Broadband network can fight climate change, reduce power bills, says Australian minister

The Australian opposition has scoffed at communications minister Stephen Conroy's claim that the national broadband network could reduce the country's carbon emissions as well as consumer's power bills.

Speaking at the National Press Club in Canberra, Conroy said consumers would pay less for electricity, need less power generators if they were connected to "smart grids" via the $43-billion broadband network.

He said that since the broadband network could help Australian energy providers in balancing the highs and lows of daily usage, they are already planning to avail of the broadband as a tool to efficiently observe and control power distribution.

"The fact is broadband is a green technology. In fact, it is an enabler of efficiencies that could drive major reductions in carbon emissions and smart grids connected by broadband raise the potential to not only monitor energy use but to allow remote adjustment of lights or temperature,'' Conroy said.

"For households this means opportunities for reduced power consumption and costs. This in turn allows them to sell the recovered power on the market, reducing the need for new power generators," he added.

Research in the US has revealed that if consumers were connected to the ''smart grid'' networks, a saving of 5 per cent to 25 per cent could be obtained while Climate Risk, a climate change analysis company in Australia has said that the country could save approximately $6.6 billion annually in local energy and travel.

The opposition parties in Australia are critical of Conroy's claims that the broadband network can help fight climate change and sneeringly say that there was no need for the emissions trading scheme as the National Broadband Network would reduce the country's emission on its own and save the planet.

But Conroy appears to have done his homework well as various studies conducted around the world have reported that broadband technology can indeed help reduce carbon emissions.

In November 2008, global management consulting firm Boston Consulting Group had conducted a study on behalf of Global e-Sustainability Initiative on "SMART 2020: Enabling the low carbon economy in the information age", which focused on how information and communications technology can enable a significant reduction of carbon emissions through 2020 in the US.

The study found that these technologies can reduce the carbon footprint of human activity while not diminishing the quality of life - transforming the US economy "into a high-tech, high-growth and low-carbon beacon."

Information and communications technologies, which include broadband, could cut annual CO2 emissions in the US between 13 per cent and 22 per cent through 2020, the BCG report said.

This translates into gross fuel and energy savings of between $140 billion and $240 billion, or a reduction of 11 per cent to 21 per cent in total oil consumption and a reduction of 20 per cent to 36 per cent in imported oil.

The report outlines that specific policy measures to be taken in four main areas, which can together help to annually reduce 0.8 to 1.4 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide by 2020.
 
They are electrical smart grids that could reduce CO2 emissions by 230 to 480 million metric tons of carbon dioxide and save $15 billion to $35 billion in energy and fuel costs, more efficient road transportation, smart buildings that have both design and embedded technology to reduce consumption of energy, travel substitution through virtual meetings and flexible work arrangements that will bring an estimated $15 billion to $30 billion in gross savings through 2020.

Broadband can already replace person-to-person meetings with remote collaboration and conferencing as workers teleconference, business travel is reduced, sparing carbon and other emissions as well.

Financial services group HSBC estimates that one ton of carbon dioxide is emitted for every 2,000 miles of personal air travel

Commentators say that there appears to be an inverse correlation between the internet and energy use - as the internet has grown, energy use and carbon emissions have declined.