Minister explores Tuckey's tidal power push

Age
Wednesday 3/1/2007 Page: 5
By Michelle Grattan

FEDERAL Science Minister Julie Bishop will ask her department to give her an appraisal of the potential of tidal power as an alternative source of energy.

This comes after representations from federal Liberal backbencher Wilson Tuckey, who has said tidal power is the "best kept renewable energy-generation secret in Australia". and could deliver power to eastern Australia and preclude the need for nuclear power any time soon.

Power from the giant tidal movements of Western Australia's Kimberley region could be fed into the eastern states' power grid, Mr Tuckey maintains, urging a Federal Government inquiry into its potential.

"If we can inquire into nuclear, why not tidal?.. . surely a full and practical feasibility study has as much priority as the recent investigation into nuclear power," he said. Mr Tuckey said government seemed "frightened to know" about the potential of tidal power,"or believes the politics of coal too important".

While conceding that setting up a tidal power system would be expensive, he pointed out this would be a one-off - there is no later fuel cost. He likened a scheme to harness tidal power to the Snowy Mountains hydro-electricity scheme.

A long-time advocate for this little-talked-about renewable energy source, Mr Tuckey, from Western Australia, is pushing it strongly in the intensifying climate-change debate and gave Ms Bishop a paper on it just before Christmas.

Ms Bishop, also a West Australian, told The Age yesterday: "I think it is worthwhile putting a bit of time and effort into considering the potential of tidal power. Some business people in WA believe there's considerable potential." Opposition environment spokesman Peter Garrett welcomed discussion of tidal power.

"So long as environmental considerations are taken into account, it does have positive prospects. If supplemented by other renewables. it would make nuclear energy even less attractive," Mr Garrett said.

Said Mr Tuckey: "If Australia is to be a future participant in carbon trading.. . why not use its clean image and tidal carbon credits to offset other nations' emission when they purchase our coal and gas? "Should it use its own uranium when it could sell it?" He said that while he isn't frightened by nuclear power, it is time to consider all future power sources "in a rational and practical fashion".

Nuclear generation used expensive and scarce fuel and created waste-storage problems. Cleaning up coal increased the cost to consumers and was highly energy intensive, while wind and solar were not compatible with the demand patterns of the electricity grid.

Tidal power was emission and fuel-free, and proven technology that could be used for so-called "base-load" power. The Kimberley tides rise and fall about 11 metres twice daily. The region's remoteness from places of energy demand had been a barrier to use and an attempt to harness this energy in the Derby Tidal Power project failed.

But Mr Tuckey said there was now potential demand from North West Shelf resource project operators, and the North American experience had shown how such power could be sent over thousands of kilometres.

To send power from Broome in WA to Port Augusta in South Australia, for instance, would be economically achievable and from there it could go into the eastern states' power grid. It could also be realistic to mix tidal power with existing coal and gas generation. "Australia would not need additional nuclear, coal or gas-fired capacity for a very long time," Mr Tuckey said.