Tagged with Sustainability

German Battery Giant Teams with Australian Solar Tile Maker to Take on Tesla – Again

German battery storage giant and major Tesla rival, Sonnen, has opened up competition on yet another front in Australia, with the announcement this week of a partnership with a local roofing company that is set to launch its own version of an integrated solar tile.

Sonnen said on Thursday that it had signed an agreement with Australian company Bristile Roofing to be the national supplier of solar powered energy storage systems for homes using its new solar tile, which is due to hit the market in September.

Image: One Step Off The Grid

Under the deal, Bristile will offer the Sonnen AC Coupled modular battery storage system to the builder market, as well as its new Sonnen DC Hybrid range.

The storage system includes an inverter, battery modules, and an energy management system with built-in smart appliance control. The systems have a 10-year guarantee, but are designed for a 20-year life, according to Sonnen.

Bristile, which is a part of the building materials group Brickworks, says it expects to target the estimated 102,000 new-build homes throughout Australia in 2017-18, with a number of builders the company deals with “looking to offer integrated solar systems” as a standard feature of off-the-plan homes.

Sonnen, which launched its battery line in Australia just over a year ago, has since claimed that it is its biggest market outside Europe, and says it could soon be its biggest market in the world.

Article originally published by One Step Off The Grid.

Read the entire article here.

Housing Affordability: A Problem With A Solution?

The unaffordability of housing is an almost universal problem, with planners and politicians alike being accused of killing the Aussie or Kiwi Dream. This is not a new issue —in the 1950s the ‘working man’ faced problems financing their first home. That was addressed by the emergence of the ‘working woman’ and her income and government assistance from soft loans to building subsidies, to smooth the way to home ownership.

While government intervention is still possible, present governments are less willing to intervene in those ways and the ‘working family’ has no one left to send out to work. Governments have instead instituted supply side solutions such as removing planning restrictions or increasing land supply. These have had limited success, often at the cost of further sprawl and a less sustainable city.

Caroline Miller

We first need a better understanding of who house buyers are and what expectations they have for the home they are having difficulty buying, to underpin more effective housing policies.  Houses as investments and stores of value for small time and overseas investors are a reality, and can add speculation pressure to a rising housing market.  That’s an issue best dealt with by tax policies or limits on overseas buyers. Home buyers are also changing and look for a complete housing package including landscaped grounds.

For Generation Y, a house is more than a place to live; it is an expression of their values and aspirations and is expected to demonstrate those values and aspirations to the world. Simply proving more fringe suburbia will not meet their needs. Higher densities are a solution if planners, architects and developers can create developments existing communities will tolerate and which speak to younger buyers.

Financial issues also need to be addressed making monetary policy as reflected in housing interest rates, an integral aspect of addressing affordability. Address housing affordability requires comprehensive policies addressing both the demand and supply sides of the affordability equation and solutions that are informed by the expectations of all sectors of every generation.

Associate Professor Caroline Miller, Resource & Environmental Planning Programme, School of People, Environmental & Planning, Massey University, Palmerston North, NZ.

How to include physical activity related health benefits in the economics of urban planning

Belen Zapata-Diomedi, Lennert Veerman.

Attributes of the built environment, such as street connectivity, diversity of land uses and transportation infrastructure can positively influence physical activity of urban populations, which results in health and economic benefits. However, decisions within the built environment are usually made without a full consideration of health outcomes. While health effects related to road trauma and exposure to poor air quality are included in the appraisal process in the transport sector, physical activity is not assessed on a routine basis. This incomplete picture may result in a bias towards built environments that are not supportive of physical activity.

In Australia, the population is estimated to further concentrate in capital cities, increasing from 16 million in 2017 to 27 million in 2053 [1]. This presents infrastructure and housing challenges, but also opportunities to create liveable places where people can be active and healthy. The research community can greatly contribute to a healthy expansion of Australian cities by providing evidence of the likely health benefits of built environments that facilitate physical activity. Hence, based on recent Australian literature, we estimated the impact on walking and cycling of changes in features of the built environment: density, diversity of land use, availability of destinations, distance to transit, design, and neighbourhood walkability.

Economic values were found to be greatest for increasing availability of destinations within the neighbourhood, which are associated with health-related benefits worth an average $14.65 per adult annually (range $0.41 to $42.51), depending on the type of destination. The economic value of increasing neighbourhood walkability was found to be worth an average $1.62 per adult annually (range $0.11 to $15.73). Most of the value was derived from gains in quality and duration of life. These results are based on study a study commissioned by the Centre of Population Health of the New South Wales Ministry of health (http://preventioncentre.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/1604_Urban-form-evidence-review_final1.pdf). They are expressed on a per person basis and in dollar values, and could serve as reference values in cost benefit analysis of built environment interventions.

 

  1. Australian Bureau of Statistics. Capital cities: past, present and future. 2014 [cited 2017 28 February]; Available from: http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/[email protected]/featurearticlesbyCatalogue/AC53A071B4B231A6CA257CAE000ECCE5?OpenDocument#PARALINK3.

 

Low Carbon West

Councils are taking responsibility to reduce carbon emissions – leading the way by reducing their own emissions and assisting community action. But to transform a whole region to a low carbon economy, councils need to do more. They can collaborate on large-scale projects across municipalities, create opportunities for businesses from sustainable, low-carbon growth, and coordinate programs to increase their reach to communities, strengthen their messages and improve liveability.

The Western Alliance for Greenhouse Action (WAGA) is a partnership of eight councils in the west of Melbourne, representing a cross-section from urban (Brimbank, Hobsons Bay, Maribyrnong and Moonee Valley), to growth (Wyndham, Melton and Greater Geelong) and rural (Moorabool). Jointly with LeadWest (an initiative of local government and regional businesses) and Regional Development Australia Western Melbourne, WAGA has developed a regional greenhouse strategy, ‘Low Carbon West’. Its purpose is to make a stepchange across this diverse region towards a growing low carbon economy.

Since the launch of Low Carbon West in November 2014, WAGA partner councils have taken numerous cross-sectoral actions to kick-start this transition. Those councils with significant industrial areas are offering Environmental Upgrade Agreements (EUAs) to help local businesses finance solar, energy efficiency and resource efficiency measures.  Most recently this year, the WAGA councils developed a list of preferred providers for commercial solar and LED lights to help businesses choose the most cost-effective technologies.

Now WAGA is conducting a feasibility study into options for medium and large-scale renewable energy in the region. Low Carbon West also aligns with programs such as Carpool the West, a scheme launched in December 2016, which will facilitate carpooling for employees and students of the Cities of Wyndham, Maribyrnong, Brimbank and Melton, Mercy Health, Southern Metropolitan Cemetery Trust, Western Health, VicRoads and Victoria University. Carpooling has the potential to save up to 10 kilotonnes of emissions across the WAGA region compared with a business as usual baseline.

Low Carbon West, with its focus on a regional approach, provides a platform for these actions as well as insights and learnings for a range of organisations to contribute to sustainable, low-carbon economic growth across regional Australia.

Authors:

Fran MacDonald, Coordinator, Western Alliance for Greenhouse Action
[email protected]

Michael Li, Sustainability Consultant, AECOM
[email protected]

SymbioResort Update Feb 2017

Since the Australian Regional Development Conference was held in September 2016, QUT researchers have been busy working with the renowned resort master planner Mr Paul Ma on new regional tourism developments and refurbishments throughout Australia using the “SymbioResort” design techniques as outlined to delegates at the conference.

A number of greenfield projects are being planned for Tasmania at Burnie and Bridestowe whilst the new owners of existing tourism resorts at Couran Cove and Kooralbyn are exploring the economic, social and environmental benefits of undertaking refurbishments using this new place-based design protocol to help breathe life back into these once dormant facilities. QUT is also investigating a partnership with the Queensland Tourism Industry Council in order to roll out a series of joint “SymbioResort” workshops in North Queensland in the second half of 2017 for existing resort operators in the Great Barrier Reef region given the recent Government announcement that seven out of ten resorts inspected had breached their environmental license conditions and therefore pose considerable risk to the future well being of this precious jewel in the Queensland tourism industry’s crown.

Review of recent case studies and results to date from live regional tourism development projects has shown that early application of this place-based strategic master planning process in combination with the integrated sustainable design protocol as outlined at the conference can provide significant capital and operating cost benefits to developers and operators whilst providing the host community with improved social and environmental outcomes.

At the same time, this “SymbioResort” development process has put hotel operators back in control of their social media presence whilst delivering a new level of sustainable luxury experience to guests. In essence this process combines the art of nature with the science of mankind to restore the wellness of host land and people whilst making a significant contribution to the growth of regional economies that have been struggling since the decline of the resources boom and are now looking to sustainable tourism developments to help offset the cyclical nature of agribusiness exports.

http://statements.qld.gov.au/Statement/2016/10/23/operation-hawkfish-helps-ensure-great-barrier-reef-island-operators-are-environmentally-compliant

Dr Neil Thompson
Postgraduate Research Fellow
QUT Institute for Future Environments
[email protected]