Engie signs deal to make Queensland’s Greater Springfield a net-zero city


French multinational electric utility Engie has signed a 50-year strategic alliance with Queensland’s Springfield City Group – the group behind the new city of Greater Springfield – to make the city a net-zero energy city.

Greater Springfield bills itself as Australia’s “newest city” and already boasts a population of nearly 40,000 living in a city planned around connective pillars of health, education, and technology.

Located in the south-west of the Brisbane metropolitan area in Queensland, Greater Springfield has a planned CBD that is almost twice the size of Brisbane’s and boasts a $1.2 billion major rail and transport hub and more than $15 billion invested overall.

As proof of the city’s visionary approach, it was internationally declared to be the best master planned community by the International Real Estate Federation in 2010.

Engie is looking to Greater Springfield to be home to its first “Better Cities TODAY” project in Australia, part of the company’s larger strategy to transform cities, “making them more resilient, more sustainable, and better places to be.”

Engie’s  “Better Cities TODAY” approach is build around seven major challenges ENGIE identified as challenging the vast majority of local authorities: making their facilities more energy efficient, making savings, making cities safer places, providing greener, smarter, and more resilient mobility options, enhancing quality of life, increasing the appeal of their local area, and stimulating connectivity.

Engie will work with Springfield City Group to direct investments towards renewable energy generation and energy storage infrastructure, district energy schemes, green mobility solutions, digital technology, energy efficiency initiatives, and a dedicated research and innovation centre.

Specifically, the resulting Zero Net Energy Vision for Greater Springfield signed between the two organisations will seek to ensure that Greater Springfield’s six suburbs are generating more energy than they consume by 2038.

“The partnership between Engie and Springfield City Group will enable the creation of a better, safer and more efficient environment for residents,” said Didier Holleaux, ENGIE Executive Vice President. “By 2050, 70% of the world’s population will be living in cities.

“As a recognised nation building project we have one chance and a responsibility to get this right as an ongoing example for others to follow,” said Greater Springfield’s founder and city visionary, Maha Sinnathamby.

“The focus on efficient and sustainable energy production, storage and integration with the community has never been more important for Australia and for us. I’m confident that ENGIE can assist us to be a world leader in innovative and smart city solutions.”

The importance of this alliance to Greater Springfield is highlighted further by the city’s plans to triple its overall resident and working population over the next 20 years and develop within its CBD up to 2.6 million square-metres of mixed-use buildings and 22,850 apartments.