What is carbon neutral electricity?
The power that we use in our houses comes from several different sources, including wind farms, coal-fired generators, large and small solar installations, and also hydro-power, mostly imported from Tasmania. At different times of day, the mix is different: for example, in the middle of a sunny, windy day, it could be that most of our power comes from renewable energy, and not much from burning fossil fuels. On average, Victoria’s power is roughly 20% from renewable energy and 80% from fossil-fuel sources, much of it from ‘brown coal’ burning power plants which are big emitters of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
In general, we talk about the ‘carbon intensity’ of our power. This is short hand for the amount of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases which are produced during power generation. Solar, wind-powered and hydro-electricity are all carbon free sources of power, while power from coal-fired generators is very carbon intensive.
At Village Power our goal is to be able to power our community from 100% carbon free electricity. One way to do this is to generate it ourselves so that we are sure where it comes from. Another source of carbon neutral power is GreenPower® supplied by an electricity retailer and certified by the government. When you purchase GreenPower® your retailer purchases an equal amount of electricity generated from commercial renewable energy sources. To guarantee that it is 100% renewable they buy ‘renewable energy certificates’ or RECs from the generator at the same time. We don’t need to buy RECs because we know where our power is produced, but it also means that we can’t call it GreenPower®.
It is unlikely that in the short term our neighbourhood can generate enough power to supply all of our electricity demand. We hope that by trading power locally we can provide additional financial incentives for our neighbours to install more rooftop solar, but for the moment we will all have to top up with power from the grid. We plan to top up the community battery, as far as possible, during the middle of the day when commercial solar and wind are abundant and so the carbon intensity of commercial power is low.
This is a work in progress for us, and for the whole country. We believe that Australia needs carbon neutral electricity for everyone as soon as possible to avoid the worst of climate change, and at Village Power we are doing our part to make this happen. Please consider joining us!