Dr Margaret Platell and I have just returned from taking 10 UON undergraduates on a New Colombo Plan funded cultural immersion visit to Indonesian Borneo. In the two weeks: we compared the environmental consequences of traditional alluvial diamond mining with the excellent forest rehabilitation outcomes from large scale open-cut coal mining in both Central Kalimantan and South Kalimantan; and the pressures on ORANGUTAN and PROBOSCIS MONKEYS from mining and palm oil plantation expansion. "A trip of a lifetime", " I understand so much more than I did before", "the best time of my life", are some of the comments from our group. Long term relations have been formed between UON and our Indonesian partner University Lambung Mangkurat. Projects around orchids, fungi, primate ecology and mined land rehabilitation have sprung up from the original contact made by Tim Roberts in 2015 and the July and December 2018 NCP student visits.
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University of Newcastle will receive 100% Renewable Electricity from the grid through a 7 year contract with Red Energy for their Newcastle and Central Coast campuses from 2020. Red Energy, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Snowy Hydro. The first year of the contract, 2019, will be a transition year while Red Energy gears up its solar, wind and hydro capacity.
This will complement the $4 million 2.0 megawatt system installation expected in 2019 which will see over 6000 panels installed across approximately 25 buildings at the Callaghan campus with additional panels also installed at the Ourimbah campus. In 2016 the Tom Farrell Institute in conjunction with CLEANaS conducted a feasibility study on the Callaghan Campus going 100% renewable energy by 2020 as part of the Lighthouse Community Energy Project funded by the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage Growing Community Energy Program. This determined that it is both technically feasible and financially beneficial to implement 100% renewable electricity. Achievement of this goal by 2020 will place the University of Newcastle as a leader in Sustainability and Energy Management across the Australian tertiary sector; will stimulate research and teaching in renewable energy; and will drive new student enrolments across all Faculties with young people attracted to learn at the greenest and most innovative University in Australia. |
Newcastle Herald
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