Age
Saturday 27/6/2009 Page: 2
Governments fail to get behind scientists who are leading the world.
AUSTRALIAN support for the solar industry is faltering just as the technology promises to deliver baseload power. Recent breakthroughs in concentrating solar energy technology allow heat energy to be stored almost indefinitely in molten salts - and dispatched as needed.
The Andasol parabolic trough solar thermal plant near Guadiz in Spain, developed and operated by German company Solar Millennium (which has an Australasian joint venture with Leighton Contractors), generates 50 MWs (MW) of clean electricity, with enough storage to run for 7.5 hours without sun and around the clock in summer.
There's plenty more coming, with Bloomberg reporting 14,000MW of solar thermal power stations are in the pipeline in Spain alone. That's enough clean power to run NSW, according to Matthew Wright, of Melbourne-based advocacy group Beyond Zero Emissions. In the US, SolarReserve and a division of giant defence contractor United Technologies plan a series of solar thermal "power towers" in the Californian desert - generating between 50MW and 300MW each - again using molten salts to store energy and able to run 15 hours without sun.
Even better solar technology is being developed here, at the Australian National University, using super-heated ammonia to store energy. A company called Wizard Power is in a joint venture with ANU to commercialise the process. John Grimes, chief executive of the Australian New Zealand Solar Energy Society, fears a bitter replay of earlier brain drains. "Australian scientists and research and development are at the leading edge of the world," he says. "What we lack is government support to commercialise and capitalise on that research. We will be the dumb consumers of the technology that we invented."
The Australian Government has shown this month that it is all over the place when it comes to solar energy policy. On a positive note, it surprised many when the May budget allocated $1.35 billion to part-fund construction of up to four solar energy stations generating up to 1000MW each. But Grimes is concerned that, amid continuing uncertainty over the Government's renewable energy target (RET) and emissions trading scheme-and in the wake of the financial crisis - it will be difficult to raise the snatching private capital needed to get those projects off the ground.
Investor confidence would not be helped by the latest triple whammy of abrupt decisions. The popular $8000 means tested solar rebate was unilaterally dumped by Environment Minister Peter Garrett on June 11, a fortnight ahead of schedule, leaving many suppliers, installers and home owners in the lurch. Then it was revealed that a replacement scheme, to provide solar credits under the new RET regime, in what was meant to be a smooth transition from July 1, would not be decided until August.
Finally this week, Garrett axed the Renewable Remote Power Generation program supporting installation of solar energy in remote areas. "At this point in time there is no Federal Government support for domestic-scale PV (photovoltaics) in this country," says Grimes, "which demonstrates the lack of longterm thinking for this really important industry. There is no road map. All the PV manufacturers have pulled out - they're all gone, it's all over."
Australia has the best solar resource in the world, but the domestic market has not had the scale needed to support the rapid commercialisation of our home-grown solar technologies.
Australian scientist David Mills had to go to California to find backing for his company, Ausra, to build his solar thermal power stations there. (Local venture capital outfit Starfish Ventures has a stake.) UNSW researcher Zhengrong Shi made a fortune taking Australian-developed PV technology to China, listing solar panel manufacturer SunTech on the NASDAQ technology stock exchange.
Brilliant Australian-listed Dyesol, which makes third generation photovoltaic cells, had to go to Wales and partner manufacturer Corus to commercialise its power generating Colourcoat steel panels. Australia's state governments could help promote a homegrown solar energy industry, but are pulling their most important policy lever in just the wrong way. More than 60 jurisdictions around the world have introduced a gross feed-in tariff, which pays home owners for every renewable kW they generate.
In Australia only the ACT Government has a gross tariff, brought in a year ago. Tasmania and the Northern Territory are yet to decide. The other states have a "net" tariff, which only pays the home owner for any surplus electricity they generate. The most common solar systems only generate a maximum of 1-1.5KW - not enough to power a typical home. One energy expert said our net feed-in tariffs were "completely stupid". NSW has become the latest to bring in a net tariff, through supposedly green Deputy Premier and Environment Minister Carmel Tebbutt.
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