Australia dithers, missing the tide on renewable energy investment
PriceWaterhouseCoopers’s Andrew Peterson says the delay in setting a carbon price has created wide uncertainty about the investment opportunities in the renewable energy sector.
Finding the funds for clean, green energy – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation), Andrew O’Connor, 16 July 2010, Carnegie Wave Energy believes its undersea wave power technology is one of the keys to Australia’s clean, green energy future. But lingering uncertainty over the nation’s climate change policy means the WA-based company is increasingly reliant on financial support from foreign investors.
Carnegie has designed a system of submerged buoys which harness wave motion to pump seawater to a plant on shore, where it is then used to drive an generator producing electricity.
Funded in part by grants from the state and federal governments, Carnegie has established a trial off the coast of Fremantle and hopes to establish its first commercial wave power plant next year.Its chief executive Michael Ottaviano says the renewable energy concept shows great promise.But, he says the Federal Government’s decision to defer the introduction of an emissions trading scheme until at least 2012 has made the task of attracting Australian investors more difficult.
Dr Ottaviano says the company has had to look overseas for the millions it needs to fund its research and development.
“In the last 12-18 months, what we’ve found is that when we’ve gone out there to raise capital in the public market, we’ve been almost overwhelmed by the interest offshore coming out of Europe and the US as compared to Australia, particularly Australian institutions.
“Australian institutions tend to be much more focused on oil and gas and on traditional energy sources, whereas in the Europe and the US there’s a much greater focus on clean technologies.”
It’s not a unique experience.
PriceWaterhouseCoopers’s Andrew Peterson says the delay in setting a carbon price has created wide uncertainty about the investment opportunities in the renewable energy sector.
“It’s very much a case of let’s wait and see. There’s still uncertainty about whether there’s going to be a carbon tax into the short or the medium term…………..
Dr Ottaviano says his company is now looking to Europe and the United States for funding and there is a risk that the current policy vacuum will sideline Australian investors, and send Australian projects and technology overeas.
“It will be a shame for Australian investors and a shame for Australia in general because we won’t be developing our great renewable resources here locally.
“Anyone with a technology that’s mobile, like Carnegie, will simply move to where those more attractive markets are and where the investment capital is available.”
Finding the funds for clean, green energy – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
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