Australian Academy Notes What Direction Australia Should Pursue to Mitigate Global Warming. (December 21, 2009)

In March of last year the Australian Academy of Science held a two-day workshop on the Future directions of Australian climate change science.

Out of the workshop was developed a draft structure for a national framework for climate change science, which was followed by an 11-lecture series Australia's renewable energy future 2009.

Now the Academy has shown a pre-publication copy of the report based on that series to The Australian and that will be handed to the Australian government this coming January. The report makes recommendations for 25 development options for a renewable energy economy.

It gives pride of place to geothermal and solar thermal energy and recommends the government give them priority support.

The Australian's Cheryl Jones says the academy's spokesman and co-editor of the report, Professor Michael Dopita, told her that geothermal and solar thermal energy could soon replace coal as Australia's main source of electricity generation, if the government chose to stimulate the development of green technology and invested in efficient long-distance electricity transmission. "At the moment, the government is concentrating seed funding in things like geosequestration, which is trying to make dirty coal clean." But the Academy believes that geothermal could fast-track Australia's route to a low-carbon economy. It considers the technology is mature enough for the government to act now to promote its take-up.

Professor Dopita told Ms Jones that together with solar thermal systems: "Both technologies can provide the reliable and sustained energy flow needed for home and industry."

What has now developed is a serious difference in the conclusions of the Australian Academy of Science on the one hand and the model developed by CSIRO and the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics which supports the conclusion that geothermal and solar thermal would remain as minor components in Australia's energy mix until 2040.

In Professor Dopita's view according to Ms Jones the model could not capture recent technological advances and the stimulatory impact of government intervention, In the real world, it risked becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy, helping to reinforce a focus on fossil fuel in policy formulation.

He went on to say: "We can change the way we do business entirely by stimulating those new industries, getting them past the economic thresholds that make them appear to be uncompetitive with coal. If you give the appropriate financial incentives early on, the whole thing snowballs. As the technology accrues the advantages of scale, it becomes self-sustaining and provides new employment and export opportunities."

Nevertheless the report acknowledges that the accessible geothermal resource is concentrated in granite formations in the outback and therefore the government would need to invest billions of dollars in a high-voltage direct current long-distance electricity transmission system.

Below we reproduce the Academies web page listing the 11 lectures on which the report is based.

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PUBLIC LECTURES

Australia's renewable energy future 2009

Addressing the effects of climate change that will arise from the accumulation of greenhouse gases depends on reducing the amount of energy we consume that is derived from non-renewable resources, such as coal and oil. But what is renewable energy and when and how will we be able to use it?

One thing is clear – there is no one simple answer to achieving sustainability. This public lecture series examined a range of renewable energy technologies that are currently in various stages of development, providing a realistic assessment of their ability to supply Australia's energy needs into the future.

Each lecture will focus on a renewable energy source including wind, wave, solar, fuel cells, biomass and geothermal. Leading researchers in their field will answer key questions such as: How does it work? What is the current stage of development? What are the relative costs? When will it be commercialised? How will it be deployed? Does Australia have technological strengths that can be capitalised upon in global markets? What are the potential impediments?

4 August 2009
The contribution of renewables in Australia’s future energy mix

Dr John Wright
Advisor, Sustainable Energy Partnerships
CSIRO Energy Transformed Flagship

7 July 2009
Tidal energy

Dr Tim Finnigan
CEO and founder
BioPower Systems

2 June 2009
Wind Energy: How it works and where is it going?

Professor David Wood
Priority Research Centre for Energy
University of Newcastle

7 April 2009
Solar thermal concentrators: Capturing the sun for large scale power generation and energy export

Professor Keith Lovegrove
Solar Thermal Group Leader
Department of Engineering, ANU College of Engineering and Computer Science

3 March 2009
Bioenergy options for Australia

Dr Steve Schuck
Manager
Bioenergy Australia

3 February 2009
Fuel cells: A real option for base load electricity

Dr Karl Föger
Chief Technology Officer
Ceramic Fuel Cells Ltd

2 December 2008
Geothermal energy

Dr Anthony Budd
Project leader, Geothermal Energy Project
Onshore Energy and Minerals Division
Geoscience Australia

5 November 2008
Wave energy: The industry now and in the future

Dr Tom Denniss
Executive Director and Chief Technology Officer
Oceanlinx

7 October 2008
Solar photovoltaics: Power source for the future?

Professor Martin Green
ARC Federation Fellow, Scientia Professor and
Research Director of the Photovoltaic Centre of Excellence
University of New South Wales

2 September 2008
A low carbon economy based on renewable energy: The only way to go

Dr Barney Foran
Fenner Centre for Research and Environmental Studies
Australian National University