Acting Public Works Minister Judy Spence has announced eighteen per cent of the total electricity consumed by Queensland Government departments in 2007-08 came from renewable energy sources. 

Ms Spence said the result exceeded the Government’s initial goal of sourcing at leat five per cent of its electricity purchase from renewable energy sites. 

“The renewable energy purchase accompanied by accredited carbon offsets allowed the Queensland Government to claim greenhouse gas reductions of 68,110 tonnes, which is the equivalent of removing 17,000 cars from our roads for a year,” she said.

The purchase included 68,110,000 kWh of renewable energy (six per cent of total energy consumption) with accredited carbon offsets and 130,000,000 kWh (12 per cent of total) with no accompanying offsets.

The Queensland Government has allocated $1.4 million annually until 2009-10 for the purchase of renewable energy extracted from sources recognised by the Federal Government’s Office of Renewable Energy Regulator.

Ms Spence said while expanding the use sustainable energy formed an important part of green initiatives, the best strategy was to cut energy consumption.

“Reducing energy consumption in government buildings is the best way of reducing the carbon footprint of those buildings and the government has set a target of reducing energy consumption by 210,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year by 2015 and achieving ‘carbon-neutral status by 2020,” she said.

“There are a number of actions that will be taken to achieve these targets including mandatory set points for air-conditioning, the switching off of non-essential computers and other equipment after hours and energy rating standards for buildings.”