy retailer is purchasing on your behalf, as a percentage (10% – 100%) of your household’s electricity consumption. 100% means that your energy supplier purchases renewable energy from accredited GreenPower sources to the amount equal to all of your household’s electricity consumption.

GreenPower is not fully deductible under NGERS.

However, an entity reporting under the NGERS Act can state their use of GreenPower as voluntary renewable energy, and this is reported publicly.

Refer to http://www.climatechange.gov.au/government/initiatives/national-greenhouse-energy-reporting/greenpower-and-renewabl-energy-certificates.aspx

Renewable energy is energy that never runs out. Renewable energy is energy derived from sources that cannot be depleted or energy that can be replaced, such as solar, wind, biomass (waste), wave or hydro. Renewable sources don’t produce greenhouse gas pollution. Eligible renewable resources include:

 

• solar power
• wind
• biomass (landfill gas, municipal solid waste, agricultural wastes, energy crops, wood wastes)
• hydro-electric power (small-scale or on existing dams)
• geothermal energy
• wave and tidal power.

 

Only wood waste sourced from existing sustainably managed forestry plantations and clearing of specified noxious weeds are eligible. Use of any materials from high conservation-value forests is not eligible. Only crops grown on land cleared prior to 1990 are eligible under the GreenPower program. Hydro-electric power projects must have adequate environmental flows. Projects that involve construction of new dams or diversion of rivers are not acceptable under GreenPower.

Biomass is the term used to describe the generation of energy from organically based sources. The energy stored in plants or animals can be captured for energy generation by several different methods such as decomposition, combustion or gasification.

Current GreenPower biomass generators include landfill gas, sewage gas and bagasse (sugar cane waste). There are strict policies on the type of biomass energy that can be used within the GreenPower Program.

Each generation project is assessed on a case-by-case basis depending on its impact on the environment and its acceptance by the community. For example, only sustainable plantation forestry sources are acceptable under the GreenPower Program – GreenPower is not sourced from old growth forests or regrowth native forests.

Solar energy is Australia’s largest energy resource. The average amount of solar energy that falls on Australia is about 15,000 times the nation’s energy use.

The nature of solar energy, however, is that it is an intermittent and diffused source – it’s not available on cloudy days or at night – and it is not concentrated. Solar thermal energy is the part of the solar spectrum that provides heat. Solar water heaters use solar thermal energy to heat water. Photovoltaic cells, known commonly as solar cells, convert the energy from sunlight into direct current electricity, which can be used as is or converted into alternating current similar to the electricity available from the grid.

Wind comes from the movement of air resulting from thermal gradients and the earth’s rotation. Depending on climatic conditions and surface topography, wind can vary significantly in intensity over a day, a season, or a year.

The basis of a successful wind energy facility – or wind farm – is to find a site which has a strong and steady wind. A good wind resource is usually characterised by an average wind speed of more than 6.5 metres per second (23 km/hr).

Hydro-electric generators that are approved for use within GreenPower are those that have minimal impact on the surrounding environment, such as installing a generator in a fast-flowing stream or fitting an existing dam or weir with a power generator.

Hydro generators that involve the construction of new dams that divert water from one river to another or do not allow for adequate environmental flows are not approved within the GreenPower program.

Melbourne Water’s Western Treatment Plant (Werribee) (PDF 798 KB)

Albany Wind Farm (PDF 800 KB)

Suncoast Gold Macadamias (PDF 700 KB)

The Mugga Lane and West Belconnen landfills (PDF 727 KB)

Plant matter uses carbon dioxide (along with water and sunlight) through photosynthesis to grow.

Burning this material converts the energy stored from the sun into electricity and produces carbon dioxide. Burning a renewable resource like plant matter instead of a non-renewable resource like fossil fuels such as coal has a net greenhouse benefit. If plant matter is left to decay in landfill sites it produces methane gas which is 21 times worse than the carbon dioxide produced from burning it.

In addition, most biomass projects use waste products from agricultural processes, such as bagasse from the sugar cane industry.

Organic matter, like that found in rubbish tips, breaks down to produce methane gas. Capturing and burning this methane enables the generation of energy.

This prevents methane escaping into the atmosphere, which has a huge positive impact on global warming because when you compare the individual impact of different greenhouse gases, methane traps 21 times more heat than carbon dioxide.

Hydro-electric generators that are approved for use within GreenPower are those that have minimal impact on the surrounding environment, such as installing a generator in a fast-flowing stream or fitting an existing dam or weir with a power generator.

Hydro generators that involve the construction of new dams that divert water from one river to another or do not allow for adequate environmental flows are not approved within the GreenPower program.

All electricity produced from electricity generators (coal or renewable energy) are provided into an electricity grid. It is the grid operators that ensure reliability to customers, coordinating supply with demand – they gauge when certain generators are operating or idle. Therefore electricity from specific renewable energy generators does not directly go to individual houses and has no impact on reliability.

As demand for accredited GreenPower increases from customers, energy suppliers will buy more renewable energy from new renewable energy generators.

Your investment in accredited GreenPower will feed more energy from clean renewable energy sources into the grid that services your home.

Organic matter, like that found in rubbish tips, breaks down to produce methane gas.

Capturing and burning this methane enables the generation of energy. This prevents methane escaping into the atmosphere, which has a huge positive impact on global warming because when you compare the individual impact of different greenhouse gases, methane traps 21 times more heat than carbon dioxide.

Yes, sugarcane waste (known as bagasse) is used to generate GreenPower. Bagasse refers to the fibrous residue of sugarcane stalks that remain after the cane is crushed to extract the juice.

This waste is burned in a boiler, which produces steam that passes through a steam turbine and generates electricity. This electricity is used in the plant and any excess is sold back to the local electricity grid.

No, palm oil is not used to generate GreenPower.