Students and teachers from Beauty Point Public School played host for the third meeting of the Zero Emissions Schools Network (Mosman) on August 4rd. With greater Sydney in lockdown, it had to be online but, thanks to some video magic, we still got a tour around the school’s environmental trail.
The trail takes you past the vegetable gardens, with built-in watering systems, the cosy home for stingless native bees, the worm farm and the birds and bees highway.
The BPPS Green Team was launched in 2020. They have many ideas for improving sustainability around the school. The school has a water tank and it installed solar panels in October 2020 with assistance from Solar My School. Some of the students’ favourite activities are tree planting and biodiversity initiatives such as the birds and bees highway. Last year grants from Greening Australia and Sustainable Schools have funded planting including 6 large trees and 150 small tubestock trees.
The most colourful sustainability initiative is their rainbow lorikeet mural, which brightens up the playground while reducing UV reflection.
You have all achieved so much. I love what the schools are doing and proposing. Our schools and children are key to getting our community onboard and meeting our net zero target.
Mayor Corrigan
All Mosman Schools were represented at the meeting. It was a great opportunity to exchange ideas and cheer each other on. Thank you, Beauty Point Public School, for hosting, and for giving us a wonderful virtual tour. We look forward to our next meeting on 27 October at Sacred Heart, Mosman.
For more information on family friendly sustainability tips check out Zero Emissions Schools on our website or contact Jenni Hagland, Program Leader. Interested in a school network in your area? Get in touch!
Learning outside is much more fun
Back to zoom!
Planting trees and tube stock
The lights are on at Pioneer Clubhouse Balgowlah! And what a great photo of the ZESN volunteer team including advisors: L-R: Linda Robertson, Chris Lee, Susie Morgan, Tina Jackson, Anna Josephson, Ursula Hogben, Kirsty Gold, Ann-Charlott Paduch, Harriet Cunningham and Lesley Treleaven, and a shout out to Dof Dickinson who couldn’t be here.
Our first Sunny and Share rooftop solar installation is a 13.3kW system for Pioneer Clubhouse, a mental health not-for-profit organisation in Balgowlah. This was funded by our events, Community Giving Fund and private donations, and was launched at a lunch party.
In spite of the cold and rainy day, there was a great crowd who enjoyed yummy food, a raffle, a sale of artwork and freshly potted succulents, speeches, a cake, fairy lights, music and dancing. How lovely to see so many friends and supporters including the Northern Beaches Mayor Michael Regan, Deputy Mayor Candy Bingham, CEO of One Door Mental Health Kathi Boorman, and Bronwen Regan chief of staff for Federal MP for Warringah Zali Steggall OAM.
Sunflower on a rainy dayOur MC, RexGorgeous succulents for saleSpeeches……and a good giggle posing for photos
Thank you to the many people who made this possible! First, the hardworking Zero Emissions Solutions volunteer team and volunteer advisory board who brainstormed, dreamed, come up with ideas, and held many public and private events. Thank you everyone who came to our events and installed solar and switched to a renewable energy company through us, generating thank you contributions to our Community Giving Fund used to install this solar system. Thank you to Zali Steggall MP, Mayor Michael Regan, and the Northern Beaches Council for your support. Thank you also to Pioneer Clubhouse for embracing the idea and inviting us over, to Solarpro and Diamond Energy for their financial support. Thank you also to our event hosts, our customers, our supporters, and to our generous donors including Mosman IGA and many individuals! Finally, thank you to Julie Gianessini for her beautiful photos which give you just a taste of the fun we had.
The last six months have been our busiest so far. This is a quick run down of just some of the things we’ve been up to.
19 May: Kirsty & Anna from ZESN’s Advisory Group and Ursula attended the breakfast panel with Matt Kean MP, NSW Minister for Energy and Environment and Chris Bowen MP, Shadow Minister for Climate Change and Energy: Climate risks and opportunities ahead. NSW has announced the ‘Energy Infrastructure Roadmap’ for renewable energy and recently announced EV initiatives.
19 May: Second Zero Emissions Schools Network Mosman event, hosted by Mosman Public School, chaired by ZESN, supported by Mosman Council.
21 May: Ann-Charlott, Ursula and local climate group friends joined the School Strike for Climate in Sydney, and tens of thousands of Australians joined in capital cities and towns across Australia, to support a net zero emissions target for Australia.
26 May: Tina from ZESN’s Advisory Group and Ursula supported the North Sydney Conversations launch event: The Climate Crisis: Hard Truths and Reasons for Hope, with author Sarah Wilson, Prof Lesley Hughes, climate scientist and MC Dan Illic. Recording here: https://northsydneyconversations.com.au/2021/04/21/truthsandhope/
1 June: The fourth Mosman Council Climate Action Community Consultative Committee Meeting met to discuss Council’s draft Climate Action Plan – Resilience and Adaptation Strategy, with Mayor Corrigan, Cr Sherlock, Mosman Council team, and community members including Ursula from ZESN. The plan will be presented to Council in July 2021, then released for public consultation.
1 June: Ursula hosted a Climate for Change Conversation with facilitator C4C Carly Robertson leading on effective communications and positive climate action. ZESN volunteers discussed volunteer events and training, with training experts Fay Redmond and Narween Otto helping organise the next events. All welcome to join the Volunteer Events and Training working group.
3 June: Solar My House LIVE in Avalon, in collaboration with Our Blue Dot, hosted by Felix Williamson with Solarpro’s David Veal as our handy solar expert. A sell out, with people turned away at the door.
5 June: Mosman Markets: Lesley, Louise, Fay and the team ran the regular stall at Mosman Markets
5 June: Northern Beaches Simplifying Solar Expo: Ann-Charlott, Harriet and Chris manned a stall at NBC’s first Simplifying Solar Expo. 350 attendees came to sessions on solar and renewable energy, and then came by to chat with us and a range of businesses and organisations involved in sustainability, including SunSpot, the Australian Energy Foundation and the University of NSW School of Photovoltaic and Renewable Energy Engineering.
10 June: The launch of a new rooftop solar system at Pioneer Clubhouse, Balgowlah, attended by 30 guests including Michael Regan, Candy Bingham and Zali Steggall’s chief of staff.
If you’d like to work with us, or if you’d like us to visit your workplace or community group to talk about our activities, please get in touch. And if you’d like to be part of this vibrant community, come on in!
Schools working together is inspiring, as a group of 30 teachers, administrators and students discovered on May 19. Mosman Public School was host for the second meeting of the Zero Emissions Schools Network — Mosman. It was a lively and productive discussion.
Year 5/6 teacher, Kate Leary, and four members of Mosman Public School’s Sustainability Club, presented on their sustainability initiatives. These include rooftop solar and vegetable beds. Then students from the other schools working together gave updates on their own initiatives.
The range of ideas is inspiring: native bee hives, waste-free lunch days, vertical wall gardens, and auditing electricity usage with the Climate Clever app are just a few of the actions students are taking to reduce emissions.
Loani Tierney (Mosman Council) & Kate Leary(Mosman Public School) gave a presentation on worm farms and composting.
Beauty Point Public School will host the third meeting on August 4.
The Zero Emissions Schools Network – Mosman involves all eight schools in Mosman local government area, plus Cammeray Public School in North Sydney. If you are interested in creating a sustainability group at your school or a Zero Emissions Network in your LGA, the Zero Emissions Solutions Schools page has a great range of resources to get you started. Jenni is also available for one-on-one consultations and you can contact her via schools@zeroemissionssolutions.org.au.
Sunny and share is go! It only took two days for a team of three Solarpro solar installers to add a 13.3 kW system to the roof of local charity Pioneer Clubhouse.
“We’re all thrilled to see the solar panels going on the roof,” says Megan Robert, recovery support worker at Pioneer Clubhouse. “It’s not just the financial benefit. Having up to $5000 extra a year will make a huge difference but we also love that we’re using clean, renewable energy to power our programs.”
Ann-Charlott Paduch of Zero Emissions Solutions says, “the Community Giving Fund has always been an integral part of the Zero Emissions Solutions mission, and it’s wonderful to be making our first installation after only 18 months of operation.
“Of course, we couldn’t have done this without the support of our hard-working management team, volunteers, donors, supporters and commercial partners. In particular, David Veal of Solarpro has been with us from the start, answering countless questions, giving us the benefit of his solar nerdiness, and pledging a percentage of every sale he makes through us to the Community Giving Fund.”
“The sun does it again,” says David Veal. “We’re proud to work with Zero Emissions Solutions, helping people get on board with the renewable energy revolution. Our goal is to bring people’s energy bills as near to zero as possible.”
Zali Steggall MP will formally launch Pioneer Clubhouse’s new solar system at 1.30pm on Thursday June 10. Media are welcome: please get in touch via hello@zeroemissionssolutions.org.
The project is funded by our Community Giving Fund which receives contributions from our Solar My House partner, Solarpro, and our electricity retailer of choice, Diamond. You can also contribute to the project at Pioneer Clubhouse’s GoFundMe page.
The team
Feed-in charges?! No way! The Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC) today released a draft determination on how to integrate more small-scale solar into the electricity grid. The paper addresses the problem of ‘traffic jams’ on the network, caused by small-scale solar feeding into a grid infrastructure which was designed when power only needed to flow one way.
The draft determination suggests rooftop solar owners might be charged to export the solar power they generate in excess of what they use to the grid. In other words, instead of a feed-in tariff, a feed-in charge. The Sydney Morning Herald calls the proposal ‘controversial’.
What does this mean for rooftop solar owners? Ann-Charlott, team leader of our Solar My House program (well-informed but, she notes, ‘not an expert’), has been following the developments. Here are her thoughts:
This issue is most relevant for states like SA that have a high penetration of solar. It is less relevant to NSW and especially our Ausgrid area. As we know, the rate of rooftop solar installation for Mosman is 5 to 6% of houses, and around 14% on Northern Beaches, well below the national average and much below SA.
In the meantime, Ann-Charlott says, networks are exploring other ways to address the problem.
Meanwhile, the transition to renewable energy in Australia is happening, so the existing infrastructure – the poles and wires – will need to adapt to accommodate new technologies. The feed-in tariff is always liable to change — up, down, different pricings at different times — but the savings you get from all that free solar power from your roof remain.
Shine on!
Jeremy and Kate live in a Pettit+Sevitt home, designed by Sydney architect Ken Woolley near the start of his career. Their house is on a steep block, surrounded by mature trees. The trees have grown over the years turning harbour views into harbour glimpses, but they like it that way.
We believe that the fact there are trees increases the value of property in Mosman. In a climate change world it reduces temperatures and gives us oxygen and all sorts of good things.
The natural environment has always been important to Kate and Jeremy. They were both involved in the long campaign in the 80s and 90s to prevent Sydney Harbour’s foreshores from being developed, which led to the establishment of the Sydney Harbour Federation Trust in 2001.
The family installed a small rooftop solar system back in 2009 to take advantage of the 60c feed-in tariff. But ten years on, their solar feed-in had dwindled to almost nothing and mature trees put the panels in partial shade for much of the day. Kate and Jeremy wanted a more efficient system but they were determined to keep the trees. After talking to Zero Emissions Solutions they obtained quotes for a new system and chose Solarpro to install it.
A solution for shady sites
Solarpro recommended installing a 3.7 kW system comprising 10 LG Mono XL panels, using a Solaredge inverter, which could make the most of their tree-shaded, west-facing split level roof. The installation took half a day and cost $5,433, plus $650 for their old panels to be recycled. The new system generates nearly twice as much electricity.
The financial benefits of solar are not Jeremy and Kate’s key motivation, but their new system is already making an impact on their power bills.
Where does their motivation come from?
“From the soles of our boots”, says Kate, “to our heart and souls. We started bush regenerating and got gradually more and more concerned about the environment. We want to do what we can.”
This is the first in a series of case studies carried out on behalf of Mosman Council as part of the Mosman Sustainable Living project.
Announcing our first Sunny and Share charity installation.
It looks like just another warehouse backing onto busy Balgowlah Road, but go through the gate and down the path and you find yourself in a little oasis. There’s a community garden, a cafe, and an open space with comfy chairs, work stations and quiet zones. There are friendly smiles and a warm welcome.
Pioneer Clubhouse is a safe, supportive, respectful community of people with lived experience of mental illness, based in Balgowlah on the Northern Beaches. It has been around for 25 years. Members work side by side with staff in the running of the Clubhouse, to complete daily tasks in the kitchen, café, creative hub, garden and office. Through participation, members can rejoin the worlds of friendships, family, employment and education and have access to the services and support they individually need to continue their recovery. Each member is valued, needed and wanted.
A key part of Zero Emission Solutions mission is Sunny and Share, a Community Giving Fund which feeds back donations from individuals and our business partners to benefit local charities. Zero Emissions Solution is thrilled to be working with Pioneer Clubhouse for our very first Sunny and Share charity install. The idea is that by lowering the Pioneer Clubhouse power bills on an ongoing basis, they will have more resources for their core programs for the life of the system. The installation is planned for May 2021.
Ann-Charlott, Solar My House program:
Right from the start, we felt rooftop solar could make a real, ongoing difference to charitable organisations in our area. I’m proud that our first installation is going ahead and I can’t wait to see their roof covered in solar panels!
The project is funded by our Community Giving Fund which receives contributions from our Solar My House partner, Solarpro, and our electricity retailer of choice, Diamond, generated from our public and private events. You can also contribute to the project at Pioneer Clubhouse’s GoFundMe page.
School Principals gathered for the first meeting of Zero Emissions Schools Network – Mosman on February 17. Eight schools from Mosman LGA were represented, plus Cammaray Public School (North Sydney LGA).
Mosman Mayor Carolyn Corrigan welcomed the schools, along with Jenni Hagland, team leader for Zero Emissions Schools, Ursula Hogben, co-founder of Zero Emissions Solutions, and the Mosman Council Sustainability team.
Jenni says:
The energy and enthusiasm was great to see. It was so interesting to hear what every school is doing and find out their motivation for joining the group.
The next meeting of Zero Emissions Schools Network – Mosman LGA will be hosted at Mosman Public School on 19th May. I hope to get a speaker in to talk to the group about school composting and worm farms. This ties in with Mosman Public School because they have just got their gardens going and are working on composting at the moment.
Jenni is launching a regular email newsletter to the group, with news of grants, events and other relevant information. Jenni, Ursula and our team have built an information hub with information, case studies, how-to guides and resources at Zero Emissions Schools. Look out for how-to guides on reducing waste and installing solar.
If you are interested in creating a sustainability group at your school the Zero Emissions Solutions Schools page has a great range of resources to get you started. Jenni is available for one-on-one consultations and you can contact her via schools@zeroemissionssolutions.org.au. Councils can also contact us if Council is interested in a Zero Emissions Schools Network for your LGA.
Can solar panel systems cause rooftop fires? A front page article in the Sydney Morning Herald today suggests there has been an increase in rooftop fires in recent years. Fire and Rescue NSW Superintendent Graham Kingsland says fires start in the direct current (DC) isolator switch, usually because of water getting in. The cause of rooftop solar fire risk is faulty installation or manufacture.
We asked David Veal, owner of Clean Energy Council-accredited company Solarpro, whether solar panel owners should be worried.
David’s take:
There are two reasons these isolators catch fire. First, water gets through the fitting because it is badly glued or not glued at all. Second, the wiring is not done correctly and left loose, or the polarity has been crossed.
Take a look at these two roof top isolators.
The isolator on the left is the cheaper of the two by almost $30. I have put some of the fittings below it. These are screwed and glued into the little glands above them. The cables are then fed into the fittings and manually wired into the isolator. This is fiddly and time-consuming. It is a perfect trap for human error.
All cheap companies use these isolators because they are scrimping and saving every dollar. Plus the contractor pays for the extra time wiring them up.
Quality costs a little extra and the devil is in the detail!
The isolator on the right is factory pre-wired, so it is guaranteed to be wired correctly and will not leak. At Solarpro we use these as our standard rooftop isolator and have done since they became available in 2014. With pre-wired ones the installers cannot get it wrong.
The conclusion: a badly-installed, cut-price DC isolator could be a rooftop solar fire risk. But if you use an experienced CEC-accredited installation specialist you can rest assured it will be well-installed and of good quality.
Zero Emissions Solutions runs regular information sessions, via Zoom and in person, hosted by volunteers. We design them to help people make the switch to using renewable energy and rooftop solar.
Our next Solar My House Info Sessionis on Wednesday, February 24, from 6.30-7.45pm. David from Solarpro will be our expert guest speaker. Attendance is free but places are limited, so sign up here as soon as possible.
