Sun rises on massive power scheme

Age
Thursday 22/7/2010 Page: 5

UP TO 10 large-scale solar power plants would be built in regional Victoria under a state government scheme to run a quarter of the state on renewable energy by 2020. Promising to make Victoria the "solar capital" of Australia. Premier John Brumby set a target of 5% of the state's electricity coming from large solar plants within 10 years. The plan won the immediate approval of the Australian Greens, with spokeswoman Christine Milne declaring that Mr Brumby was "leaving Julia Gillard in his wake". The target would be met through the nation's first large solar feed-in-tariff - a subsidy that will pay solar companies a premium rate to make their technology competitive with coal, gas and wind power. The target is additional to the national 20% renewable energy target, which is expected to mainly build wind farms.

The government estimates it would increase household electricity bills by $5-$15 a year from 2014, and inject up to $2 billion into the state economy. Mr Brumby said the plan would make the state the nation's leader in renewable energy. The plants would be built in the state's north and west. "We will be producing in Victoria as much solar as will the rest of Australia under the [federal $1.5 billion] solar flagships program", he said. Climate Change Minister Gavin Jennings said the proportion of electricity generated from carbon-intensive brown coal was expected to fall from 93% today to about 60% by 2020.

The plan won praise from the solar industry and environment groups. Senator Milne said the use of a gross feed-in tariff to build solar farms was, "world-leading" and called on federal Labor to take a similar approach. "Premier Brumby is to be congratulated on his decision... although he still has a fair way to go to catch up with the Greens", she said. The solar target is part of the piecemeal release of the state government's climate change white paper, promised before the 2006 election. The government previously announced it would double the state energy-efficiency target and is expected to release a proposal to close a quarter of the Hazelwood coal-fired station - Australia's "dirtiest" power plant - by 2014. The policy paper is due to be released later this month.

Details of yesterday's announcement included:
An expectation it would build between 5 and 10 new plants, including an existing proposal to build a station outside Mildura by 2015. The 154MW proposal - backed by $50 million from the state and $75 million from Canberra - was resurrected by Sydney company Silex after original backers Solar Systems went into administration.
An interim target of generating 500GW-hours - enough power to run a city of 90,000 hones - from largescale solar by 2014.
The establishment of a working group to develop plans for medium-scale solar plants that could be built, for example, on shopping centres.

State opposition energy spokesman Michael O'Brien said Victoria was well placed to develop large-scale solar, but Mr Brumby had left many unanswered questions about how the tariff would work: "Until we see the detail, nobody can have confidence that this will turn out any better than John Brumby's previous solar power promises". The government also released a report by consultants Sinclair Knight Merz that found the renewable energy potential in Victoria could meet its power needs more than eight times over.