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OT: Beyond Zero 21-Apr-2011 At 4:18:47 PM SolarPat

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Hi Stu and all,

I am one of the lead authors of the ZCA Stationary Energy Plan, also quite a keen Victorian-based climber when I'm not working for Melbourne Energy Institute! I don't get much time to look at chockstone much but a friend pointed me to this thread. Cheers for bringing up the topic.

Couple of points
- Spain is a leader in renewable energy, wind, solar thermal and solar PV. Contrary to some opinions, it has not been a major factor in their economic woes. A more significant reason why Spain has been hit harder than other countries due to the GFC is because their booming construction industry was reliant upon other rich people in Europe buying holiday homes on the Mediterranean, which said rich people stopped building and started to sell after the GFC.
- Other leading renewable energy economies include Germany, currently up to 17% of electricity consumption from renewables, and planning on 35% by 2020, while at the same time remaining one of the strongest economies in Europe
http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2011/03/new-record-for-german-renewable-energy-in-2010
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renewable_energy_in_Germany

The main policy driver is their Feed-in-Tariff policy, which has been in place since around 2000. It ensures that producers of renewable energy are paid a premium rate which reflects their costs. It reduces over time, with the aim of eventual removal as the costs of the technologies come down to a point where they can compete with fossil fuels. A detailed study we did on this 'learning curve' effect for the Garnaut review can be found here:
http://www.garnautreview.org.au/update-2011/commissioned-work/renewable-energy-technology-cost-review.pdf

The type of solar technolgy we specified is concentrating solar thermal, with in this case 17 hours of storage allowing them to provide baseload power. Detailed half-hourly modelling showed that the system could meet demand reliably. An example of the technology is this one: http://www.torresolenergy.com/TORRESOL/home/en

This is currently more expensive, but with further deployment and experience are expected to be near-competitive with the cost of power from a new coal or gas power plant (more expensive than the existing ones) with a modest carbon price (say $20-30/ton). However in the meantime, Feed-in-Tariffs are one of the most effective ways of providing an incentive for private companies to invest in the technology.

If you listen to Triple J's Hack at 5:30 today, you might hear me talking about some of these issues, I did a pre-record this afternoon.

Cheers,
Pat