Welcome to Uniting Energy. Uniting Energy’s mission is to implement NSW/ACT Synod policies regarding climate change action and earth stewardship as they relate to the Church’s power consumption on small electricity consumption sites (e.g. churches, community spaces, day care and houses[1]).
Our approach is to rapidly cut carbon emissions from church buildings. 100 percent GreenPower was selected as the fastest way to make a real impact, to protect God’s creation and stimulate the market to respond.
We are also assisting locations with consideration of local solar power and battery storage projects. Solar power was our original focus, but we have adopted a more direct transition with GreenPower, with solar and batteries to act as a cost management strategy.
Uniting Energy is currently running a Pilot with 9 church buildings, purchasing GreenPower electricity and re-selling it to those congregations. The Pilot was designed to explore and test IT, commercial and financial aspects of this approach and to seek approval from the Australian Energy Regulator (AER) for a NSW & ACT Synod-wide roll-out. Read more about Uniting Energy here and the GreenPower initiative specifically here.
The Uniting Energy Team also has the experience needed to provide useful advice to any congregation considering installing solar panels, including special low-cost loans from Uniting Financial Services. You can read more on solar installation here.
Church Councils in NSW & ACT manage around 1500 buildings. Ensuring that each of these is powered by renewable energy is a major task that requires initiative and goodwill from a great many people. If you would like to champion the use of renewable energy in your local area, are interested in your congregation joining the Pilot or subsequent roll-out, or would like to help in any other way, we would love to hear from you.
Please contact us for more information.
[1] Large sites like nursing homes, schools and commercial properties are being transitioned by their specific groups.