There are two very different views on offer in the media today on Climate Change.
(1) A gloomy view from the ABC:
Global warming could be irreversible: IPCC
The UN's Nobel-winning panel on climate change completed a draft report that said the consequences of global warming could be "irreversible".
The report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) encapsulates a massive review of the global warming issue, with the goal of guiding policymakers for the next five years.
Chief French delegate Marc Gillet says the IPCC delegates agreed on the draft summary after night-long negotiations. Human activities "could lead to abrupt or irreversible climate changes and impacts," the agreed text said.
The report will be officially adopted on Saturday.
(2) A more upbeat story is in today's Canberra Times:
More to do to help people go solar
by Brooke Miller, regional director of BP Solar Australasia.
The opportunity exists today for the ACT to take a leading role in shaping Australia's energy future by supporting the introduction of a new policy to support the uptake of solar power.
This week the ACT Government is asking all sectors of the community to comment on the introduction of a "feed-in tariff", a proposal that would act to rapidly grow the use of solar energy by requiring electricity retailers to pay a premium to households and businesses who are generating solar power
This tariff is proposed to decrease over time, as costs for solar systems decrease and the industry grows.
Over 40 countries have already adopted such a measure, and the ACT Government is right in considering it. In Germany, feed-in tariff has propelled the country to the number one market in the world in recent years.
Australia is the sunniest continent in the world, providing it with a significant competitive advantage for the development of a sustainable market for solar power. Australia is also home to the largest manufacturing plant of solar power systems in the southern hemisphere at Sydney Olympic Park, a facility that is well recognised for having pioneered world leading technology and innovation.
Despite this home-grown advantage, the growth of solar power is tracking at only 15 per cent compared to global growth rates of over 40 per cent.
Admittedly, Australia's growth rates of solar power would be even smaller without the support of the Federal Government. However, the high international growth rates are due to the comparative success of initiatives that have been implemented overseas a feed-in tariff being the most successful.
Right now, more than 25,000 homes across Australia have had solar power systems installed. Over the next 15 years Canberrans can be responsible for delivering solar power to more than 30,000 rooftops in the ACT alone adding to the meagre 80-odd Canberra homes that have a solar system today.
(Very odd in Graham's case!)
The ACT Government's proposal is not limited to families. In fact it will also ensure that business has a strong incentive to invest in solar, by providing a commercial return on the investment.
Unfortunately today, families and businesses producing solar power are not being paid the real value of the electricity they are producing.
Today, a solar power owner anywhere around Australia only receives either the wholesale rate or a modest flat retail price for the electricity generated by their system. This is between 4 and 18ckWh.
However, in the middle of the afternoon when the sun is at its peak and solar panels are producing at their optimum, demand and pricing for electricity also peaks.
At these times your electricity retailer can be paying up to 100 times the price that an investor with solar panels receives for the electricity they produce. This peak price is the value that an investor in a solar system should receive and it is unreasonable that they are being unrewarded for their investment.
The proposal the ACT Government is considering tackles this problem head-on.
Families and businesses who invest in solar power will be more fairly rewarded, and their investment will be significantly more attractive. This policy does not seek to unfairly favour some families over others, but quite simply it seeks to correct the "market failure" that currently creates an inequity of its own.
This is a policy that can significantly increase the amount of systems installed not only in the ACT, but if adopted nationally would result in the installation of solar systems across over 100,000 homes by 2010 and a million homes by 2022.
And, at the same time avoid the creation of more than four million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions.
Critically, by increasing the demand for solar power systems, this policy will make important inroads into allowing the Australian solar industry to make the cost reductions needed to make the technology competitive with conventional coal-fired power generation.
In considering the adoption of a feed-in tariff the ACT Government is looking to increase the amount of renewable energy generated, help reduce electricity bills, and provide a model that the rest of the country should be following.
