This article originally appeared in the West Australian here.
The City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder’s “green” credentials have been recognised at a Climate Council congress, where the Goldfields Oasis Recreation Centre was acknowledged as a national clean energy success story.
Councillor Suzie Williams, who represented the City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder at the Climate Council Cities Power Partnership in Canberra last week, told the council on Monday that the city won a top-10 ranking among local governments.
The City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder was the only regional WA local government invited to the Canberra Cities Power Partnership, based on its “clean energy” record, particularly its use of solar power.
The Oasis was highlighted as a case study in Local Leadership, Tracking Local Government Progress on Climate Change.
The report noted: “As part of the City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder’s ongoing commitment to sustainability, the Oasis Recreation Centre has undergone a green energy transformation.
“With the help of Federal and State Government funding, the city has installed a solar PV system and a solar thermal system on the Oasis roof, and a ground source heat pump system underground.
“Together, these installations will offset 8309 gigajoules of natural gas and 206,000kWh of electricity per year that would otherwise be used to warm the pools and heat and cool the centre.
“The savings in natural gas consumption translates to savings of nearly $260,000 a year. This will reduce the city’s CO2 emissions by over 500 tonnes a year which is the equivalent of offsetting the electricity use of 75 average households or taking 104 passenger vehicles off the road permanently.
“The Oasis Alternative Energy Project received funding through the Federal Government’s Community Energy Efficiency Program, administered by the Department of Industry.”
“I didn’t realise till I got there what broad reach we have,” Cr Williams told councillors on Monday.
Cr Williams said the Climate Council studied local governments throughout America, South America, Europe, Asia and Australia and picked the top-10 case studies, which were presented to the Climate Change conference.
“I am absolutely thrilled to tell you we are in that top 10. We are actually at No. 8, and we are a case study for the world in how local government deals with climate change,” Cr Williams reported.
“I think because we are here and we do it every single day, we don’t think too much about it, but we are so far in front of the bell curve, we are on our own out the front.”
