By Andrew Woodroffe
Water, gas and electricity services are supplied by very large organisations using centralised, large-scale and environmentally destructive technology.
Deregulation and restructuring of the electricity industry are allowing for new blood and ideas. Unit prices are coming down as intended. Cheap electricity, however, undermines incentives to reduce consumption or promote renewables. One way of getting around this is the concept of the green tariff.
Thanks to the pioneering efforts of individuals living independently, clean, sustainable and reliable self-sufficient systems can now be designed with off-the-shelf components. In remote areas, often these alternatives are also the most cost-effective option.
However, the vast majority of Australians live in cities and have had no choice in how these services are supplied — until now, that is.
From April 2, some eight power retailers began offering "green power" products to their customers. The option of being on a green tariff where, for a premium, their electrical consumption is matched with the production of electricity using renewable energy technology such as photovoltaic cells, wind turbines, hydro and biomass. Whether the consumer actually uses the electricity is immaterial. The practical benefits of reduced pollution and reduced consumption of non-renewables are still there.
It is a very powerful notion from an EnergyAustralia leaflet: "If just 1% of EnergyAustralia's domestic customers chose Pure Energy [EnergyAustralia's 'product' name], it would lead to the establishment of 100 times as much solar and 40 times as much wind power as is currently available". A very recent Australian Consumers Association survey had 79% of the 1500 respondents "interested in getting mains solar energy". The potential is massive!
Electricity relies on transmission lines and a distribution network, whether it is generated by a coal-fired power station or a wind farm. Could the green tariff concept be expanded to include other services supplied by infrastructure (wiring, plumbing) which is independent of how the services are produced and where choice does not currently exist? Perhaps gas, perhaps water?
The premium may be considerable but would ensure that the extra cost which environmental protection can entail is covered and encourages conservation — the first step in greening anything, the reduction of waste. It is fundamental that both consumer and producer are on the grid or the mains.
Apart from the direct environment benefits, the concept would encourage the commercial development and marketing of environmentally benign technologies, by providing markets large enough to allow the benefits of mass production and economies of scale. Investment in research and development will also be encouraged. All this will reduce the cost of this green technology, making its use more widespread than ever.
Up to now we were all on a "brown" tariff, be it electricity, gas or water. An option now exists with electricity. Can similar options exist for gas and water?
For gas, one source that could possibly qualify as green is landfill sites. Burning the methane as a fuel reduces greenhouse gas emissions two ways: first, by preventing the methane, a very potent gas, from entering the atmosphere and second, by preventing the consumption of non-renewable fuels to supply this energy.
The company Energy Developments specialises in this work and is rapidly expanding the number of projects. Sewage could also qualify as a supply of "green" gas. However, running the treatment plants consumes most of it.
The prospects for a green gas tariff would not appear to be practical, as there would not be enough methane. Nor would it be necessary, because utilising this resource is already cost effective.
"Green" water services would include the treatment of waste water as well as the supply of clean water. It would encourage the use of low-flow shower heads and toilets, private rainwater tanks, reed bed technology and treatment plants like that recently commissioned by Taronga Zoo. Other possibilities include vacuum systems (one litre a flush) and even composting toilets (no flush!).
Currently all household waste water goes into the one sewerage system, and all water is supplied from the one network.
With this infrastructure, treatment plants could take in sewage, treat it and return it to the water supply network. As with electricity, the idea of a green water tariff would be to match consumers' requirements with the throughput of the treatment plant. However, this would require treatment to an extremely high standard.
It is much easier to treat just black water (sewage) for recycling back into toilet cisterns and grey water (waste water from showers and sinks) for recycling back to showers and sinks.
Rainwater from tanks, under-the-sink filters and the current water supply network are options for drinking water. Separate reticulation systems would entail the installation of new plumbing and, maybe, the removal of the old.
A "green" water tariff scheme would appear to be difficult and not without major changes to supporting infrastructure — the simplicity of the green electricity tariff would not be possible.
People have a choice in cutting down their meat intake and being vegetarian. They can choose to have fewer children. They can choose not to use a car, so very inconvenient as this can be. They can buy second-hand and so on. They can now even choose green electricity.
However, regarding the very basic human needs of clean water and sanitation, people have no choice in living lighter on the earth — yet.