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The main sources of alternative renewable energy are accessible through mature and available technologies. The recent announcement of Federal Government’s Mandatory Renewable Energy Target of 20% by 2020 should provide a significant boost to this sector and encourage investment. Since external environmental costs are not currently factored into fossil fuel based power generation the renewable energy alternatives appear to be more expensive than conventional energy generation. In a well structured emissions trading system this should change, enabling more investment in renewable technologies and providing economies of scale for the following technologies to be competitively priced:

• Wind power
• Solar hot water
• Solar electrcity (PV)
• Hydro
• Wave power (immature)
• Geothermal (immature)

Wind power

Wind power is the cheapest of the alternative energy sources at present. “Over the past 20 years or so, wind power has been the fastest growing energy technology in the world, growing at over 25% per year on average.” [note 12] Germany has the highest wind power capacity in the world with 18,428 MW. The UK has recently announced a project to build 7,000 offshore wind turbines to provide power for the bulk of domestic households by 2020. In Australia there are a few wind turbines in operation (for example, Albany / Esperance / Atherton Tablelands). Wind farms also provide more local employment than coal fired power stations. Wind farms in Australia in 2002 had 40-50% Australian content and created 2-3 times as many local jobs per KWh generated as coal power. [note 13]

Wind farms are more efficient than coal-fired power stations and are the cleanest source of energy. Communities must, however, contend with the fact that large wind turbines will change the nature of the landscape. The potential for wind power in Queensland is significant, but is better suited to the southern states of Australia.

Solar hot water

Did you know? There are more solar hot water systems in sun-starved Austria than in our own sun-lavished country. [note 14] Solar hot water systems use very mature technology, are relatively inexpensive to install at a household level and are economically viable over their useful life; “Solar water heaters save up to $2,000 in energy bills and 25 tonnes of greenhouse gas over a 10-year lifetime.” [note 15]

Hot water accounts for 27% of residential energy use, however solar hot water unit sales are only 5% of total hot water unit sales within Australia. Clearly, there is a significant increase in installations that could be made to reduce electricity demand in the short term with meaningful least cost planning being applied to the assessment. The phasing out of standard electric water heaters in Queensland should reduce future demand for energy. Energex state that “It is anticipated that the impact on the 2007/08 year will be negligible. The future impact will be assessed in 2007/08.” [note 16] Once again regrettably, future contributions to reducing energy demand have been ignored in the forecasts put forward by Powerlink and Energex.

Solar electricity

Solar electricity is one of the more expensive technologies at present when compared to coal-generated power. It is again, however one of the cleanest and will incur little in the way of carbon emissions penalties under the emissions trading scheme due to be introduced in 2010. There are two primary types of solar electricity:

• Solar Thermal Electricity (STE) concentrates sunlight using an array of collectors. The concentrated sunlight heats water to steam which then drives a turbine to generate electricity. STE is more suited to larger scale power station use and power generation in more remote and arid environments;
• Solar PV uses wafers of crystalline silicon strung together behind glass, to form a solar panel. PV panels are very reliable with lifetimes of 25 years plus and have a capacity factor rated at 15.8% along the eastern seaboard of Australia. The estimated future cost of electricity using solar PV is in the range of per kilowatt-hour (kWh). [note 17] This needs to compete with current prices in the range of 14c/kWh (without a carbon price). This is more suited to the higher density grid connected urban and rural residential areas of Australia, of which the Sunshine Coast is a prime example. Regulation and Government incentives will need to change to make solar more economically viable. Additional incentives (currently up to $8,000 rebate, now means tested and available only to households earning less than $100,000) such as premium feed-in tariffs and a price on carbon will make solar PV more competitive with conventional energy. With more than 50,000 residential properties in the northern Sunshine Coast, the available roof space would allow a significant number of PV cells to be installed and thereby a reduction in the power required from the traditional grid.