RENEWABLE ENERGY

RELATED CAMPAIGNS Sustainable Energy Say NO to Expanding Nuclear Industry in Australia Fuel and Transport Climate Change IN THIS CAMPAIGN Types of Renewable Energy Is renewable energy reliable? Is renewable energy affordable? Can renewable energy provide enough energy? What is the Government doing? What you can do Democrats press releases Democrat speeches and reports NUCLEAR POWER Nuclear Power is NOT RENEWABLE though it is sometimes promoted as a way to fight global warming Sign our petition to SAY NO to expaning nuclear industry in Australia   Sign up for Sustainability eBulletin Subscribe   LINKS Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) Download their briefing paper on Renewable Energy [pdf] Australian Business Council for Sustainable Energy www.bcse.org.au Australian Wind Energy Association www.auswind.org Renewable Energy Generators of Australia For downloadable fact sheets www.rega.com.au REN21 - Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century Read their 2006 Global Status Report www.ren21.net Greenpeace Download the latest Solar Generation newsletter www.greenpeace.org

RENEWABLE ENERGY Renewable energy sources are diverse and numerous including solar, wind, hydro, wave, ocean, tide, geothermal-aquifer, hot dry rocks, and numerous forms of bioenergy. Renewable energy currently provides 17% of global energy needs and is the fastest growing of all the energy industries today. Renewable energy now accounts for a quarter of the installed capacity of California, a third of Sweden's energy, half of Norway's and three-quarters of Iceland's. According to the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, renewable energy could meet most of the worlds energy demand by 2100. Types of Renewable Energy Hydro Power ranges from hydro-electric power stations, to tidal power and wave power. Hydro power stations were one of the earliest and most widespread forms of renewable energy in Australia, hydro-electric systems convert the potential energy of stored water to electrical energy by running it through water turbines. Hydroelectric systems allow the generation of electricity at short notice, supplementing peak demand capacity and utilising the energy in water flows required in irrigation storage systems or even city water distribution systems. Wind power The use of wind turbines, also known as wind energy conversion systems (WECS), is a major component of electricity production in much of the world, and has made rapid progress in Australia over the last five years. Production costs are dropping rapidly, making it increasingly competitive to fossil power production. Australian wind farms already generate enough energy for more than quarter of a million homes. Senator Lyn Allison inspects a newly installed wind turbine Solar power is now 90% cheaper than it was in the 1970s. Houses with solar roofs can generate more electricity than is needed at certain times in the day, and sell this back to local electricity companies. Australia has world leading solar technology developers in several universities and a photovoltaic industry worth $260 million and $140 million in annual exports. Biomass energy Biomass is the term used to describe the generation of energy from organic sources. The energy stored in plants can be captured for energy generation by several different methods such as decomposition, combustion or gasification. Agricultural wastes contain lots of wasted energy that, if harnessed, would supply over a quarter of Australia’s energy. So far 650 megawatts have been installed which is enough for about 650,000 homes. Vegetable wastes from households often go into landfill where they decompose, but Australian company EDL harnesses the gasses to generate energy. EDL now has 34 plants around the world. Biofuels Diesel can be made from waste vegetable oil, and ethanol can be made by sugar cane growers for blending with petrol. It is planned that by 2010, Australian companies will produce 350 million litres of biofuels per year, enough for  approximately 2,500 cars. Geothermal energy involves using the earth's heat to supply power. Geothermal heat pumps can be used nearly anywhere. New technology to ‘mine heat’ has been developed by an Australian company, Geodynamics, which estimates that there is more geothermal energy to be tapped into Australia’s ‘Hot Dry Rocks’ than there is oil and gas in the North West Shelf. Is renewable energy reliable? Yes! Today’s commercial renewable energy technology is mature and reliable, with machines built to last more than twenty years with only minimal maintenance. Some sources like biomass and geothermal energy are controllable, and others like wind and solar are intermittent. By having a balance of sources, a stable energy supply can be created using renewable sources. Is renewable energy affordable? Yes! Renewable energy at the moment is a little more expensive than coal and gas, but is cheaper than nuclear and clean coal. Zero and Low Emission Technology Cost per MWH Source Nuclear $100-150 CSIRO, UK House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee Clean Coal Geosequestration $104 International Energy Agency Natural Gas $35-45 2004 Energy White Paper Geothermal $40-$70 CSIRO, geodynamics Wind $55-$80 2004 Energy White Paper Energy Efficiency No net cost Council of Australian Governments Traditional Energy     Coal $35 2004 Energy White Paper Renewable Energy is getting cheaper the more we produce in Australia. A National Poll in 2003 found that 76% of respondents were prepared to pay an additional 5% on their energy bills for a 10% increase in renewable energy when the alternative was cheap energy at any environmental cost. It is also important to remember that renewable energy creates pollution free energy in Australia. Fossil fuel and nuclear energy creates pollution which must be cleaned up or managed. When we add the cost of pollution, renewable energy sources are generally much cheaper than fossil fuels. Unfortunately, companies that use fossil fuels in Australia don’t pay for the damaging effects of their pollution and so are effectively subsidised, as a result they produce energy at a lower cost than renewables. Many countries are now requiring greenhouse gas pollution to be paid for under schemes known as carbon taxes or emissions trading, such a scheme in Australia would make renewable energy much cheaper. Can renewable energy provide enough energy for Australia? Yes! Australia has a wide array of renewables including wind, solar, hydro, geothermal, biomass, wave and tidal sources which when used together, could provide enough for Australia’s needs. Even in Europe, enough wind energy alone blows across the continent to power the entire continent. An important issue in harnessing renewable energy is to ensure that the energy is available where and when it is needed and each renewable energy source can contribute to energy demand in different ways. Wind levels do fluctuate, but by spreading wind farms across the country, the aggregated contribution of all the wind farms adds up to a supply much smother than any individual wind farm. This is excellent for displacing base-load energy like coal. It is also possible for wind farms to accurately predict their output up to a day in advance making it a ‘known’ quantity for grid managers. Obviously solar energy supplies the most energy when it is sunny, but this coincides well with the big peaks in demand when people turn on air-conditioners. However... However, while renewable energy markets are increasing around the rest of the developed world Australia currently gets only 8 percent of its electricity from renewable energy down from 10 percent in 1999 due to increases in coal fired power. This is much lower than the 12 percent promised by the Mandatory Renewable Energy Targets. View the Government's response to the Mandatory Renewable Energy Target (MRET) Review What is the Australian Government doing to encourage uptake of renewable energy in Australia? While the Government was one of the first in the world to establish a mandatory renewable energy target (MRET) designed to accelerate the uptake of renewable energy in grid-based power applications, the Government have recently abandoned the renewable energy sector. Renewable energy businesses and renewable industry representatives have unequivocally stated that renewable development activities have now stalled, because sufficient projects now exist to fully deliver the 9500 GWh MRET target, and the government has refused to increase the MRET. All called for an increase and extension to MRET. In June this year the Government had the opportunity to increase and expand MRET via the renewable Energy Electricity Bill 2006, however the Government choose not to, arguing that: (a) Australia has abundant coal and natural gas, and a focus on renewable energy diverts investment away from 'more efficient carbon reducing options'. (b) Increasing renewable energy may lead to unnecessary cost escalation in the price of energy. (c) A national economy wide trading system should be introduced instead. The Democrats would of course support a national economy wide trading system but the Prime Minister continues to rule that out. For more information download Senator Allison's dissenting report to the Renewable Energy Electricity Bill 2006 [pdf] The Democrats moved an amendment in parliament in June 2006 to increase MRET to 20% by 2020. The Government did not support the amendment. What You Can Do You can encourage the uptake of renewable energy by: > Switching your electricity to Green friendly   Visit the Greenpower section of the wwf.org.au website for a list of energy providers, or www.greenpower.gov.au for more information. > Offsetting your carbon emissions and support renewable energy by purchasing carbon offset credits   With programs such as www.climatefriendly.com or www.easybeinggreen.net. > Writing to local to your local MP   Expressing your concern about lack of Government support for renewable energy and call on the federal Government to either expand and increase the mandatory renewable energy Target (MRET) or introduce a national carbon levy and/or carbon emission trading scheme, which would make renewable energy cheaper than coal and nuclear energy. Join or donate to the Australian Democrats. Democrats PRs Nuclear Power Clean and Green - You must be Joking - Senator Lyn Allison, 17 October 2006 Major Parties ignoring public desire to reduce oil reliance - Senator Lyn Allison, 05 October 2006 Six monthly biofuels report buried - Senator Lyn Allison, 09 August 2006 Government fails on alternatives to oil - Senator Lyn Allison, 07 August 2006 Biofuel industry abandoned by Government and ALP - Senator Lyn Allison, 23 June 2006 More press releases on Energy and Resources Democrat speeches and reports Renewable Energy: its role in Australia now and in the future - Senator Lyn Allison, 13 September 2006 Energy Initiatives - Senator Lyn Allison, 14 Aug 2006 Democrats minority report to the Provisions of the Renewable Energy (Electricity) Amendment Bill 2006 - May 2006 Lurching forward, looking back: Budgetary and environmental implications of the Government's Energy White Paper - initiated and chaired by Democrats, May 2005 The heat is on Australia's greenhouse future - November 2000 More Democrats speeches on Energy and Resources Sustainability eBulletin Sign up for Sustainability eBulletin | subscribe   Sustainability e-bulletin provides an update on key environment, energy, water, transport and other sustainability related issues. It includes information on the Democrats activities both in Parliament and the community, as well as advocacy ideas. We aim for 4 issues a year.