Shire falls short of renewable target

THE Surf Coast Shire council’s recent review of their Council Plan (incorporating the Health and Wellbeing Plan) 2017-2021 revealed it is well behind its target for renewable energy.

When the council adopted the plan in June 2017, it set the goal of sourcing 25 per cent of energy in the shire from renewable sources. At the time, only six per cent of energy in the shire was coming from renewable sources.

This figure increased to 12 per cent over the next year, but since then the percentage has largely stagnated and is presently sitting at 13 per cent.

However, the shire’s general manager of environment and development Ransce Salan said the system used to measure these figures was misleading.

“The target formula we use does not include renewable energy in the grid system imported from outside the Surf Coast area, so it is an underestimate of the actual renewable energy consumed.

“If we only include renewable energy produced locally, this accounts for around 13 per cent of our total consumption, but if we broaden this to also include renewable energy imported into our Surf Coast electricity grid, the percentage is above 25 per cent.”

Mr Salan also suggested population growth in the region was slowing progress towards the target. The Council Plan 2017-21 similarly states this to be a factor.

He said the council would be taking significant steps in the coming months to further improve the figures, including purchasing 100 per cent of its own electricity from new renewable sources and installing solar systems across four council sites.