Reining in energy use in Christchurch

Christchurch City’s energy use is around 11 percent of its $15 billion GDP, 29 percent of its $5.5 billion total household income and increases at a rate of two percent per annum.

 

If left unchecked, the annual increase in energy usage in the City will be over 52,000 Terajoules (TJ) by 2018 on projected population of 414,000, up from 44,000 TJ on the present population of 375,000. The present energy costs for Christchurch is $1.6 billion dollars a year.

 

The Council is targeting a two percent annual savings for the community with an Action Plan in its Sustainable Energy Strategy 2008-2018, says Leonid Itskovich, Energy Manager with the Christchurch City Council. When realised, it will see to only a 0.4 percent growth by 2018 from its present use on a population growth of 10 percent. It could also save Christchurch $32 million every year

 

Other targets calls for a curb on energy usage per person (-9%), more renewable energy usage (up to 25%), cutting down on carbon dioxide emission (-7%), cutting down on CO2 emission per person (-16% annually), and boosting renewable energy use per person by 16 percent. These targets could see Christchurch reducing annual energy use to 2006 level by 2018 and cut carbon dioxide emissions by almost a million tonnes.

 

The Council launched the $6.6 million, 10-year Action Plan with a series of public lectures at the Christchurch Art Gallery during the Energy Awareness Week last week. The Awareness Week is one of the 28 initiatives in the Action Plan to curb the ‘insatiable demand for energy’ which has doubled every 30 years. The Action Plan looks at ways and means to assist the community in achieving targets, to offer catalysts that will encourage, educate and inspire the community to take action continuously.

 

“The increase in the use of our energy is unsustainable and we must take immediate action to reverse the trend. It is only by the actions and attitudes of the people that we can achieve a ‘flat line’ growth,” says Dr Itskovich, adding that 64 percent of total energy use in Christchurch is derived from fossil oil.

 

New Zealand, as a whole, relies heavily on imported oil supplies; also, a significant part of Christchurch’s supply of LPG, which plays a substantial and rapidly increasingly role as an energy source, comes from overseas. Only 20 percent of Christchurch’s energy is generated from renewable sources.

 

“The Strategy sees us shifting to a greater and wider use of renewable energy sources, which will reinforce the security of our energy supply,” says Dr Itskovich. The vision is that Christchurch will be supplied by energy solely from renewable sources by 2050, will cut down on fuel poverty by making energy affordable and secure, and will reduce its greenhouse gas emissions significantly.

 

The Energy Awareness Week is a step towards getting the community to accept the need for urgent action, says Dr Itskovich. “There is a need to make the community understand that we cannot continue the way we have. That soaring energy costs will impact on our everyday live drastically and that we need to be proactive about it now.”

 

Initiatives like Earth Hour are like trigger points for raising the awareness of the need of incorporating sustainability into our lives, but we need also to take real action,” he says.

 

The Council is also looking at future technologies in renewable energy to offset some of the $1.6 billion dollars Christchurch spends on energy every year. The Civic Offices is supplied with electricity from a wind generator at Gebbies Pass.

 

The setting up of an Energy Agency is seen as another effective way to make Christchurch a more sustainable energy city.