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Home Page > Environment matters > Energy and the local environment

Energy and the local environment

The processes involved in generating energy affect our environment in many ways. Not only do they contribute to climate change, they also have more local effects.

Power to the People!

As populations grow, so does the demand for electricity. Power consumption in WA alone has increased by an average of 5% over the last decade, putting a huge strain on our energy network.

And it’s not just about how many people there are – it’s also about where we are! People don’t like to live on top of one another, we like to have space. In WA, while we like our homes to be close to schools, cinemas, shopping centres and places to work, we also like to have a back yard, a pool, a garage, a bbq area and big airy houses. This means that the population starts to spread out. It is called “Urban Sprawl” and it is a big issue in Australia, especially in WA.

Because every house or building needs to be connected to the electricity network, urban sprawl means that the network has to keep growing to keep up with the sprawl of development.

In WA, electricity is generated in power stations, wind farms, hydro-electric dams and other small-scale sources. The energy is then sent to sub-stations through transmission lines. From sub-stations, the electricity is then sent to your home or school through distribution lines.

If you look around you, you may well see an electricity tower and its transmission lines. In fact, the world is now covered with a patchwork of powerlines!

These are necessary to cope with the current demand for electricity, but can you imagine how the world would look if demand just kept going up and we had to keep adding more and more power lines to meet that demand?

The reality is that every time a new transmission line or substation is added, it has an impact on the local (and ultimately, global) environment.

That is why it is important for us to manage our energy consumption – if our use of energy keeps increasing, then we will need to build more powerlines to supply that energy.

So what are the impacts on the local environment?

In order to build new transmission lines or substations, some vegetation may have to be cleared or disturbed. Access tracks are also needed so maintenance teams can safely get access to the area. These can lead to:

• Loss of habitat for local wildlife – In WA, shrinking habitat is threatening several species, including Red Tailed Black-cockatoos, Woylies, Carnaby’s black-cockatoos, Gilbert’s Potoroos and Red-Tailed Phascogales.
• For more information on endangered species in WA and the rest of Australia, go to http://fame.org.au/endangered_wildlife.html
• Loss of habitat for local plants – the south west of Australia is one of just 25 biodiversity hotspots around the world. It is very important to preserve it.
• By using areas of land to develop a power network, some ecosystem are affected which can lead to introduction of weeds, soil erosion and declining numbers of native plants and animals.
• The introduction of the devastating plant disease “Phytophthora Dieback”, or Dieback, is a major threat to the biodiversity of south west Australia. A number of rare native plants and animals are being driven to the brink of extinction by the disease. Any activity that transfers soil and plant material from one site to another has the potential to spread the disease. That’s why it’s important that we manage our works, so that we don’t interfere with the sensitive nature of our environment.