Energy potential explained

Bendigo Advertiser
Tuesday 18/9/2007 Page: 6

THE potential for Australia to become a clean energy superpower is a challenge for governments and business to embrace, chief executive officer of the Clean Energy Council, Dominique La Fontaine told delegates yesterday. Wind energy was overwhelmingly endorsed as a reliable source of renewable energy in Australia by Ms Fontaine, who said adopting targets for renewables to provide at least 20 per cent of electricity generation by 2020 was possible. "We don't need to wait for technology to occur," she said. "We need to start deploying energies we know." She described the forthcoming federal election as a watershed for the renewable energy industry.

The CEC has a local government forum which encourages representatives to consult on clean energy initiatives. Dean Bridgfoot from the Mount Alexander Sustainability Group, who also addressed a session on marketing green power, said it was important to encourage communities to change their behaviour now, instead of waiting for advocacy and high-tech innovations to develop.

Mr Bridgfoot said the group was working to encourage energy retailers to support community groups such as schools or sporting clubs via a loyalty program, with incentives for clubs signing up to green power, such as being provided with solar panels. "With a strong political voice, in a dramatic and direct way, people can do it," he said.

The group, which has 480 members within a small geographic area, initially wanted to start up its own green power company but the infrastructure proved too onerous. Instead, the group is now encouraging its local community to sign up to green power and eventually oversubscribe. "The economics would be transformed," Mr Bridgfoot said.