Archive for September, 2009

When considering the economic advantages of going solar, it is important to take rising electricity prices into consideration. In the 2009/10 financial year, Queenslanders will experience a price rise of almost 16 per cent in electricity; New South Wales electricity prices will go up 20 per cent, Western Australia 10 per cent and the Northern Territory 18 per cent. In South Australia, residential customers will experience an increase of 4.4 per cent.

If you have an electric hot water system, installing solar hot water will reduce your energy bills. However if you install a solar power system, not only will you reduce the amount of electricity you consume from the grid, in those states with a feed-in tariff you can sell electricity back into the grid.

Meet three Green Loan assessors, qualified and accredited with the Federal Government’s Green Loans Program. Having kicked on 1 July, this program is all about making it affordable to reduce your household’s carbon footprint.

Each assessor has been trained to thoroughly check out your home and help you get an interest-free loan of $10,000 for green home improvements such as solar power and hot water.

If you live on the Sunshine Coast and you call the Green Loans hotline to book a home assessment, chances are they will send Andre, Matthew or Dagmar to check our your home. You can also call them directly to book an assessment.

• Andre Odore has been involved in building and construction for more than 25 years. During this time he has been involved in all facets of the building industry and has built up extensive experience with ways to make homes more water and energy efficient. You can email Andre (asodore@gmail.com) or call him on 0411 984 445.

• Dagmar Riley works with Energy Efficiency Management who specialise in energy efficiency ratings and sustainability assessments of residential houses. They hold ABSA (Association of Building Sustainability Assessors) accreditation – it’s the only nationally recognised standard for Thermal Performance Quality Assurance (house energy ratings) that meets the requirements of the Building Code of Australia. You can contact Energy Efficiency Management on buildingefficiency@gmail.com or phone 5456 1583 or 0405 017 500.

• Matthew Preston is an environmental scientist who is involved with environmental reporting as well as Green Loans assessment. His experience includes fauna and flora reports, Environmental Impact Assessments, bushfire and vegetation management plans as well as mapping the biodiversity of Sunshine Coast bushland reserves. Matthew has also had extensive experience in and with the building industry. He is passionate about his current role as a green loan assessor and loves helping people create more sustainable homes. Youcan call him on 0408 998 762 or email mattppreston@hotmail.com.

Here’s something to ponder. How many solar panels would be needed to power the whole world? Somebody’s gone to the trouble to work in out: 336,375 square kilometres worth would just about have done it in 2008.

By 2030, the projection is that we’ll need enough panels to cover 406,805 square kilometres. You can see what that looks like here. We don’t know who worked this out or if it is actually correct, but it’s an interesting idea.

To try to put those figures in perspective, Sydney covers 1788 square kilometres, Ballarat’s built up area covers 75 square kilometres, and South East Queensland (including Sunshine Coast down to the Gold Coast and west to the Lockyer Valley) is 22,420 square kilometres.

So, in 2008 the whole planet would have needed 16 times the area of south east Queensland to be covered in panels.

Of course, the calculation is not that straightforward, because urban areas are made up of a lot more than roofs and not all roof space is suitable for solar panels.