Maine’s Power project
A community partnership that shows Australian businesses how to cut emissions
Doubling business production while reducing greenhouse emissions is one of the outcomes from the Mount Alexander Shire Maine’s Power project.
Cited in the Garnaut Climate Change Review and the recently announced Victorian Government Jobs for the Future Economy Action Plan, the Maine’s Power project is led by the Mount Alexander Sustainability Group (MASG).
Project partners include the CSIRO, Mount Alexander Shire Council, the Victorian Government and the municipalities’ four largest employers – Don KRC, Flowserve, Victoria Carpets, and Castlemaine Health.
Collectively, these organisations aim to achieve a 30 per cent reduction in 2007 levels of greenhouse gas emissions by 2010.
The project evaluated the energy use in the region and for the individual businesses and then identified feasible and economically viable means of achieving the emission reductions.
These options included a combination of technology upgrades to increase energy efficiency and to manage peak loads, new power generation technologies, like gas fired cogeneration units, and the purchase of Green Power.
Don KRC, an international smallgoods manufacturing company, accounts for two thirds of the project group’s collective energy use. The company is currently undergoing a $150 million expansion in Castlemaine.
Following the recommendations of the Maine’s Power report, Don KRC is undertaking major energy efficiency initiatives and installing a four megawatt cogeneration plant to provide power and hot water for its new facilities.
The new cogeneration plant and other initiatives will result in an emission reduction of greater than 30 per cent.
Meanwhile, project partner Castlemaine Health has implemented energy efficiency projects that have reduced its emissions by more than 15 per cent, saving the hospital thousands of dollars annually.
Council’s Greenhouse Action Plan results of 43 per cent has also been aided by the collaborative nature of this project.
The Maine’s Power project provides an example of how an enterprising community can tackle the global issue of climate change by working together.
For further information contact MASG on (03) 5470 6978 or email info@masg.org.au
