Australia could save itself seven coal fired power stations and $20 billion by simply moving towards eco-friendly lights in business, homes and street lighting, the Asia Pacific Cities Summit was told this morning.
In one of the final sessions of the APCS in Brisbane this morning, green lighting expert Harry Verhaar said business was ahead of politics and that local and regional governments would act faster than national governments.
Mr Verhaar then gave examples of how local governments throughout the world were using eco-friendly lighting that saved electricity, reduced demand and ultimately cut carbon emissions.
“We have calculated that [improved] lighting can provide a 40 per cent reduction globally in electricity consumption,” he said.
“Now that means globally around $128 billion euro, so around $200 billion Australian dollars can be saved.”
Mr Verhaar said the real saving would be the ability to forego building extra power plants, many of which which would be coal-fired.
“That also could make a difference of 670 power plants,” he said.
Mr Verhaar said, in Australia, that meant an equivalent saving of seven power plants at around $2.2 billion per plant.
“It is about $20 billion that would not need to be spent building, probably, coal fired power plants,” he said.
Mr Verhaar said it was important to be able to prove economic benefits from switches to green technology at both a national and local level, because they tended to shape political reactions.
“Most importantly, it can be used for health and education and used for a whole range of other things that matter for the creation of liveable cities,” he said.
Mr Verhaar is senior director of energy and climate change at Philips Lighting and was the keynote speaker on the final day of the summit.
In his address, Mr Verhaar said most world cities had agreed to move away from using inefficient incandescent light bulbs after Cuba became the first country to adopt the scheme in 2008. Australia soon followed in 2009.
He gave examples were solar-powered lighting did not need electricity, where “motion sensors” turned street lighting “on and then off” to give light to areas and then save money by turning off.
In a “lumi-motion” presentation he demonstrated how close Harry Potter-styled lighting could light areas at night as vehicles moved under street lights which alternately came on and then turned off as the vehicle passed.
Mr Verhaar said it had been shown to help cut crime rates in England, which led to rising property values.
