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Solar panels would be installed at public schools under a $70 million promise by the NSW Opposition to help schools become more energy efficient and generate their own power.
Announcing the policy at Chipping Norton Public School on Friday, Labor leader Luke Foley was also forced to defend his party's opposition to the government's power privatisation plans, after former NSW Labor treasurer Michael Costa reportedly accused him of running a campaign of "desperate lies".
Mr Foley dismissed the criticism as "elite opinion".
Eight days out from the state election, Mr Foley has continued Labor's emphasis on environmental protection, announcing up to 1700 state schools will receive a $40,000 grant for solar photovoltaic power if his party is elected.
Mr Foley said Labor added sustainability to the NSW school syllabus while in government and wanted to build on that by "including integrating renewable energy to lower our schools' carbon footprint".
Environment Minister Rob Stokes said the government is already undertaking a policy to lease the roofs of schools and other public buildings to energy providers to install solar panels. The providers in turn provide energy back to the government at a greatly discounted rate.
He said the government's policy "is not going to cost the taxpayer a cent" and would save the state $7 million in energy costs. Mr Stokes said the government is already in discussions with solar providers and installations could begin as soon as October, after the government finishes an audit of schools' energy usage in July.
Meantime, Labor's opposition to the government's proposed electricity privatisation has again come under fire from within the party.
News Limited reported on Friday that Mr Costa accused Mr Foley of running a campaign of "desperate lies", and costing the taxpayer billions, by opposing the government's proposal to part-lease the transmission and distribution businesses, known as the "poles and wires".
Mr Costa said "lie after desperate lie is being thrown at the public in an attempt to frighten the electorate into rejecting the Baird government's sensible and moderate reforms to the electricity industry".
Labor says the power plan will lead to higher prices for consumers and the unions fear it will lead to mass job losses.
In 2008, Mr Costa and then premier Morris Iemma unsuccessfully sought to privatise the state's electricity generators and retailers.
But in the same year, Mr Costa told Parliament: "it is the wrong policy to privatise a regulated monopoly in the form of transmission and distribution".
Former federal Labor resources minister Martin Ferguson this month accused the unions and the NSW Labor of deliberately misleading the public by saying privatisation of the electricity networks will drive up electricity prices.
Former federal Labor leader Mark Latham has also reportedly said all "good" Labor governments had backed power privatisation.
Mr Foley said while some "elite opinion" favoured electricity privatisation, "I'm with the great mass of the people of NSW, who own our electricity network and do not want it sold".
He said NSW Labor had gone to every election in its history "with a policy to retain the monopoly part of the electricity network in public hands".
"Our policy has been consistent forever," Mr Foley said.
He also paid his respects to the former Liberal prime minister Malcolm Fraser, who died on Friday.
"I want to pay tribute to Malcolm Fraser's long period of public service ... Perhaps his finest achievement in my mind was his principled stance against racism," Mr Foley said.
"He was a leader in forcing change on the old South Africa. That's what I'll remember Malcolm Fraser for."
- With James Robertson
