Seven large universities and businesses across Melbourne will join together to support renewable energy through a new power purchase agreement, with a tender for the second Melbourne Renewable Energy Project now open.
City of Melbourne Deputy Lord Mayor, Arron Wood, said seven large energy users will combine their purchasing power to source their electricity from a large scale renewable energy project in Victoria.
“Leading by example, we’re building on the success of the first Melbourne Renewable Energy Project to facilitate renewable power purchase agreements for businesses across the city,” Mr Wood said.
“The first project led to the construction of an 80MW wind farm at Crowlands, near Ararat.
“This group aims to purchase approximately 113GWh of energy, which is enough to power more than 25,000 households in Melbourne for a year.”
A tender for the second Melbourne Renewable Energy Project was released on 22 November 2019.
The purchasing group facilitated by the City of Melbourne includes RMIT University, Deakin University, Cbus Property, ISPT Property, Fulton Hogan, Citywide Asphalt, and Mondelez International.
“This project would lead to university campuses, manufacturing facilities, shopping centres, retail stores and office buildings across Melbourne being powered using renewable energy,” Mr Wood said.
“It will support industry in a rural area and provide a tangible example of climate change leadership. The first Melbourne Renewable Energy Project resulted in 140 construction jobs.
“We’re showing how large energy users from diverse organisations can support the transition to a secure, low-carbon electricity system.
“All these organisations have an organisational commitment to emissions reduction, carbon neutrality or renewable energy purchasing.
“To avoid the catastrophic impacts from climate change, we need more organisations to commit to renewable energy.”
Four of the organisations are involved in TAKE2 – Sustainability Victoria’s climate change pledge program. Fulton Hogan, Deakin University, RMIT University and Mondelez International have all pledged their support to achieving net-zero emissions for Victoria by 2050, while the City of Melbourne is a TAKE2 Founding Partner.
