On renewable energy trail in a day's work

Southern Gazette
Tuesday 21/8/2007 Page: 2

MANNING resident Daniel Thompson wants to make renewable energy more affordable and accessible to remote towns and communities. The Verve Energy project development manager has received a 2007 Churchill Fellowship for study into hybrid power systems, particularly wind energy.

"There are thousands of remote communities in the world that rely on diesel power generation," Mr Thompson said. "Diesel power is expensive and as a fossil fuel consumer it creates greenhouse gas emissions. "Putting wind turbines on those diesel stations has the ability to offset greenhouse gas emissions and bring the cost of distribution down." Mr Thompson will use the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust funding to spend two months studying in Alaska, the United States, France, Norway and the UK.

He said there were about 10,000 diesel power stations throughout the world releasing greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuel. "There's a lot of good reasons to put wind turbines on the systems and Verve Energy saw that back in 1997, and as a result now have about eight wind diesel systems," he said. "My project is about finding out what other people are doing throughout the world in wind diesel so that we can gauge whether what is happening in Australia is comparable. "It is also to bring back new ideas about where the future lies for that part of the industry." Mr Thompson (29) has been studying wind energy for almost 10 years.

He said he was confident renewable energy would continue to develop and integrate with contemporary fossil fuel-burning stations. He will leave for Alaska in October.