The race to renewables

Summaries - Australian Financial
Saturday 22/8/2009 Page: 29

The passage this week of renewable energy target legislation through the Federal Parliament means a number of technologies and companies are now competing for investment. The immediate winning technology is wind energy, represented by companies such as Infigen Energy, formerly Babcock and Brown Wind Partners, and Transfield Services Infrastructure Fund, which has first refusal on investing in the wind farms being developed by Transfield Services. More ambitious technologies include wave power, being pushed by Perth's Carnegie Corporation; geothermal, which has two Australian Securities Exchange listed companies competing, GeoDynamics and Panax Geothermal, although John Wright of the CSIRO acknowledges the infancy of the approach; and solar thermal, which WorleyParsons claims is economically feasible to start building now, although a US company also in the field, Ausra, says this may be premature.