AUSTRALIA is to change the way it makes electricity, with huge new solar power plants and cleaner coal facilities to be built.
Emissions trading has been delayed so the government is forging ahead with other ways to cut greenhouse gas emissions. The climate change budget has been beefed up, despite tough economic times, to $15 billion over nine years.
Of this, $1.5 billion will be spent building up to four massive solar power plants on a scale the world has not seen before.
The solar farms will pump out as much electricity as a large coal-fired power station - 1000 megawatts - and, according to the government, three times the size of any solar power plant in the world.
The money will be spent over six years and will go to plants which use solar thermal or solar photovoltaic technologies.
But the government has not forgotten coal - Australia's biggest export - with $2 billion to be spent building between two and four industrial-sized coal-fired power plants which use cleaner technology.
The plants will use Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) technology, which captures the carbon emissions from power plants and stores them underground.
The technology is still largely unproven but advocates hope it will clean up coal by 2020.
Previously the government has funded small CCS demonstration plants but now it's rolling out the big guns.
The money, to be spent over nine years, will have Australia do its part in a global deal to have 20 large CCS plants in operation by 2020.
As expected, the budget shows the government plans to start emissions trading in 2011. And it's delivering its promises to help households cut emissions through measures like free ceiling insulation.
The budget has also provided $100 million for one regional city - it hasn't been selected yet - to become a green energy showcase.
The money will pay for "smart meters" in homes, which can regulate electricity use, and to integrate those meters with solar and wind power.
It's hoped the demonstration project will improve energy efficiency.
The budget has also set up a body, Renewables Australia, to spearhead green technologies. It will mostly use existing funding.
The government has taken a hard look at its climate change programs and given them a shake-up.
Many smaller programs have been axed, including grants to reduce methane emissions from coal mines.
Some programs have been pared back, including $125 million slashed from a program which offers green loans to households. But the climate change kitty has grown - by $4.8 billion - as the government vows to bring down Australia's emissions.
Australia recently promised to slash emissions by 25 per cent by 2020, if there is a very strong international agreement on climate change.
Climate change minister Penny Wong said the budget aimed to make that possible.
"We will play our part in global efforts to address climate change through our ambitious emissions reductions targets and support climate change science and adaption initiatives," Senator Wong said.
