Councillor Chris Harris

Opponents of renewable energy love to trot out the tired old line that it can’t provide baseload power.  This statement has been incorrect for many years and as technology continues to develop (despite the pathetic investment made in this area by both state and Federal governments) the ability of renewables to meet all our power needs continues to grow.

One of the most exciting areas of development is in the field of solar thermal electricity generation, which I have previously discussed here.  Very briefly, solar thermal power captures energy from the sun to produce heat to boil water which turns a turbine, in the same way as a conventional power station uses the heat from burning coal to turn a turbine.  The big advantage of solar thermal power over other forms of renewable energy generation, such as wind and solar photovoltaic (which generates electricity directly from sunlight via a chemical process) is that the energy produced can be easily stored.  Heat generated from sunlight can be contained in insulated storage units for several days, to be released to produce electricity when it is needed, including at night and on cloudy days.

Solar thermal electricity generation has already shown what it can do in large projects like the massive Andasol power plant in Spain.  Currently two thirds complete this plant already produces 100 MW of power for the local electricity grid and when completed in 2011 will save 450 000 tons of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere per year.  Such projects make an enormous contribution to improving sustainability but require a significant investment from governments – an investment which state and Federal governments in Australia are sadly unprepared to make.

Is there some way that individuals or local councils can take advantage of this exciting new technology in the absence of government leadership?  

Very soon there will be.

Work by an Australian company, to be officially announced in coming weeks, will make solar thermal power generation accessible to individuals with small scale generators capable of being installed on homes.  Equipped with insulated water tanks able to store heat - and therefore electricity generating potential - for up to three days, these systems will be able to produce more than twice the average household’s electricity needs.  Any electricity produced beyond what is used can be sold back to the grid.

Such technologies show that the tired old arguments of those opposed to renewable energy because of their own vested interests no longer hold any water.  I will be working to encourage the City of Sydney to install solar thermal power systems, along with a number of other sustainable energy technologies, in council owned buildings so that their potential can be demonstrated and independently assessed.  Ultimately I would like to see the City partner with the producers of whichever systems are shown to be most effective at reducing emissions in order to facilitate a roll-out of these to as many homes in the city as possible.  I look forward to working with staff over the coming months to make this happen and contribute to helping prevent dangerous climate change in a way that our governments are failing to do.