Big hurdles, but huge benefits

Australian
Thursday 16/10/2008 Page: 6

FEW people will be watching the outcome of the emissions trading debate in Australia with more interest than Mark Rowsthorn. As chief executive of Asciano, the ports and rail giant that has been spun out of Toll Holdings, he is acutely aware that a push for more environmentally friendly freight operations will favour rail and sea services at the expense of road transport. With rail accounting for a mere 5 per cent of the domestic freight load, the scope for growth and profits is obvious. Rowsthorn has welcomed Ross Garnaut's Climate Change Review report and supports the introduction of an emissions trading scheme. He is calling on government to resist calls from big business to back away from a full-fledged ETS.

If they're serious about what they're trying to do, politicising it and watering it down will just reduce the impact of it and, from my perspective, it will also reduce the impact of anything done about our industry, which is just ludicrous." Asciano cites statistics revealing that rail uses two-thirds less fuel than road per tonne of goods carried and is three times more environmentally efficient. And, according to the Australian Department of Transport's 2008 statistics, road transport accounted for 84.9 per cent of Australia's domestic transport greenhouse gas emissions in 2007 and 1616 deaths, compared with respective figures for rail of 4.6 per cent and 37 deaths. Yet Rowsthorn concedes that breaking the dominance of the all-powerful road transport sector will be tough, and that federal and state assistance will be required.

At some point governments need to sit up and take notice of the benefits from a congestion, from a safety, from an environmental climate change perspective and say, well, there's actually enormous benefit in switching from road to rail. Yes, there are lobby groups and the trucking industry is quite powerful and the rail industry has been fragmented, (but) I think I'm seeing signs now of the rail industry coming together and pushing some very common agendas." Asciano has had its own well-publicised issues, with high debt levels and a slumping share price getting headlines.

Another distraction has been a scorned takeover attempt in August from investment firms TPG Capital and Global Infrastructure Partners. Nevertheless, with Australia's freight task expected to double over the next 15 to 20 years and bottlenecks at ports such as Newcastle and Gladstone already threatening resources exports, it is clear that the opportunities for rail are significant. There are issues to confront, though. Infrastructure shortfalls have been well chronicled, while the fragmented ownership of rail lines across the country on top of different rail gauges between the states represents a major barrier to the greater uptake of rail transportation.

Rowsthorn says action is long overdue. "There's no common ownership of the track between Brisbane and Perth," he says. "There are all sorts of regulatory impediments in getting the job done and you've got a lack of spending on the infrastructure that really limits rail's ability to take the market share off road.

"So how are you supposed to, as an above rail operator, get any confidence about the future of the business? How are you supposed to plan your (freight) paths running trains between those capitals with all the different track ownerships? You've got misalignment of investment." Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics figures point to part of the problem. For the 2006-07 financial year, $11.85 billion was spent on roads and bridges compared with $2.48 billion on rail.

Rowsthorn suggests such lack of investment, if continued, will compound supply line difficulties in the future and increase dependence on roads. "You know, if the freight task doubles we have an expectation that the number of trucks on the road is going to double. I think that's just an incredibly asinine thing to do." Improving rail networks may take at least a decade and cost tens of billions of dollars. However, Rowsthorn says if upgrades are completed in "chunks" through upgrades of Sydney-Melbourne lines, then Sydney- Brisbane and ultimately a Melbourne- Brisbane rail project the investment will be manageable.

Asciano takes heart from the federal Government's appointment of respected industry figure Michael Deegan as the inaugural infrastructure co-ordinator, saying it is a sign that Canberra is taking freight transport issues seriously. "He's got a deep knowledge of rail and road," Rowsthorn says. He understands the bottlenecks and I think he's the sort of person that can see the sense in spending more on rail." Rowsthorn acknowledges "self-interest" in pushing for more rail freight, but is adamant it will have benefits for government, the environment, business and the public. "I think that just ticks a lot of boxes for the community, the country and not to mention ourselves. It's an important thing for the country to get right."

Power-packed clothing wins funds

Hobart Mercury
Thursday 16/10/2008 Page: 4

A PROJECT to develop small solar panels that can be woven into people's clothing to generate electricity is among the research initiatives to have won federal funding. The intricate use of solar panels is just one of 1100 projects included in the latest round of Australian Research Council funding, announced yesterday, which provides $363 million to the country's top researchers.

Boffins will use the money to study everything from the interactions between humans and robots to maintaining public health during heatwaves. South Australian researchers will study the most appropriate support services for grandparents who do plenty of childcare, while turning wastewater into drinking water will be studied in Western Australia.

Riverland solar farm

Adelaide Advertiser
Thursday 16/10/2008 Page: 28

ONE of the largest grid connected solar energy systems in the state will open in the Riverland. Solar Shop Australia began construction of the "solar farm" yesterday with work on the project due to be completed by the end of the month. The $250,000 Sun Farm near Renmark has 495 individual panels with the capacity to generate more than 55,000kWh of power a year.

Group slams energy plan

Summaries - Australian Financial Review
Wednesday 15/10/2008 Page: 8

The Energy Users Association of Australia has criticised the Rudd government for its 'unnecessarily ambitious' plan to introduce an emissions trading scheme and compensate coal electricity generators to help maintain investor confidence. The group claims that a similar move in the European Union resulted in big power companies reaping windfall profits at the expense of other industries less able to pass on the additional costs of carbon trading to consumers.

The EUAA also said the government should be focusing on transition to cleaner electricity sources rather than propping up the coal-fired generators. The National Generators Forum said it was important to protect the financial strength of the generators while TRUEnergy warned that any policy which financially impairs generators could jeopardise electricity supplies.

$70m solar project to create 115 jobs

Canberra Times
Monday 13/10/2008 Page: 1

A $70 million high-tech solar cell factory to be built next year, possibly in Canberra or Queanbeyan, will create 115 skilled jobs, with exports worth more than $400 million to Europe's booming solar markets.

Spark Solar Australia, a Canberra based company co-founded by former Australian National University photovoltaic engineer Michelle McCann, will produce 19 trillion solar cells a year - enough to power 20,000 homes. The company has already attracted start-tip capital from a Swiss investment hind and four key commercial partners in Germany. One of the world's leading solar technology and commercialisation experts, German physicist Dr Peter Fath, has joined Spark Solar Australia as company chairman.

Global demand for solar cells is so strong that Spark Solar Australia is now finalising a contract to sell half its output to one of Europe's biggest solar panel manufacturers. Dr McCann said, "The market for solar cells is enormous and there are not enough cells being made globally to meet demand. Even before the factory is built, we expect to pre-sell almost all of our output for the first five years." The global market for solar cells is growing at a faster rate than markets for laptops, mobile phones and digital cameras.

Last year, the global photovoltaics market grew by 70 per cent, to $A21 billion. Dr McCann said the Spark Solar Australia factory would inject $84 million into the region's economy in its first five years and provide skilled jobs for science and engineering graduates.

"Australia is a world leader in solar technology. But sadly the small manufacturing base that exists here means that a lot of really excellent talent and research has gone overseas in the past. We want to change that." The company will initially export 90 per cent of its product and will be Australia's biggest manufacturer of solar cells.

A state-of-the-art factory, designed and prefabricated in Germany, will be built next year, with the solar cell production beginning in early 2010. The company is looking at potential factory sites in Home and Mitchell, as well as Queanbeyan and Wollongong.

"We would prefer to be close to the ANU for collaboration purposes, but of course we have to consider other business factors including state or territory government incentives. The incentives that other state governments otter are very attractive compared with those available in the ACT.

"Given the current global financial market turndown, if a future ACT Government could provide a loan guarantee to Spark Solar Australia, it would be enormously beneficial to our financing ability and would definitely send a decision to establish in Canberra instead of elsewhere." Dr McCann said manufacturing solar cells offshore - for example, in China - would provide only a marginal financial advantage because labor costs were about 8 per cent of total costs.

Emission scheme to go on

Hobart Mercury
Wednesday 15/10/2008 Page: 4

THE Rudd Government has rejected pressure to delay or water-down an emissions trading scheme planned for 2010 despite the world economic crisis. The Opposition and some business figures want the scheme put on hold while the world grapples with financial turmoil, but Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is unmoved. He said yesterday climate change had to be tackled and emissions trading was important. "Our ambition remains 2010. Climate change is not going to go away," he said.

"The long-terns economic cost to the entire economy, and to the entire global economy, of not acting on climate change remains formidable," he said. Business wanted consistency and predictability around emissions trading and they would get it. he vowed. The important thing was to get the scheme's design and rules right, and to neap it out early. Federal Climate Change Minister Penny Wong, in Poland for greenhouse talks, said the financial crisis did not lessen the need to tackle climate change.

But she said the economic crisis would be taken into account in designing Australia's emissions scheme. Business heavyweight Don Voelte, chief executive of LNG company Woodside Petroleum, said emissions trading should be put on hold as the world economy withered. "Heck. I think it's off the table right now," the staunch critic of emissions trading said. "You can't put something like that in at this time until we get this whole fiscal chaos that is going on in the world straightened out."

Solar may give 25pc of power by 2050

Canberra Times
Tuesday 14/10/2008 Page: 3

Solar thermal energy could provide 25 per cent of Australia's power by 2050 if there is a commitment to build one solar energy station a year, a leading CSIRO scientist says. The manager of CSIRO's renewable energy projects, Wes Stein, told a public meeting in Canberra last night he had already discussed this future possibility with solar mirror manufacturers. "One solar energy station a year: that sort of scale would not scare them. This is technology that likes to be built big," he said.

Delivering the sixth annual Malcolm McIntosh memorial lecture, Mr Stein said Australia should aim to play a leading global role in developing next-generation energy technologies and was well placed to be a large-scale exporter of solar energy and expertise.

But greater support for research and development was needed. "There's plenty of work to be done," he said. "We need smarter solar collectors and clever optics to make more [and] better reflective surfaces. "We also need to come up with some fairly fancy new materials that can handle hot-spot temperatures and we can still improve thermal efficiency."

Mr Stein said solar thermal energy could be collected, stored as synthetic natural gas (syngas) and "transported around the world", creating lucrative export markets for Australia. Farmers suffering the impacts of climate change could switch from crops to earning income from "farming the sun".

"If you convert solar energy into liquid transport fuels, in a sunny environment somewhere in Australia, then three days later it's being exported for use in Tokyo or elsewhere around the world." The McIntosh lecture is given each year by a leading CSIRO scientist and honours the organisation's former chief executive British-born physicist Dr Malcolm McIntosh, who died in 2000.

Mr Stein, who has been a driving force behind solar thermal innovation in Australia, led the CSIRO team that developed the world's first high-concentration solar tower array, which uses 200 computer-controlled mirrors to generate more than 500kW of electricity. Debate over whether solar thermal could provide baseload power for Australia's grid was "a furphy question", he said.

Blowing with the wind

Age
Tuesday 14/10/2008 Page: 2

THE biggest wind farm in Victoria is a step closer after Planning Minister Justin Madden ruled that plans to build a 282-turbine project west of Ballarat required no Environmental Effects Statement (EES).

But Mr Madden told the proponents to conduct further work on the wind farm's impact on flocks of Brolga, a large local bird. Mr Madden's decision to waive the EES requirements angered a local protest group, which said it was another example of country Victorians being ignored.

Solar research burning bright with funding

Weekend Australian
Saturday 11/10/2008 Page: 6

WHEN the National Solar Energy Centre opened two years ago on a small corner of land that once formed part of BHP's steel works, it was an optimistic, if not especially well-funded venture into the exploration of innovative solar technologies. Two and a half years later, funding looks set to increase by a multiple of 10 or more, with the federal Government's budget commitment of $50 million commitment to set up an Australian Solar Institute, incorporating the National Solar Energy Centre and building on its research.

The research facility employs 16 people, mostly engineers and research scientists. It consists of a 26 metre-high tower, and the largest high-concentration solar array in the southern hemisphere. These 200 panels, made of mirrored glass on a steel frame, track the sun, and concentrate its power up to 1000 times its natural strength on to a reactor suspended from the tower. And this is where the magic happens, according to Wes Stein, manager at the National Solar Energy Centre.

"The heat causes a chemical reaction between the natural gas, water and a catalyst in the reactor. This reaction effectively traps the solar energy in the chemical bonds of the natural gas." The resulting gas, solar gas, has 26 per cent more energy than natural gas but with the advantages of the stability and transportability of natural gas. "Solar gas can be stored, tankered and shipped to markets around Australia but also exported to any of the countries that currently import energy," says Stein.

He cites collaborative work with Tokyo's Institute of Technology, the German Aerospace Centre (DLR) and a growing relationship with the Chinese Academy of Sciences as examples of interest from overseas in the technology and in the product's potential.

To Stein, solar gas is a pragmatic solution in the search for transition fuels as Australia moves towards a greater mix of renewable energy sources. "Solar and gas are Australia's most abundant natural resources. In my 30 years in the industry I have seen the fossil and renewable industries bounce off each other often with more conflict than the willingness to work together." Solar gas, he suggests, makes use of existing gas infrastructure. "In terms of transition from the fossil fuel economy, it isn't about a sudden breakthrough overnight.

It is about scalability and the ability to integrate new sources of energy with existing electricity generation knowhow and reliable distribution. It isn't about taking risks and jeopardising supply." A demonstration array is currently under construction in Queensland. It will be completed in 2011.

The National Solar Energy Centre's research into solar gas is just a part of its research activities. solar thermal technology (allocated $50 million in the Rudd Government's budget) is also part of NSEC's plan. This uses a low concentration solar array to convert solar energy into heat to drive a turbine along the lines of traditional electricity generation but removing the need for fossil fuel. The centre is also researching the next generation photovoltaics (solar cells) with an emphasis on low cost and easy integration into the existing built environment.

Biggest culprit turns to sun, wind

Weekend Australian
Saturday 11/10/2008 Page: 4

China is the elephant in the international lounge room when it comes to global warming but, far from being ignored, it is constantly being held up by both sides of the argument on emissions management. Detractors of the Rudd Government's plans to introduce a unilateral carbon charge scheme in Australia point to China's emissions it is now the largest greenhouse gas emitter in the world, emitting 24 per cent of the global total and exceeding US emissions in 2007 by about 14 per cent and the enormous increases to come from its commitment to coal-fired power to meet rapid industrialisation.

Supporters of the Government's plans argue we will have little influence over China and other large emitters in the next round of international negotiations on global warming if we cannot ourselves demonstrate commitment and acceptance of economic pain. China, meanwhile, continues to press forward with coal-fired development while maintaining a hard line on a global carbon trading scheme in post-Kyoto negotiations. After the recent G8 meeting in Japan, China, India, South Africa, Mexico and Brazil declined in follow-up talks to endorse a commitment to cut national emissions by 50 per cent by 2050 suggesting that the major developed nations would need to cut emissions by up to 95 per cent to win their support.

Last year China oversaw the commissioning of more than 80,000MW of new coal-fired capacity nearly triple Australia's coalburning generation and it has approved more than 200 new coal-burning generators, each 600MW or more, for delivery by 2012. (By comparison, NSW, which accounts for 40 per cent of Australian electricity consumption, has 12 units of 660MW.

Notwithstanding this activity and its tough negotiating stance, China is busy ensuring that the developed nations understand it is not "doing nothing" about greenhouse gases. One of its leading energy academics, Jianxiong Mao of Tsinghua University in Beijing, told a major clean energy conference in Manila in June that China is closing 4000 of its old, inefficient power stations of up to 300MW capacity and building 120,000MW of renewable energy.

In an interview in New Scientist magazine, Wu Changhua, Greater China director of the Climate Group, says that the country's highest decision-making body has conducted two study sessions on global warming in a year. The country, she says, is "deeply aware of its environmental problems." Wu notes that the Chinese Government has legislated to boost electricity production from renewable energy to 15 per cent by 2020, from 8 per cent at present, and to require 3 per cent to come from wind, solar energy and biomass.

Australian proponents of "showing China the way" gloss over the fact that the country already has 6000MW of wind farms a target Australia hopes to reach in 2020 and that it is aiming to have 100,000MW of wind energy in 12 years' time. China invested $US12 billion in renewable energy last year and its Government has estimated that it will need to spend an average of $US33 billion a year for the next 12 years to achieve zero-emissions and low-carbon goals.

China is also planning a six-fold increase in its nuclear energy capacity, raising a challenging issue for Australian federal and state governments that cannot bring themselves to develop new uranium mines despite estimates that their product could contribute a billion tonnes of greenhouse gas abatement worldwide a year compared with the current 400 million tonnes from our exports. The Chinese Government drives the wind program by insisting that consumers pay the actual price of production. Wu Changhua suggests China does not need any lessons in pursuing cleaner coal burning.

The Government, she says, is already investigating carbon capture and storage, pushing its power sector to buy the most advanced pulverised coal technology, and closely following development in integrated gasified combined-cycle plants. These turn coal into a gas and are in pole position at present to lead the shift to "clean coal" electricity supply. China is also the world's largest producer of solar photovoltaic cells, having doubled its output on sun power panels in each of the past four years.

The Chinese Government is also engaged in ensuring that Western journalists writing about its carbon emissions understand the situation. It points out to them that much of industrial emissions come from production of cement, aluminium and plate glass, essential ingredients for the economic revolution it is pursuing. Twenty per cent of Chinese emissions roughly equivalent to Australia's total greenhouse gas emissions come from cement production.

International government visitors to Beijing for the recent Olympics will have found their attention being drawn to an 11-story building housing the Sino-Japan Friendship Centre for Environment Protection. Here the city's pollution levels are monitored and research information passed on from the globe's most energy-efficient (because it is one of the most energy resource poor) nations. Japan has much to contribute it uses an eighth as much energy as China does to $1 in GDP.

Japan has sponsored 18 "model projects" in China involving emissions-reducing and energy-saving systems. Nippon Steel, Japan's largest steelmaker, for example, has introduced an eco-friendly coke-manufacturing process called dry quenching that is becoming widely used in Chinese operations it now has 30 factories using the technology. Japan, however, remains fearful of selling its best technology to China because low-cost competitors may steal it.

EU set to renege on climate pledges

Canberra Times
Saturday 11/10/2008 Page: 15

EU heads of state plan to use the global financial crisis as an excuse to renege on climate change commitments, sources close to energy talks in Brussels say. Papers suggest the European Union council, which meets next week, wants to drop the previous pledge of an automatic increase in emissions cuts if the world decides on a big climate change deal next year.

The council also intends to allow countries to avoid having to cut their own emissions by letting them purchase a large proportion of reductions from overseas. The EU has a target of a 20 per cent emissions cut by 2020. This would rise to 30 per cent if a global deal is signed.

But the papers show the European Union is seeking a new legislative process if the EU target rises above 20 per cent. This effectively shelves the move to 30 per cent and would take many years to complete. The commission justifies its proposals by saying EU countries paying for emissions cats would transfer tip to 42 billion euro ($A86.2 billion) to developing and other countries from 2008-2020.

It also wants a change in the auctioning of pollution allowances for power firms, which could lead to windfall profits estimated at tip to $A30.8 billion. Environmental groups said the moves could allow countries such as Britain to build a new generation of coal power stations without fear of exceeding their legally binding emission targets.

The head of international climate at Friends of the Earth, Tom Picker, said, "By simply buying cheap projects in developing countries, the EU will avoid making the type of transformations needed in our domestic economy to avoid dangerous climate change." Britain and Italy, among other nations, have been accused of trying to dilute pledges for renewable energy.

Hot rocking engineers

Independent Weekly
Friday 10/10/2008 Page: 22

No matter what side of the climate change debate you reside on there is no denying the exponential growth in electricity demand worldwide. Incredibly, consumption of electricity is projected to grow by nearly 100 per cent by 2020. Increasing demand for energy and concern over the ill effects of carbon dioxide on the atmosphere has produced an urgent need to explore clean, renewable sources of energy.

Further expansion of nuclear energy is largely unpopular and large-scale hydroelectric projects are now considered environmentally irresponsible. Solar and wind energy technologies have advanced and currently augment electricity supplies, but further advancement is required before these sources of electricity can be suitable as a base load power supply.

Hot Fractured Rock (HFR) geothermal energy is a known source of renewable energy with the capacity to carry large base loads. HFR geothermal energy is environmentally clean and does not produce greenhouse gases. HFR works by utilising heat generated by special high heat producing granites located 3km or more below the Earth's surface. The heat inside these granites is trapped by overlying rocks which act as an insulating blanket.

The heat is extracted from these granites by circulating water through them in an engineered, artificial reservoir. Standard geothermal power stations convert the extracted heat into electricity. GeoDynamics Ltd has been constructing a 1MW proof of concept plant near Innamincka in South Australia to generate electricity using HFR. This has the potential to make South Australia a leader in the generation and supply of renewable clean energy.

As of June 2008,33 companies had applied for geothermal license areas across Australia. According to the Government of South Australia, 23 companies have applied for 237 geothermal licenses covering more than 110,800 sqkm. These licenses account for more than 80 per cent of all geothermal exploration activity underway or proposed throughout Australia.

The upcoming Engineers Australia Breakfast Briefing presentation, to be held on Wednesday, November 12, will hear from Rod Smith, project manager for GeoDynamics Ltd at Innamincka. David Klingberg, chair of the Premiers' Climate Change Council and the 2008 Professional Engineer of the Year, will also deliver a presentation on the impact of climate change and emissions trading.

Attendance is open to Engineers Australia members and the general public. Register your attendance at the Engineers Australia SA Division Office on 82671783 or sa@engineersaustralia.org.au

Energy firm airs its Yass wind farm plan

Canberra Times
Thursday 9/10/2008 Page: 2

A Sydney-based renewable energy company is looking into building a wind farm near Yass. Epuron will study the wind potential of different sites to determine turbine numbers, their arrangement and location before presenting a concept plan to the community. Areas under investigation for the new wind farm include parts of Black Range, the Coppabella Hills and Carrolls Ridge.

Project director Simon Davey said Yass was well placed to benefit from investment in renewable energy. "With careful consideration and planning, projects like this can be developed in the Yass region with positive benefits to the environment, the local economy and the community," Mr Davey said.

"It will provide the capacity for the Yass region to establish ongoing, longterm, sustainable jobs through the service, construction and related manufacturing industries." Investigations in the area will include measurements of wind speed, noise propagation, visual impact studies, flora and fauna studies and assessment of heritage values.

Epuron plans to feed the electricity produced from the wind farm into the national electricity grid, to be consumed within the national electricity market. Mr Davey said the company had already received planning approval to build three wind farms, including one at Conroys Gap near Yass.

Yass mayor Nic Carmody said he believed the wind farm would have an environmental benefit, but he did not think it would provide "a direct benefit to the people of the Yass Valley". "We all need to be doing our bit for green energy," Mr Carmody said. "I think they should certainly be exploring it and see if it's worthwhile proceeding with it. "I know in the case of the previous [wind farm at Conroys Gap], there were a lot of people who were affected who live nearby. They do have concerns and valid concerns."

EU law makes power firms pay for all emissions

Australian
Thursday 9/10/2008 Page: 8

THE future of coal-fired power generation in Europe has been called into question after the European Union backed laws that would force power companies to pay for all their carbon dioxide emissions from 2013. The decision, which could cost the power industry 30 billion ($56 billion) a year and could trigger a steep rise in electricity bills, represents a huge boost for the renewable energy industry.

Chris Davies, an MEP who supported the legislation, said the decision by the EU's environment committee "effectively prevents the building of new coalfired power plants from 2015 unless equipped with CCS (carbon capture and storage technology)' . The new rules require final approval from the European parliament and EU member states. If granted, they would transform the economics of burning coal to generate electricity.

The move came despite fierce resistance from power industry lobbyists, who said the EU's aggressive emissions-cutting targets should be weakened because of the global financial crisis. Avril Doyle, an Irish MEP on the committee, said: "For all the trouble we have, the single greatest challenge facing us is climate change." The committee backed proposed changes to the EU emissions trading scheme, a program in which the bulk of permits are handed out to companies for free.

Members voted in favour of auctioning all emissions permits after 2013 for power companies. The committee proposed that other polluting industries, such as steel making, should pay for 15 per cent of permits in 2013, rising to 100 per cent by 2020. It had been unclear how the ETS program would evolve after 2012. The committee also offered to plough $14 billion from the scheme into carbon capture and storage research, an untried technology designed to strip out greenhouse gases at source and store them underground.

The bill is a key plank of the EU's plan to cut Europe's carbon dioxide emissions by 20 per cent by 2020. The CBI welcomed the scheme yesterday, saying it would provide greater clarity for businesses. Europe's renewable energy industry endorsed the decision. "This new target underlines the urgency of action to deliver clean, sustainable energy now if we are to keep global temperatures within acceptable limits," said Maria McCaffery, of the British Wind Energy Association.

A vote before the full European parliament is likely in December, although opposition is expected from some heavily coal dependent countries, such as Poland. France, which has the EU presidency at the moment, wants to enshrine the bill in law by the end of the year.

Democratic leaders in the US House of Representatives yesterday proposed to reduce by 80 per cent in the next 42 years the gases from power plants, transportation and factories. The draft legislation would begin slowly, capping emissions of heat-trapping gases released by transportation and power plants first, then moving to other sectors of the economy.

Queanbeyan firm opens solar plant

Canberra Times
Wednesday 8/10/2008 Page: 13

Queanbeyan solar technology company Dyesol has opened a manufacturing plant to capture a slice of the solar photovoltaic market said to be potentially worth billions of dollars. The technology, which has been adopted in parts of Europe and Asia, stems from a Swiss-Australian research program into third generation solar technology. That research program has been under way since 1995.

The $2.4 million Queanbeyan factory will employ 50 people and will have the capacity to manufacture $20 million worth of dye annually. Founder Gavin Tulloch said the plant's opening was the culmination of 15 years of commitment to science, technology and engineering. Dyesol's Dye Solar Cell technology is sometimes called artificial photosynthesis because it uses a dye such as chlorophyll to capture energy from light, releasing electrons which are conducted as electricity.

The technology can be directly incorporated into buildings as active electricity-generating glass facades or steel roofs. Dyesol is collaborating with Corns, the world's fifth largest steel producer, to use the solar cell technology in the manufacture of steel sheeting. Other Dyesol partners are Italian utilities giant ERG Rebnew and leading facade company, Permasteelisa, which will develop and market next-generation solar panels to be installed on buildings.

Dr Tulloch said solar cell technology differed from all other forms of solar energy. It performed all day, every day, at any angle, in shade or in sun. Minister for Resources and Energy Martin Ferguson, who opened the plant and corporate facilities, said Dyesol had received $4.3 million in government grants since the company's formative years.

The Government recognised the potential for growth in the solar technology sector and would continue supporting research and development through a $500 million renewable energy fund as well as a $150 million energy innovation fund, the minister said. Dyesol also has premises in North Wales, enabling it to service joint venture partners and subsidiary companies in Europe and Asia.

Set emissions target higher: Origin

Age
Thursday 9/10/2008 Page: 3

GAS-FOCUSED Origin Energy has called on the Federal Government to reject the greenhouse advice of Ross Garnaut and set a comparatively ambitious target, even if global climate negotiations collapse. In a tack that puts it at odds with industry groups and other electricity generators, Origin Energy has called for Australia to cut emissions by between 10% and 20% below 2000 levels by 2020 regardless of commitments elsewhere.

Professor Garnaut last month recommended Australia cut emissions by 10% as part of an initial global deal and 5% under an ad hoc agreement involving a few countries. Under the worst-case scenario, with no ad hoc deal, Australia would not set a target. Origin Energy, in its submission to the Government's emissions trading scheme proposal, says Australia should show leadership in the shift to a lowemissions economy and cut emissions by at least 10% whatever the outcome of the UN climate change meeting in Copenhagen next year.

"We feel that Garnaut's 0%, 5% and 10% reduction targets are unnecessarily conservative and should each be set at higher levels," the submission says. It cites Energy Supply Association of Australia modelling that found the electricity sector could deliver a 10% to 20% cut by the end of next decade. Origin Energy has $2.3 billion of gas-fired generation projects being built. Last month, it announced a $9.6 billion liquefied natural gas venture with US giant ConocoPhillips, sinking a takeover bid by Britain's BG Group.

The Origin Energy submission also:

• Says Professor Garnaut's proposed starting price of $20 a tonne is not high enough to encourage a shift from black and brown coal to gas, a comparatively clean energy source.
• Wants a national energy efficiency strategy and to retain the renewable energy target - 20%, of energy coming from clean sources until 2020.

Electricity futures jolted into life as ETS looms

Summaries - Australian Financial Review
Wednesday 8/10/2008 Page: 37

Options on electricity futures on the Australian Stock Exchange have soared to record volumes on the back of the global financial crisis and a proposed emissions trading scheme. Analysts say trading is now more than the total electricity supply in the National Electricity Market and suggest the industry believes carbon emissions costs could cause a 40 percent increase in the cost at the wholesale level of a megawatt hour.

The Victorian electricity futures contract implies a base load price for 2011 of $67.50 a megawatt hour, compared with $48.75 in the coming year, according to figures from d-cypha Trade, the market development company for the d-cypha SFE Electricity Futures market. Dean Price of d-cypha Trade said a strong premium was evident in the futures market based on estimates of the effect emissions trading will have on electricity prices. He said there was a trend to higher prices in the Eastern Power Index for 2010, which can be traded on the Sydney Futures Exchange.

Gas cuts are a lot of hot air

Summaries - Australian Financial Review
Wednesday 8/10/2008 Page: 4

This year's Carbon Disclosure Project (CDS) survey has received responses from 72 percent of companies on the S&P/ASX 100 index, up from 58 percent last year, as the Federal Government's proposed emissions trading scheme (ETS) fuels corporate interest in the issue. However, just 41 percent of S&P/ASX 100 respondents said they had made 'specific investments' to reduce carbon emissions.

The report lists BlueScope Steel, OneSteel, Qantas Airways, Boral, Orica and Rio Tinto as companies with high ETS exposure, but highlights sugar and building materials group CSR as being the only emissions-intensive company who failed to supply data to the CDP. Goldman Sachs JBWere's Andrew Gray noted that the possible impact of the ETS on listed companies was still uncertain, while Federal Climate Minister Penny Wong urged the business community to take into account the 'many opportunities that will flow from the introduction' of such a scheme, instead of just focusing on the risks involved.

Meanwhile, a survey by marketing research outfit Ipsos-Eureka had found that climate change is no longer considered the most pressing environmental concern for Australians, with only 46 percent of respondents nominating it as their greatest worry, compared to 55 percent in 2007.

Garnaut falls short

Hobart Mercury
Tuesday 7/10/2008 Page: 25

THE world financial meltdown is a short-term crisis, but a failure to fix our climate problems will haunt humanity until the end of time. This was Ross Garnaut's stark warning to Australia on the day George Bush's financial rescue package was voted down by Congress. He had that right, at least. And he had a lot more right in his undeniably valuable analysis of how we can address the physical and economic impact of climate change. But his final report is also a classic illustration of the way reality can be warped by politics.

Prof Garnaut is acutely aware that the impact of global warming on Australia will be worse than the world average, with hotter, drier conditions making life increasingly hard to sustain - on top of global instability that will make today's economic melt-down seen trivial. He is aware that his option of a low 10 per cent target for 2020 emission reduction will for the Rudd Government be like a carrot to a hungry donkey, and is also aware that such a target adopted globally would consign the world to truly desperate times.

He says he wants Australia to push internationally for 2020 cuts as high as 25 per cent, but as that's unlikely to succeed he doesn't want Australia out on a limb - precisely where Europe has been for the several years. Prof Garnaut warned previously of the extreme danger of ignoring scientists' warnings, but at the final hurdle he decided it's not feasible to do what's really necessary.

Though it's not his call, he's making a politician's judgement that the world won't agree to really serious emission cuts - even when civilisation's survival is at stake. This is not what we need to hear, and emphatically not what our governments need to hear. Politicians dealing with climate change must redefine what's possible so that it encompasses tough action on emissions.

Climate change is threatening to blow our collective house in, but understanding his political employers as he does, Prof Garnaut is offering them the option of a few paltry props - including the chimera of "clean coal" - in the hope that something better will materialise sometime in the future. All the tinge, our house's walls are shaking and the roofs lifting. Somehow we must help our politicians understand that Prof Garnaut's tougher 2020 target of 25 per cent is the very least we should aim for, and give them the spine to act, using direct methods as well as, and ahead of, an emissions trading scheme. This is not going to be easy.

There's an interesting side-issue in the Garnaut report with potentially important ramifications for Tasmania. Noting the inadequacy of Kyoto rules in measuring land use emissions, Prof Garnaut advocates adopting new accounting procedures next year in Copenhagen to more accurately measure emissions from forestry.

In a new section headed "conservation forests", he refers to the recent ANU assessment of the carbon stock of intact natural forests and notes the high storage value of mature forests in South- East Australia, including Tasmania, and their continuing capacity to remove greenhouse gases over the crucial decades to come. Keeping such forests intact as carbon stores, Garnaut says, could provide "a substantial new source of revenue". This might just turn out to be a welcome shot in the arm in a general atmosphere of uncertainty for Tasmanian forestry.

PROF Garnaut's "politically realistic" higher-emission path, involving a global stabilisation of greenhouse gas concentrations at 550 parts per million and a likely warming of 3C above preindustrial levels, has some very sobering implications:

• The Great Barrier Reef will effectively die, losing first its colours and ultimately its structure and biodiversity. Queensland's coast will become bland and barren.
• Severe weather events will become much more frequent, with cyclones occurring further from the equator and sometimes rising above today's top category five level In Tasmania, wildfire will be a year-round threat.
• Lower rainfall and higher evaporation will reduce food production, notably in the vast Murray-Darling Basin. Perth, Adelaide and Melbourne will be struggling with severely diminished water supplies, and even SydneyBrisbane may be under water stress.
• In Tasmania, most populated centres and especially the central North. Midlands and East Coast will be suffering decreased rainfall and diminished agricultural production.
• Northern, eastern and southeastern river flows will be reduced. Launceston's water supply is especially vulnerable.
• World food production will drop well below today's critical level as chronic drought hits southern Australia, western China, India and Pakistan, Africa's southern half, southern Europe, western United States, Central America and regions south of the Amazon basin.
• Starvation will drive people to desperate measures, with likely conflict on most continents over water and territory. Physical barriers along borders, including armed guards and land mines, are a likely reaction to massive movements of people in search of sustenance.
• With Arctic sea ice virtually gone, the reduction of Greenland's land-based ice sheet will become irreversible, resulting eventually in a sea level rise of seven metres.
• The West Antarctic ice sheet will also be destabilised, adding more metres to sea level rise.

Peter Boyer is a Hobart-based science writer and a presenter for Al Gore's Climate Project.
peterboyer@southwind.com.au

Climate experts' hard line

Australian
Wednesday 8/10/2008 Page: 24

THE severest of the greenhouse pollution reduction targets proposed by Rudd government adviser Ross Garnaut are the minimum requirement for effective action, the country's leading climate scientists have told the Prime Minister. The scientists include Australian Research Council Federation Fellows David Karoly and Amanda Lynch, as well as Andy Pitman, all of them associated as authors and editors with the UN's 2007 Nobel Peace Prizewinning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

In his final report, released last week, Professor Garnaut proposed a 25 per cent reduction in emissions on 2000 levels by 2020 to stabilise CO2, at 450 parts per million as Australia's contribution to any global agreement. However he also proposed a 10 per cent reduction target under a 550ppm scenario, and a 5 per cent reduction target if there is no global agreement.

In an open letter to Kevin Rudd last week, 16 of the country's leading climate scientists described Garnaut's most severe target the 25 per cent option as the minimum requirement for Australia's contribution to an effective global agreement. Based on present scientific understanding, any global agreement must reduce emissions by at least 50 per cent below 1990 levels by 2050, including stabilising carbon dioxide well below 450 ppm, the 16 mainly university-based scientists said.

The UNSW's Professor Pitman, who was lead author for the IPCC group on the physical science basis of climate change, told the HES, "There's no question whatsoever that people like IPCC lead authors who do the research in the area would suggest that 450ppm is too high a value to stabilise at.

"You don't want Greenland to melt, you don't want the Antarctic ice sheet to destabilise, and you don't want the global ecosystems to fail. To avoid those things you need to stabilise at or below 400ppm." Professor Pitman said at the 450ppm level Australia would sacrifice the Murray Darling and the Great Barrier Reef.

The University of Melbourne's Professor Karoly, one of a select group of IPCC scientists asked to write a synthesis of its latest assessment report, said a stabilisation level of 550 ppm was roughly double the CO2, in the atmosphere. If this target were to be adopted it would be committing "to substantial levels of climate change including warming of the order of 2.5C to 3C above pre-industrial levels and 6m of sea level rise over a number of centuries," he said.

Professor Karoly has welcomed the priority Professor Garnaut has given to the 25 per cent target as a ''substantial change" from his interim report of a few weeks ago.

Monash's Professor Lynch, IPCC contributing author to the regional climate chapters in the past two assessment reports, told the HES the scientists believed Professor Garnaut had done "an excellent job" over the past year of characterising the issues and stimulating debate. "While he is right that Australia on its own can't achieve the mitigation required, I think that waiting for international agreement is the wrong strategy," Professor Lynch said.

Given that commercial-scale carbon capture was at least a decade away, Professor Lynch said the only immediately available approach to buy time on emissions reductions was biosequestration combined with substantial efficiency measures. She said the Co-operative Research Centre for clean power from lignite had calculated that greenhouse emissions from brown coal power stations in the Latrobe Valley are about 60 million tonnes a year and growing.

Australia could reasonably aim to offset at least 30 per cent of brown coal emissions immediately from preferably native plantations, and this should begin with funding from the auction of emissions permits under the Government's planned emissions trading scheme. Professor Lynch said the 30 per cent reduction for Latrobe Valley would require plantations equivalent to 10,000sq km.

Google leads fuel ventures

Australian
Tuesday 7/10/2008 Page: 30

Google and RockPort Capital Partners has led a quarterly record $US2.6 billion ($3.36 billion) investment by developers of solar energy, grid efficiency, and algae-based energy technology, according to Cleantech Group. Venture capital firms invested in 158 start-ups in the third quarter, including a record $US95 million for Sapphire Energy and Solazyme, which are developing fuel from algae ponds that could replace diesel and gasoline. Total investments in clean technology and renewable energy in 2008 have surged to $US6.6 billion, already above the $US6 billion for all of 2007, Cleantech Group said.

Most investments were in solar technologies such as thin film panels that improve efficiency. "This year, Google has invested more than $US45 million in start-ups with breakthrough wind, solar and geothermal technology," Google climate change director Dan Reicher said last week. "We need to unleash massive private investment in clean energy." RockPort Capital Partners invested in six companies and Google invested in five, making them the most active venture capital firms.

Other top investors include Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Khosla Ventures. "Cleantech Group venture investing has continued to show strong growth despite the unprecedented turmoil in the credit markets," said Michael Goguen, managing partner at Sequoia Capital and co-chair of Cleantech's advisory board. San Francisco-based Cleantech Group, formerly called Cleantech Venture Network, is an investor group that conducts industry research.

Companies in the US received $US1.75 billion, or about two thirds of the global total for the quarter, while those in Europe and Israel got $US742 million, mostly for thin-film solar and wind technology. China and India raised $US111 million and $US6.3 million respectively. Investments in companies developing thin-film solar, which is lighter and cheaper to install than traditional silicon-based photovoltaic panels, totaled $US620 million in the quarter.

"We have seen the arms race in thin-firm solar reach new heights, and now we are seeing it in the algae sector," Cleantech research director Brian Fan said. Investors were tunneling growing amounts of capital to companies that have not yet successfully scaled up commercial production". Sapphire Energy has raised more than $US100 million from investors such as Bill Gates' Cascade Investment, Chicago's Arch Venture Partners, and London's Wellcome Trust Finance.

Dutch city taps disused coalmines for clean, green heat

Australian
Tuesday 7/10/2008 Page: 8

IN an age of rapidly rising fuel bills, the discovery of vast supplies of free hot water sounds too good to be true. But that is exactly what one Dutch city has found to run the radiators of hundreds of homes, shops and offices.

Heerlen, in the southern province of Limburg, has created the first geothermal power station in the world using water naturally heated in the deep shafts of old coalmines which once provided the southern Netherlands with thousands of jobs but have been dormant since the 1970s.

Tapping "free energy" marks a breakthrough in green technology by exploiting the legacy of the coalmines that emitted so much pollution and helped create the climate change emergency faced by the planet. "With the threat of global warming and soaring energy prices, nobody can afford to sit back," Heerlen councillor Riet de Wit said. We have proved that a local initiative can provide a local solution for sustainable energy. Moreover, our concept can be adapted by former mining regions all over the world." The concept sounds simple.

The abandoned mine shafts were seen as a blight on an area that has struggled to recover economically from the mass redundancies of miners in the 1970s. But after the mine works were demolished, new homes were built and linked to a geothermal power station pumping water up from the mines at a depth of 800m, where it reaches temperatures of 35C. The water is used to provide heating for 350 homes and then pumped back into the pit after use, where it heats up again for the cycle to continue. The water circulates two or three times a year.

The only drawback is that the homes need to be close enough to the old mines to make use of the heat, which is boosted by domestic boilers when greater temperatures are needed. Scientists estimate the project will produce at least 55 per cent fewer CO2 emissions than a traditional coal-fired power station and are now working on a carbon capture system to liquefy the CO2 and pump it back into other disused shafts rather than release it into the atmosphere.

The goal is emission-free heating, and the system could revitalise other former mining areas as sources of cheap, renewable energy. "For wind energy, you need wind. If there is no wind, there is no power. But with geothermal energy, you have a constant level of simple heat without any need for conversion," said Karl-Heinz Wolf, professor of coal and geothermal energy at the Technical University of Delft.

"You have it all year round and if you don't need it, you close the tap until you need it again. You have heat at a certain level and you only have to top it up if you want it at a higher level." And during summer, the water can be taken from near the top of the shaft, where it is cold enough to cool the city's buildings.

Dutch city taps disused coalmines for clean, green heat

Australian
Tuesday 7/10/2008 Page: 8

IN an age of rapidly rising fuel bills, the discovery of vast supplies of free hot water sounds too good to be true. But that is exactly what one Dutch city has found to run the radiators of hundreds of homes, shops and offices.

Heerlen, in the southern province of Limburg, has created the first geothermal power station in the world using water naturally heated in the deep shafts of old coalmines which once provided the southern Netherlands with thousands of jobs but have been dormant since the 1970s.

Tapping "free energy" marks a breakthrough in green technology by exploiting the legacy of the coalmines that emitted so much pollution and helped create the climate change emergency faced by the planet. "With the threat of global warming and soaring energy prices, nobody can afford to sit back," Heerlen councillor Riet de Wit said. We have proved that a local initiative can provide a local solution for sustainable energy. Moreover, our concept can be adapted by former mining regions all over the world." The concept sounds simple.

The abandoned mine shafts were seen as a blight on an area that has struggled to recover economically from the mass redundancies of miners in the 1970s. But after the mine works were demolished, new homes were built and linked to a geothermal power station pumping water up from the mines at a depth of 800m, where it reaches temperatures of 35C. The water is used to provide heating for 350 homes and then pumped back into the pit after use, where it heats up again for the cycle to continue. The water circulates two or three times a year.

The only drawback is that the homes need to be close enough to the old mines to make use of the heat, which is boosted by domestic boilers when greater temperatures are needed. Scientists estimate the project will produce at least 55 per cent fewer CO2 emissions than a traditional coal-fired power station and are now working on a carbon capture system to liquefy the CO2 and pump it back into other disused shafts rather than release it into the atmosphere.

The goal is emission-free heating, and the system could revitalise other former mining areas as sources of cheap, renewable energy. "For wind energy, you need wind. If there is no wind, there is no power. But with geothermal energy, you have a constant level of simple heat without any need for conversion," said Karl-Heinz Wolf, professor of coal and geothermal energy at the Technical University of Delft.

"You have it all year round and if you don't need it, you close the tap until you need it again. You have heat at a certain level and you only have to top it up if you want it at a higher level." And during summer, the water can be taken from near the top of the shaft, where it is cold enough to cool the city's buildings.

New wave of power in energy market

Adelaide Advertiser
Tuesday 7/10/2008 Page: 10

SOUTH Australia's coastline has the potential to supply the state with its base-load power, a report says. The independent report, commissioned by clean power developer Carnegie Corporation, has found at least 35 per cent of Australia's, and 170 per cent of SA's, current base-load power needs could be generated through a new wave power technology known as CETO.

Australia has a potential near-shore wave energy resource of about 171,000 megawatts, four times the country's installed power generation capacity. Carnegie Corporation managing director Michael Ottaviano said the report supported Carnegie Corporation's view "that Australia has the world's best wave energy resource". Energy would be generated through the CETO technology that uses submerged units on the sea floor.

Carnegie Corporation is looking at 17 sites, including the Limestone Coast, for potential wave farm developments. Carnegie Corporation chief executive officer Greg Allen was in Adelaide last week to discuss the potential for this new technology with the Transport, Energy and Infrastructure Department. "This is the first step in the process to get to work on the project - to give meaningful basis for funding," Mr Allen said. 'There is a phenomenal wave energy resource in SA.

"Wave energy will be an important part of the mix of renewable energy. An important part of this resource and technology is that it has zero (carbon) emissions." Carnegie Corporation is aiming for commercial project work to start by 2010 and for full operation by 2020.

Wind farm a world-beater - Higher than the Harbour Bridge

Sunday Telegraph
Sunday 5/10/2008 Page: 29

ALMOST 600 wind turbines as tall as the Sydney Harbour Bridge will be built in the State's far west as part of a plan to develop the world's biggest wind farm. The State Government has released the first detailed plans of the proposed Silverton Wind Farm, which is expected to produce enough energy to supply almost half a million homes. The joint venture by Epuron and Macquarie Capital Group is expected to cost around $2.2 billion to develop. Work may begin as early as next year.

Under the plan, 598 turbines as high as 155m will be constructed across 32,000ha. They will be almost 20m taller than the Sydney Harbour Bridge at its highest point. The farm will also involve the construction of seven substations and transmission lines to Broken Hill and Victoria as part of its connection to the national electricity grid. The Government expects the development to inject as much as $700 million into the NSW economy, as well as providing a tourism opportunity.

The proposal has split the Silverton community, with those opposing the farm concerned about its visual and noise impacts. The turbines are so tall that red obstacle beacons will be placed around them to warn approaching aircraft. Naomi Schmidt, who with her husband Stephen operates a farm stay on their property, is worried that the giant structures will drive tourists away. The Schmidts' property, Eldee Station, is just 2km from the site. "If you look straight out my front door, you'll see them," Ms Schmidt said.

The people that come here are drawn to the wide open spaces, not a built environment - they come out here looking for peace and quiet. The comments we have got from them so far have not been very promising." A meeting has been planned next week with several landholders to discuss possible compensation claims. Nigel Lawrence, whose property is 12km from the site, said the wind farm would be good for the local community. We are negotiating compensation packages, and we'll hopefully end up with a good result," Mr Lawrence said.

The Silverton Wind Farm environmental assessment report says the operation's generating capacity is estimated at more than 3.5 million megawatts - about 4.5 per cent of NSW's total energy consumption. That will not be enough, however, to warrant shutting down any of the State's 2640 megawatt, coal-fired power stations. The additional energy produced could help avoid power outages and blackouts during periods of peak demand. Planning Minister Kristina Keneally said the State Government would take into account the concerns of the community when making its final assessment on the project.

Solar hopes up in smoke

Sunday Age
Sunday 5/10/2008 Page: 25

The State Government's half-baked solar energy plan will be of no benefit to households, industry or the environment.

JOHN POPPINS has many investments, but his proudest sits on his roof. The retired engineer has $30,000 worth of solar panels on his Mount Waverley home, a personal power station that covers all his home energy needs and then some. He's not, he says, a guy who likes to "put his hand out". But it's people like Poppins who, you might think, deserve some payment for the excess clean electricity they feed back into the community.

Sadly, under the State Government's new solar plan, coming soon to Parliament, Poppins will get zip. The half-baked incentive will give nothing to people who have more than two kilowatts on their roof. This is an odd cut-off when you realise that it takes 2.5 to three kilowatts to cover the basic needs of an energy-efficient home.

Earlier this year, a group of 40 community and green groups, businesses, unions and councils thought they were on the brink of something special. They were lobbying Spring Street for a scheme under which people world be paid for the power produced by their solar panels. This happens in more than 40 nations and some Australian states, and it is called a feed-in tariff.

The basic premise is that, despite rebates and growing concern over global warming, solar panels largely remain the roof furnishings of the wealthy and extremely motivated planet-savers. For the industry to flourish, solar panels need to be an attractive long-term investment, not just a feel-good purchase.

If people were offered a guaranteed payment for their solar electricity locked in, say, for 15 years - the numbers would start to look better. As more people buy solar panels, the price would come down, and more people would put them on their roofs. A vibrant solar industry in Victoria world start to take shape. The upside doesn't end there.

Victoria's electricity system is centralised. The brown-coal generators chug away in Gippsland and we get power in Melbourne through a series of expensive and inefficient poles and wires. Producing power closer to where it is used saves on structural costs and eases demand for more power stations. But one of the most attractive benefits of solar is that it produces the most electricity in the same period the state's energy supply is pushed to the brink: on hot stunner days.

The group lobbying for a feed in tariff argued that it should be a gross model: people would be paid for the spare power they exported to the grid and what they used in the home. The reason is that most systems are not big enough to cover the energy needs of the home and export to the grid, so just paying for the excess energy would provide little extra incentive. The gross model is also the most successful and common tariff paid internationally.

The lobbyists were getting good signals from the Government and thought their preferred version was over the line. What they didn't count on was State Energy Minister Peter Batchelor, who thought the scheme too generous and costly. In cabinet, Batchelor went head to head with Environment Minister Gavin Jennings and won.

Batchelor's version goes something like this: householders get 60 cents a kilowatt hour - which is generous compared with the 17 cents we pay on electricity bills - but only for the energy exported to the grid. This is called a net feed-in tariff. Batchelor also excluded community groups and businesses from the scheme and limited it to 2 kilowatts.

The Government argues this is "green and fair'. They reject the gross model as too expensive for households because, and heres the big catch, other electricity users must pay more on their bills. One of Batchelor's advisers produced a spreadsheet of rough calculations that claimed the scheme would add $100 a year to the average bill.

But the Government failed to point out that the $100 figure, if true, would be at the height of the scheme - in 10 to 13 years' time - and is meaningless unless you also factor in the rise in average incomes over that time. The cost was also inflated because Batchelor's people exaggerated the solar capacity in Victoria and included none of the other benefits to the power system (admittedly these are difficult to calculate) or the retail value of the solar electricity itself.

The group lobbying for a gross feed-in tariff calculated that an ambitious scheme aiming for 250 megawatts of solar in 15 years' time - the Government's plan aims for 100 megawatts, Victoria now has 2.5 megawatts - would cost an average $9.43 a year (low income families would be excluded). Perhaps the truth is somewhere in the middle. The reality is that any bill increase from a solar tariff will continue to be dwarfed by energy price hikes: partly because of an emissions trading scheme and partly because of drought, peak capacity problems and planned infrastructure upgrades.

Another reason the Government rejects the gross model is because it believes paying people for their electricity use in the home will encourage them to use more power and not export it to the grid. But who would bother buying solar panels so they can run around their home guzzling energy with gay abandon? The Government also points to its renewable energy target as a better way to deliver cuts in greenhouse emissions, even though it knows solar competes poorly with wind energy under the scheme.

The basic problem with the Government's plan is that you'll only make money on solar panels if you pack up the kids and go on holiday. A net feed-in tariff discriminates against those who use energy throughout the day: stay at- home parents, the sick and the elderly. And the decision not to include business and community groups is bizarre. A net tariff world favour community buildings - surf clubs, scout groups - which are unoccupied for large periods of time. Why not share the love? Also, under a net scheme, the person selling you solar panels cannot tell you how many years it will take to pay them off: it depends on when you are home, its efficiency and your energy use. Under a gross model, the calculation is supple.

This is a great chance for a much-needed boost to John Brumby's green credentials. It wasn't his fault that the status quo-loving pointy heads in Batchelor's office and department provided him with advice that was overblown at best and dishonest at worst. With a truly generous and ambitious incentive, Victoria world be the solar hub of Australia within 15 years. Thousands of green jobs would be created. Our energy system would be less strained, more devolved, more secure. And, importantly, cleaner. Now that would be a shining legacy.