Tuesday 3/7/2007 Page: 12
Bioenergy is a greatly underutilised clean energy source that could help dramatically reduce greenhouse emissions, revive rural communities and strengthen energy security. The raw fuel for bioenergy comes from biological matter - `biomass' - such as the agricultural waste from wheat crops, cotton, rice, sugar cane and other crops; animal manure, wood and paper processing, and food scraps. Much of this biomass is in rural Australia.
Bioenergy offers the prospect of considerable employment and investment and a supplemental income stream to farming, while providing a clean, renewable and reliable source of baseload electricity. In contrast to some other energy technologies, bioenergy electricity plants are flexible as well as reliable: they can be turned on and off on demand, and can generate electricity all year round, 24 hours a day.
Together with natural gas and a mix of other renewable energy technologies like wind energy and solar power, bioenergy could form a large slice of Australia's clean energy pie, as part of the necessary transition away from polluting coal-fired electricity generation. "Analysis suggests that by the year 2030, bioenergy could account for 20 per cent of Australia's electricity generation capacity, potentially making it the largest renewable energy source," the Executive Director of the Australian Business Council for Sustainable Energy, Ric Brazzale said.
"Bioenergy is a tried, true and tested technology. "There are already many plants successfully operating, in Australia and the rest of the world. "If implemented on the scale necessitated by the threat of global warming, the construction of bioenergy plants would create considerable employment and major investment stimulus in rural and regional areas in Australia," Mr Brazzale said.
Many rural communities in Australia have suffered economic hardship over the past 20 years. High unemployment, falling agricultural incomes, population decline and withdrawal of essential services like banks and schools have all impacted. If Australia were to fully develop the bioenergy sector and develop one-fifth of electricity from this source by 2030, it could lead to the creation of 50,000 job years in construction and manufacturing, and 7000 ongoing jobs in operation and maintenance, many of these jobs in rural and regional areas.
The generation of bioenergy creates many more jobs per unit of energy generation than fossil fuels. Jobs are diverse, ranging from extensions to existing agricultural and forestry activities, through to specialised engineering and electronic functions. It also offers rural communities a practical way to get active in the fight against climate change by making significant cuts to greenhouse gas emissions.
Bioenergy currently supplies electricity to the needs of about 400,000 Australian households. But it could supply much more. "bioenergy is not a technology of the future; it is ready here and now and we can employ it to rapidly respond to the challenge created by climate change," Mr Brazzale said.
Benefits Of Bioenergy
- Tried and tested.
- Readily available fuel source
- A stimulus for our farmers
- Eases the unemployment rate
- Reduces greenhouse emissions
- Boost for investment
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