Its a busy month in Australia

Another major November event for Australia is the Clean Energy Council 2008 Conference and Exhibition to be held at the Gold Coast in Queensland from the 24th to the 26th November. This annual event has an incredibly full program and includes Mr Nobuo Tanaka, Executive Director, International Energy Agency (IEA) as a keynote speaker. According to the overview, this conference will be" industry focused" and "will address major issues surrounding the rapidly changing landscape of clean energy development in Australia as well as provide strategies on how the industry can meet growth demands."

If you are interested in the energy future of Australia, then this is one not to miss!!

Think, Plan and Go Commercial

If anyone wonders whether Australia makes a global impact on emissions then they should consider the following, which I obtained from the International Energy Agency’s web site . While these figures reflect the 2006 situation, it is sufficient to show that we as a nation are a major contributor to the emissions generated from coal.

Global Electricity Production from coal/peat (2006) in Twh
China ................. 2,301
United States ...... 2,128
India .................... 508
Germany .............. 302
Japan .................. 299
South Africa.......... 236
Australia ............ 199
Russia ................. 179
Korea .................. 153
United Kingdom ..... 152
Rest of the world. 1,298


We are definitely up there, at number 7 in terms of using coal, which is the oldest of the fossil fuels, and the one which is the most urgent to replace with low emission alternatives.

Last Saturday, I joined the "Walk Against Warming" in Sydney - but maybe we should have a "Think, Plan and Go Commercial against Warming". So I call upon our new energy entrepreneurs, to come up with your ideas to replace coal fired power generation at all levels, and hopefully more useful (if not more artistic!) than this effort which I found on my wanderings.

Ideas spin from ideas

It's a fast changing world, and with a "soon to be" President Obama taking the lead. With the new direction of energy self sufficiency, there will be a global "new energy" rush to provide products and services to increase supply of new energy and improve efficiency of existing energy use. So where do you fit in? What is your business idea, and how do you make it viable?

One of first places to look for clues is in conferences, where like minded people come together to share progress and to profile successes. In the next two weeks in Sydney, Australia we have the Decentralized Energy Technology, Policy and Opportunities conference and the combined ISES (International Solar Energy Society) and ANZSES conference. Its an information packed two weeks - for new energy scientists that's a feast, but for new energy entrepreneurs, it could be your key to a new business venture.

Sometimes it's about understanding the future, even more than the majority of people. Henry Ford is reputed to have said "If I'd asked my customers what they wanted, they'd have said a faster horse". If you are considering a new venture and need inspiration, find and meet with others who are looking in the same direction. Find where you fit in this new energy future.

Home Grown Solar

Last Friday, Solar Systems opened its new Bridgewater R&D facility near Bendigo (Vic) for testing of hi-tech photovoltaic technology. According to Solar Systems chariman, Michael Hamson, Bridgewater is a "a world-class, large scale research and development facility". Together with integrated energy company TRUenergy, it is proposed to develop a 154 MW heliostat concentrator solar PV plant in the Mildura region. It is planned that this project will lead to further expansion of solar plants across Australia and in Asia.

With huge investment happening in large scale solar plants in USA, Spain and Portugal it is timely that in a country overrun with sunshine, we are beginning to make progress in Australia's future energy supply, and even more pleasing to see an Aussie company driving this new direction.

Bert's wind

This week I visited Western Australia and stayed in a great B&B (bed and breakfast) in Albany located on the Southern coast. Albany was originally a whaling community at the end of the world, and it now has the greatest little wind farm on its horizon. I booked into Bert's B&B and he proudly showed off his heritage building, the lovely room with the heated towel rail which I soon turned off, thinking that it wasted energy.

Bert was very proud of the wind farm and told me about how the town derives most of its electricity from the turbines, located in the wildflowers on the beautiful coast line. And when I stumbled across this mosaic in the footpath on the way to the local pub, I suspected that there were many others in the region who felt like Bert. And somehow I felt better about Bert's heated towel rail!

Ausra powers up - but not Australia

Ausra Inc powered up the Kimberlina Solar Thermal Energy Plant in California yesterday at a small site (5Mw) to supply clean and green electricity to Californian homes. Ausra was founded by Dr David Mills , and the technology was developed by him at Sydney University and first tested in Australia, but is now set to expand to much larger sites in the USA. This solar thermal power plant uses a Compact Linear Fresnel Reflector (CLFR) solar collector and steam generation system to provide cost effective and market dependable electricity.

The technology now is set to bring jobs and climate friendly power to regional California - good for the planet, but an opportunity missed by Australia. Innovation is the key to a new economy, one of entrepreneurship and low emission energy. Australia is the "lucky country" - to keep it that way, we also need to become the "country of new energy entrepreneurs".

The New Economy RE (<)C

All eyes turned this last few weeks to volatile stock markets, and the loss not just of the paper value of assets, but of confidence in the traditional systems that had lulled investors into a false sense of security. Change brings winners and losers, and among the winners will be those who seek the new and potentially profitable new directions.

One company who has already made its fortune by this strategic thinking is Google, and again it plots a course for those who can see ahead. Last year, Google launched its RE(<)C campaign which defines strategies for the US to develop renewable energy cheaper than electricity produced from coal. On the 1 October this year, Google announced Its Clean Energy 2030 plan, a concise but well thought out approach to a new energy future for the US. The site invites comments and debate, and it is presented as a "KNOL" - a unit of knowledge.

And the plan is for 0 (zero) use of coal by 2030!! Coal exporters be mindful of this plan. For the entrepreneurs - bottom line savings were estimated to be $US944 over 22 years, and much more if carbon credits are included. Other benefits outlined in the plan are huge reduction in CO2 emissions and large increases in new industry employment.

This plan offers a new direction. What is doesn't offer is a quick fix, or instant greed gratification for short term thinking. This is about our future - and about the new economy that will define that future.