Page 3244 - Week 12 - Thursday, 19 November 1992
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
particularly in terms of hydro. The notion is that, where we have water coming into the ACT through natural gravity feed, this has the potential for us to provide energy as a renewable resource. This concept of cogeneration of electricity is a particularly important one. That notion also goes further. Where we are using heat, for example, it can be used to generate electricity. The paper deals with that in a series of ways.
Of particular interest to me was the notion of using solar energy. We already use solar energy, of course, to provide hot water in housing, and I think that is something that we must not lose sight of. But our report also deals with the notion of photovoltaic electricity and solar thermal electricity - particularly solar thermal electricity which can be combined with a natural gas system. We are very fortunate in the ACT to have a world leader in solar thermal electricity at the Australian National University.
More importantly, what are the costs? When we are looking at energy and renewable energy sources for the future, it is important to try to get a handle on what it is likely to cost this community. What will the community be prepared to pay for it? ACTEW does not generate any of its own electricity at the moment; it is all purchased from outside the ACT. In 1990 coal electricity could be purchased for around 3.5c to 6c per kilowatt hour; gas combined cycle, 3.5c to 6c; and gas turbine, 4.5c to 5.5c. They are all in the same sort of range. Small hydro-electricity could be purchased for in the order of 2.5c to 6c. The prices of these forms of electricity all fell within that range.
When we look at the cost of other renewable forms of electricity in 1990, the price rises significantly. Wind energy started at the top of the range of the others, at 6c to 12c per kilowatt hour. Solar thermal electric, which I have mentioned before and which Professor Kaneff deals with and is still experimenting with at the Australian National University, in 1990 was 7.5c to 26c per kilowatt hour. We could talk also about municipal waste, which is not an issue in the ACT; but solar photovoltaic was particularly expensive in 1990 at 20c to 55c per kilowatt hour, and it has a particular role in areas where it would be very expensive to run electricity grid lines. One example of that, of course, is the telephones that are used in the outback which have solar photovoltaic production of electricity to run their systems.
If we project to the year 2000 the likely cost of these renewable energy resources, we find that wind farm electricity is likely to come down to between 4.5c and 9c per kilowatt hour; solar thermal electric to between 5.5c and 15c; and solar photovoltaic to between 19c and 30c. Researchers on solar photovoltaic at the university pointed out that it is quite possible that at some time in the next 30 years there will be a major breakthrough in the way they do solar photovoltaic. At the moment the chip upon which the system is based means that it will be very difficult to get the price any lower than it is. The breakthrough would have to come through in the construction of that chip.
Madam Speaker, renewable resources, and solar and wind energy, in particular, face the major barrier of any new notion, and that major barrier is the economic one. The economic barrier is going to have to be balanced against how important we see the role of energy and carbon dioxide in its impact on the ozone layer. The Rio conference indicated worldwide concern on this issue. I think it is a concern that the public generally is going to have to continue to debate. We are going to have to come up with some solutions and it seems to me that those
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .