Renewable 40 energy 'will be cheapest in long run'

Canberra Times
Tuesday 17/6/2008 Page: 5

Rising fossil fuel prices mean renewable energy will provide cheaper electricity in the long run, according to a Greenpeace report. The report, Energy (R)evolution, which was issued yesterday and uses modelling by Greenpeace and Canberra energy expert Dr Hugh Saddler, also calls for coal-fired power stations to begin being phased out and for gas-powered electricity to be used as a transition to renewable resources.

Co-author Julien Vincent said burning fossil fuels left Australia vulnerable to their increasing prices as well as "choking the atmosphere with greenhouse gases." "Unlike fossil fuels, the cost of harnessing the power of the wind and the sun will never go up," lie said. The report's modelling said electricity supply costs would triple from $11.7 billion a year to $30.9 billion a year in 2020 tinder "business as usual."

The Greenpeace plan, which involves cutting usage as well as shifting to renewable resources and which takes into account costs imposed by an Emissions Trading Scheme, would cost about $15 billion. "Increasing energy efficiency and shifting energy supply to renewable resources in the long term leads to falls in electricity prices. By 2030, wind will be a cheaper torte of electricity than coal," the report said. Costs would, though, rise in the short term, before dropping as the technologies became more established.

Greenpeace wants the Government to begin phasing out coalfired power stations by imposing an immediate moratorium on extending stations or building new ones. Capacity would be reduced by 75 per cent by 2020 and coal generated power would no longer be in use by 2030, tinder its blueprint.

"A combination of renewable energy being deployed at a large scale, aggressive energy efficiency measures in the short-term and the use of gas as a transitional fuel, results in overall fossil fuel use to diminish rapidly... By 2050, more sustained growth in solar concentrating thermal and geothermal, combined with smaller but still significant increases in solar [photovoltaic] and wind provide a suite of renewable energy technologies that provide over 70 per cent of Australia's electricity," the report said.

Australia generates 9.2 per cent of its electricity from renewable resources at present, and the report said this ought be increased to 40 per cent by 2020. Much energy would be produced locally, instead of being distributed through high-voltage transmission grids, in 2050, although "large offshore wind farms, geothermal energy and concentrating solar power plants in the sunbelt regions will... have an important role to play."

Greenpeace said its plan would mean greenhouse gas emissions would drop 37 per cent between 2005 and 2020, and 65 per cent in 2050. The organisation is calling for legislation requiring Australia's greenhouse gas emissions be cut to 40 per cent below 1990 levels by 2020. This would require emissions to peak within two years.

It also wants 40 per cent of electricity to come from renewable energy by 2020 and an Emissions Trading Scheme that covers at least 70 per cent of Australia's emissions, "omitting only agriculture, land use and forestry unless robust measurements of these sectors an be achieve in the future."

It includes a national energy efficiency target of a 2 per cent cut in power use every year. This could be done by increasing energy efficiency standards of new buildings and refits, and by retrofitting solar hot water systems to homes and offices. Transport energy use could be cut by moving freight from road to rail. The report backs calls for a highspeed train between Brisbane, Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne.