Author: City of Adelaide
Category: City Finance Policy - Case study from an Australian City
Published/Created by: City of Adelaide
The City of Adelaide’s Sustainability Incentive Scheme supports businesses and households to reduce their carbon emissions by incentivising projects related to energy efficiency, sustainable transport, and renewable energy. This scheme is one of the actions in the Carbon Neutral Action Plan 2016-2021 of Adelaide, which set the ambition for the city as a whole to progress towards carbon neutrality.
The scheme offers financial incentives to households and businesses to adopt sustainable technologies like solar systems, energy storage systems, LED upgrades, energy monitoring systems, EV chargers, apartment upgrades, rainwater tanks, building ratings, and carbon neutral certifications.
Outcomes of Adelaide’s Sustainability Incentive Scheme
Environmental
Based on the state average for CO2 emissions from the grid, solar panel installations via the scheme can be expected to avoid over 2,185 tonnes CO2 per year and produce electricity equivalent to 1,514 average 3-person homes in South Australia.
Economic
As of September 2021, the scheme has:
- provided over $1.4 million dollars of rebates, leveraging a further $11 million of investment sustainable technologies
- supported over 630 projects by businesses and households (around 74% of recipients are residents)
Corporate and community
The projects undertaken by householders and business up to the end of 2021 were:
- 364 solar systems, providing 5.2 MW of capacity
- 113 energy storage systems
- 84 LED upgrades
- 58 Energy monitoring systems
- 14 EV chargers
- 11 apartment upgrades
- 10 hot water systems
- 5 rainwater tanks
- 3 building ratings
- 4 carbon neutral certifications
There are several other grants and incentives offered by the city:
https://www.cityofadelaide.com.au/about-council/grants-sponsorship-incentives/