Stanley Quek, a medical doctor from Singapore and
the major shareholder of Frasers Property, said power co-generation was one of
a number of measures he was looking at to reduce the development’s greenhouse
footprint.
“We believe it’s worth careful consideration because
the initial evidence we have is that it’s viable on the site,” Dr Quek
told the Herald.
Frasers Property is building 11 towers, comprising more
than 1600 dwellings and 90,000 square metres of commercial and retail space on
the old brewery next to Central Station. It is the inner city’s largest
“blank slate” property.
His plans follow a failed bid in the courts by student
Matthew Drake-Brockman to force the State Government to introduce more
stringent environmental rules on the developers of the brewery site.
The Herald revealed this month a unit within the
Department of Planning, assigned the task of finding ways to reduce demand
management, was highly critical of the Government’s failure to introduce more
stringent environmental rules for developers of major projects.
A spokeswoman for the department said that among the
environmental measures required, the developer was to conduct “future
investigations into opportunities for each site to generate energy to satisfy
its own energy needs”.
The Demand Management and Planning Project said the
department did not impose even the most basic energy-saving rules on
developers.
Co-generation has also been touted by the engineering
group Arup, which says it would be ideal for the East Darling
Harbour site on the
western side of the city.
With only 30 per cent of the power from the giant Hunter Valley
generators making it to Sydney’s
CBD, the current infrastructure is widely recognised as wasteful, even though
it is the cheapest form of power.
But the wastage is such an issue that EnergyAustralia,
fearing supply shortages in the summer of 2012, says it will have to spend $200
million upgrading the delivery of electricity to inner Sydney if energy-saving solutions are not
developed.
Dr Quek manages Fraser’s developments in “mature
economies” and has worked extensively in London, where the Mayor, Ken Livingstone, has
enforced strict rules on environmental sustainability and affordable housing.
Affordable housing is seen as a key factor in ensuring
that essential workers, including police and nurses, can stay in the city’s
most densely populated areas as property prices boom.
Dr Quek said his developments in London had been required to provide as much
as 50 per cent in affordable housing. At the Carlton United Brewery, the State
Government has demanded a payment that will result in no more than 5 per cent.