Antinuclear

Australia’s renewable energy policy in a mess

Solar sector held back by foggy energy policy  THE AUSTRALIAN  Giles Parksinson | September 28, 2009 WHEN Kevin Rudd returns to Australia to translate the grand rhetoric of the international stage into action on the domestic front, he could start by trying to sort out the mess and the confusion in the country’s solar ambitions.

The government is driving the solar industry to the point of exasperation because of the lack of clarity, constant changes, and delays in its policy for supporting large-scale solar development.

The industry has already urged the government to rework its Solar Flagships program, after pointing out that the $1.5 billion scheme unveiled in May was ill-conceived, unworkable and simply wasn’t enough to fund the 1000MW target.

That program, proudly unveiled by Rudd, was for four large-scale solar thermal and solar PV installations located in a single project that would be the largest in the world. But as this column pointed out in July, the idea of creating four 250MW projects was strategically suspect, locating them in a single location was technically impossible, and there was simply not enough money to match the megawatts.

Now, while the government considers whether it wants to double its funds or halve its ambitions, an accompanying scheme that was to support smaller but still significant installations in the 10-80MW range is also in doubt.

The solar industry was invited in late June to update their applications for funding under the Renewable Energy Demonstration Program (REDP) and told that successful applications would be advised in September.

Last week the industry was informed at a Solar Flagships conference in Brisbane that the $135 million funding for the REDP solar projects may no longer exist and could be subsumed into the delayed solar flagships program………………..

Long wait for REDP funding

SOLAR is not the only renewable industry awaiting funding under the REDP program. Geothermal, ocean energy and other technologies such as biomass and advanced wind and energy storage are still awaiting the outcome of their applications, which were originally due last month. Indeed, apart from small-scale R&D support, there have been no large-scale funding initiatives from the federal government since 2006, when $335m was offered under the “Low Emissions Technology Demonstration Fund”. Of that, $75m was to go to Solar Systems and its proposed 154MW solar PV facility in Mildura, but that company is now broke and its project in doubt..

Solar sector held back by foggy energy policy | The Australian

September 28, 2009 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | 1, AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, climate change - global warming, energy | antinuclear, climate change, climate change - global warming, energy, renewable