In April 2008, the City of Sydney released Sustainable Sydney 2030 outlining a series of large visionary projects to transform Sydney into a more sustainable, more liveable, global and connected city by 2030. Sustainable Sydney 2030 also recognised the importance of reducing the City’s carbon emissions to both directly contribute to climate change mitigation and to lead by example, setting the standard for other global cities. In this respect, Sustainable Sydney 2030 announced the City’s ambition to achieve a 70% reduction in carbon emissions by 2030 based on 2006 levels.

The City also recognised the importance of renewable energy and has set out a separate target of 30% of the City’s electricity to be derived from renewable sources by 2030. The City commissioned Arup to prepare this Renewable Energy Master Plan to identify the extent to which renewable energy may contribute to the City’s carbon reduction target and the available renewable energy resource to achieve the renewable energy target. In addition to the renewable energy potential, the City has identified that the prime mechanism for achieving the carbon abatement target is via a Combined Cooling Heating and Power (Trigeneration) Master Plan. The Trigeneration Master Plan outlines a scheme for a 360 MWe network of gas fired cogeneration units to produce electricity and heat. The heat is to be distributed through a pipeline network under the City to provide thermal energy for heating and cooling within ‘low carbon zones’. The natural gas requirements for the Trigeneration Master Plan are estimated to be 26.7 PJ per year. The Trigeneration Master Plan also provides an allowance for natural gas to be replaced by renewable fuel feedstocks by 2030. Identification of these feedstocks forms part of the Renewable Energy Master Plan.