Examining the Most Significant Issues Facing Australia’s Clean Energy Future

Leading experts from industry, academia and government will examine one of the most significant issues on Australia’s policy agenda – our energy future – at a public forum at The Australian National University tomorrow.

In the context of changing energy generation technologies, a wide-ranging energy reform agenda and a heated political and community debate on the cost of electricity, this forum provides an important opportunity to analyse future trends in energy policy.

The forum will open with a presentation by Drew Clarke, Secretary of the Department of Resources Energy and Tourism, on the policy dimensions arising from the recently released Australian Energy Technology Assessment (AETA) which found that “Australia’s energy future is likely to be very different to the present.”

The AETA provides cost estimates for 40 electricity generation technologies, and is a key input to the Government’s Energy White Paper, due to be released later this year.

Professor Ken Baldwin, Director of the ANU Energy Change Institute, which is hosting this H.C. Coombs Public Policy Forum, said the AETA clearly shows that while new energy options are becoming increasingly available, key questions about how to realise those options in Australia remain unanswered.

“The AETA puts all technology options on the table in terms of analysing cost, with some surprising results,” Professor Baldwin said.

“By 2020 it shows the cost competitiveness of renewables (such as onshore wind and solar photovoltaics) along with combined cycle gas, but it also shows that nuclear power is cost competitive, which politically is not currently considered an option for Australia.

“The AETA findings point to the need for an open public debate and consideration of a broad range of technologies to meet our climate change and societal objectives at the lowest cost. This Forum will examine the best pathways for achieving this.”

Other speakers include:

Simon Corbell MLA, ACT Minister for the Environment & Sustainable Development

Professor Joachim Luther Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy (ISE), Germany

John Pierce Chair, Australian Energy Market Commission

Ivor Frischknecht CEO, Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA)

Barry Brooke, University of Adelaide

Richard Aldhous, CEO, CRC for Greenhouse Gas Technologies

David Griffin General Manager, Development, Infigen Energy

A copy of the program is attached. Journalists are welcome to attend any or all of the conference.

For interviews: Professor Ken Baldwin – 0432 987 251

For media assistance: Fiona Scott – 02 6125 5631 / 0407 294 620

WHAT: Public forum – Australia’s Energy Future

WHEN: 9am – 5.15pm, Tuesday 30 October 2012

N.B: At the conclusion of the forum tours of the ECI research facilities will be conducted including of the nuclear accelerator, plasma fusion facility, Big Dish solar thermal plant, algal biofuels laboratory and solar photovoltaic facilities.

WHERE: Leonard Huxley Theatre, Level 2, Leonard Huxley Building, 56 Mills Road, ANU

Fiona Scott

Communications Officer

Communications and External Liaison Office

Office of the Vice-Chancellor

The Australian National University

T: 02 6125 5631

M: 0407 294 620

F: 02 6125 8255

W: www.anu.edu.au/media

Short URL: http://www.solarthermalmagazine.com/?p=21448

Posted by Gordon Smith on Oct 28 2012. Filed under Australia, Conferences, Press Releases, Solar Thermal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry