The clever country chooses coal

Last week I did a talk at Sydney University for some students during their Environment week. The topic was Future Energy Options and Opportunities, and it was about Australia, what we have done to date in changing to a future of renewable and clean energy, and what we can do in the future. And I must say, that in terms of innovation, we are among the global leaders in areas such as Solar PV and Solar Concentrating Thermal, Wave power and Geothermal. But despite our wealth as a nation, we do not support this innovation and choose to spend more on assuring our global place as a sporting nation.

Projects such as the Solar Concentrating Thermal system now being made commercial in California by Ausra, were developed in Australia - this one was, and still is the passion of Dr David Mills, originally from Sydney University. Other major solar innovation in PV has also gone overseas. In wave power, it happens again. Oceanlinx, previously called Energetech Australia P/L, developed and tested their wave power system in Australia, but now are focusing on building a Wave Hub at Cornwall, UK.

Despite being endowed with a full deck of renewable energy options, we as a nation have chosen to follow the path of coal. We are the world's largest coal exporter and this means dollars for us. But I ask this question - who will buy our coal once the world has changed away from coal to renewable energy using the very considerable Aussie ingenuity?

Pic ex Wikipedia (Ausra media department, with GFDL license) shows Ausra Fresnel reflectors

Big Green Picture

I have been contemplating various views and debates that are circulating around Australia at the moment, mainly those about Emissions Trading and the disappointing targets set by Prof Garnaut. There is considerable pressure from some sectors of our economy to resist the structural change that is being put forward, and from the many who believe that there should be more change. And it seems to me that this debate has clouded the "big picture".

Our strategic direction as a prosperous nation is to lead, and set an example of how a nation, and one with abundant fossil fuel reserves, can choose the path of new energy sources, of energy efficiency, of rebuild, retrofit and rethink. In 10 years, it would make me very proud to say that Australia turned away from its coal and oil addiction and built a new economy. And emissions trading is only one aspect of that. The main issue is renewable power generation and innovation in that direction. We as a nation need to re-focus on that challenge, and demonstrate the new economy. Recently, Al Gore set the challenge of "producing 100 percent of our electricity from renewable energy and truly clean carbon-free sources within 10 years". This is the big picture - let's use our personal energy reserves to achieve that one!

Pleasing Hill by Tricky ex Flickr

Sydney Shows Green

While we have much to do in Sydney to keep up with our C40 global partner cities, we do have a long list of profile events in the next few months to help position your business or develop your new idea.

One of the main events is the GreenTech Show, on the 7th and 8th of November. It's promoted as the "green build, design and technology show" for ideas and innovations. And join me at my presentation on the Saturday to discuss Future Energy Options and Opportunities for Australia. The GreenTech show will be located at Darling Harbour, right in the hub of Sydney and will attract a broad range of visitors.

So put this event in your diary - its the third year for this show and I expect this year will outdo all previous!