Wet summer makes Europeans more renewable

Melbourne Herald Sun, Thursday September 4, 2014

Northern Europe was hit by storms, floods and hail the size of golf balls when I went for my holiday in August. Fortunately where I stayed, in Italy, was below the southern limit of the rogue weather. So I got perfection - sun, sand and delicious food.

In the north, though, the worry is the continuing effect of climate change. Extreme weather patterns have hit repeatedly in recent years and if you ask Europeans to name their climate sceptics, they won't know what you mean.

For them, climate change is a fact and a worry as ancient hills and towns are blown over or washed away.

To a man, or woman, they are committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Around the houses, in the stores, in the TV ads you'll see solar panels everywhere. Drive in the country and you'll see graceful wind-farms in the Tuscan hills scattered on the Mona Lisa landscape, a delightful bringing-together of the Renaissance and the future.

In June, Italy hit a target of 40 per cent of its electricity from renewables. But then you have to remember the long Italian tradition of hydro power, from all the schemes in the Alps and the Apennines. Their first renewables engineers wore sandals and togas.

The photovoltaic panel is certainly alive and well in Germany where solar generation has become a huge industry - even in a country with a fraction of Australia's sunshine. This June they broke an international record - more than 50% of Germany's electricity came from solar cells.

What is it about returning to Australia and feeling your time machine is in reverse?

I find Tony Abbott supporting the Warburton report, and its call to slash the Renewable Energy Target, quite absurd. Having seen Europe it is quite obvious that bus is already long gone. People want clean energy and will pay for it. Cutting subsidies will make little difference, anyway the prices are already tumbling.

The pity is that we have already sold off our solar industry once, when Dr Shi Zhengrong, known as "Father of Photovoltaics", moved his operation offshore for lack of support here in Australia. Now we are looking likely to lose the industry again as our home manufacturers lose out to a glut of cells due to flood in from overcapacity in China and Europe.

Forget about building new power stations, what we have now will be more than ample for future use. In Germany PV versus coal powered is driving the price of energy down - which surely was the idea in the first place?

My return trip gave me a day in Shanghai where the need for climate action is as plain as the smog in your face. There, everyone talks clean energy. Their government seems to announce action plans every few months - and unencumbered by oppositions, democracy or law courts, what they declare happens with blinding speed.

We could be working with them. There are new industries out there that have barely emerged from the test tube. There is technology that is yet to be born. This is why we need an NBN with far more capacity than our politicians' puny minds can imagine. This is why our educational standards need urgently raising.

Too many of our leaders, both business and political, are stuck in the 19th century with no imagination or understanding of the technology in our hands. We need to persuade them to let us drive this time machine into the 21st century.