[Oz-envirolink] Ministers in $125m solar power grab

[hugh spencer]

Ministers in $125m solar power grab

By staff writers and wires

October 25, 2006 11:50am
Article from: NEWS.com.au


A PROPOSED $400 million solar plant that could deliver 154 megawatts of
power is to be the cornerstone of the Howard Government's fight against
climate change.

In a political shift that steals an approach trumpeted by Labor, the
Federal Government has announced it will contribute $75 million towards the
plant, to be built in northern Victoria using technology developed by
Melbourne firm Solar Systems.

A second grant of $50 million will go towards a $360 million pilot for a
brown-coal drying and a post-combustion carbon dioxide capture and storage
project at the International Powers' Hazelwood facility in Gippsland.

The grants, announced by Treasurer Peter Costello and Industry Minister Ian
Macfarlane, are the first under the new $500 million low emissions
technology demonstration fund (LETDF).

The Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) welcomed the plans but
stressed that more was needed to fight climate change, including putting a
price on greenhouse emissions for polluters and encouraging homes to
install solar hot water systems.

"The truth is, in our fight to tackle climate change, this is a small first
step when we really need a huge leap forward," said ACF executive director
Don Henry on ABC radio.

Mr Costello said the energy sector had been instrumental in Australia's
economic success and ensuring it was environmentally sustainable in
long-term was a key factor in the Government's climate change strategy.

"Technological improvements will be instrumental in delivering large-scale
reductions in emissions both in Australia and throughout the rest of the
world," Mr Costello said.

Mr Costello said Australia intended to meet its Kyoto protocol greenhouse
emissions targets even though it would not ratify the agreement.

Opposition resources spokesman Martin Ferguson said the Government had
finally decided to follow the lead of the Labor Party.

"We have to act on the issue of energy and obviously with a heavy reliance
on coal, especially the difficulties of brown coal in Victoria, you have to
invest in clean coal technology," he said on ABC radio.

Power

The power station would be one of the biggest in the world, but would
produce only a quarter of the power of a small coal-fired station.

The announcements today, part of a $230 million package, lead off a series
that will see an eventual $2 billion invested in new technology aimed at
cutting greenhouse emissions. Both projects also received funding from the
Victorian Government.

Other Commonwealth-funded projects include seed funding for developing
affordable ways of pumping carbon gases from coal-fired power stations
underground or diverting carbon dioxide from coal before it is used to
generate electricity.

The Federal Government hopes its spending will encourage up to $10 billion
in greenhouse-friendly electricity projects.

The funding is also going towards developing solar and wind technologies as
part of a mix between fossil fuel power and renewable energy sources.

But Mr Costello has kept alive the prospect of domestic nuclear power,
predicting that a plant will be built in Australia as soon as it becomes
economically viable, perhaps within 10 years.

Mr Costello said the Government should not legislate to stop companies
investing in nuclear energy apart from on safety and environmental grounds.

"I think we should legislatively say, provided you meet all of the
requirements in relation to safety and export controls and all those sorts
of things, environmental consideration, that there is no legislative bar
and then I would let the market work. And the day it becomes commercial
someone will build it."

The announcements come before the release next week of a British review,
which will radically change the attitude to the economic effect of climate
change with long-term predictions of economic costs if it is not addressed
quickly.

Before heading to Fiji for the Pacific Islands Forum, where climate change
and rising sea levels are major concerns, John Howard said climate change
had to be addressed.

Mr Howard said there was no single answer, but Australia's role as an
energy producer for the world meant it should look at technological ways to
cut greenhouse emissions from coal-fired power.

More announcements are expected in Queensland - where Premier Peter Beattie
has pledged his own funding to develop clean coal technology - and one
other state.

Mr Beattie recently said he wanted a clean coal process developed before he
committed Queensland, a large coal producing state, to a proposed
states-backed emissions trading system that would push up the cost of
electricity and impose costs on carbon emissions.

- The Australian and AAP