This article from Carbon + Environment daily would be of...

This article from Carbon + Environment daily would be of interest.

More in the offing for emerging renewables?; and more
17 August 2009 11:42am

The Government doesn't like the Coalition's idea of "banding" the Renewable Energy Target (RET) scheme so that a mandated slice of the action goes to emerging technologies such as geothermal and tidal (see related article), but this week's RET negotiations could still result in policy adjustments to better accomodate these industry sub-sectors.

Independent senator Nick Xenophon has indicated he wants amendments to the legislation to better support emerging technologies such as geothermal – a technology he described this morning as "disadvantaged" under the proposed RET.

The Greens' solution for these industries is to augment the RET with a gross feed-in tariff paid at rates matched to particular technologies (see related article).

As a fall-back, it wants the removal or raising of caps on the size of various renewables systems that would be entitled to bonus renewable energy certificates. The party also wants adjustments to the way the bonus scheme works.

However, the Greens have not revealed how they might respond to alternative policy proposals, such as banding.

Susan Jeanes, CEO of the Australian Geothermal Energy Association, says there are problems with the Government's position, which favours grants programs as the best way to ensure emerging renewable industries receive support.

Jeanes, who arrived in Canberra this morning for discussions with senators, told CE Daily the $35 million left under the Federal geothermal drilling program, augmented with any geothermal projects supported through the $400 million Renewable Energy Demonstration Program, would not provide the industry with nearly enough support.

Even if the Government were to introduce a new grants program, this wouldn't by itself help the geothermal industry transition from small-scale demonstration plants to the 300MW plants that deliver the necessary economies of scale, she said.

The industry has "got to have renewable energy certificate support" to help achieve that, she said.

Jeanes said all parties "want to help" emerging technologies, but they still seemed locked in "stalemate land" on how best to do it.

The Clean Energy Council, which has a membership that includes many wind energy companies, says banding would not be an effective way of supporting emerging technologies.