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| A renewable energy revolution is in progress but gutting Australian Renewable Energy Agency will make it harder for Australia to play a role. Photo: Justin McManus |
The solar photovoltaic industry is big business. It now makes up a quarter of all new electricity generation capacity installed each year across the world, and it's growing at 20 to 30 per cent a year. Together, solar and wind energy make up half of all new generation capacity installed globally and all new generation capacity installed in Australia. A renewable energy revolution is in progress, and Australia is at the forefront. Gutting ARENA directly threatens our leadership position.
Our economy has benefited to the tune of billions of dollars in the form of dramatically reduced solar system costs, increased renewable energy business activity, fewer greenhouse gas emissions, royalties, shares and international student fees.
To provide just one example, the Australian-developed PERC solar cell now has annual sales of $9 billion and is forecast to dominate the worldwide solar industry. Further, gains in energy efficiency made possible by this technology are forecast to save our country $750 million in electricity generation costs over the next decade.
Such ingenuity in Australia isn't new. CSIRO played a major role in the development of the modern thermosiphon solar hot water system dating back to the 1940s, and buried contact solar cells designed at the University of NSW had a substantial impact on the PV industry in the 1990s, with sales of $500 million worth of product in the process.
Innovation here has flourished because Australia has had a renewable energy funding agency, in one form or another, for more than 30 years. It's why we keep seeing such phenomenal successes and advances in technology that springboard beyond our shores. There is no doubt the world's solar industry owes its existence in large measure to those Australians supported by grants from renewable energy agencies past and present.
So, what happens if you take that agency away?
If ARENA is cut, then hundreds of people will lose their jobs within two years. That is the cold reality. This includes researchers, PhD positions and industry leaders. Our brightest minds will be forced to either leave the field, or leave Australia in favour of other parts of the world where solar research is still valued.
In the longer term, Australia's leadership in solar energy will vanish. As support for research and innovation dwindles, later-stage commercialisation will also start to dry up. This won't be a temporary loss, but a long-lasting extinction as we lose the research groups that underpin the very education and training of future Australian engineers and scientists.
This would be completely at odds with the federal government's innovation agenda, as well as its commitment at the UN climate change conference in Paris to double clean energy research and development by 2020.
Echoing the words of another prime minister a decade ago, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull describes budget repair (in which cuts to ARENA are lumped) as a "fundamental moral challenge" because debt should not be passed onto our children and grandchildren. How ironic that this government fails to appreciate the many costs to future generations of failing to address climate change now with solutions like renewable energy.
Photovoltaics and wind energy are fundamentally reshaping the way leading economies of the world are powered. ARENA-supported researchers are helping to accelerate the clean energy industry and, in turn, rapidly reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
This is a critical time for Australia to stay in the game. By keeping ARENA, we will reap further benefits from its leading position in research and education by continuing grant funding.
*Andrew Blakers is Professor of Engineering at the Australian National University, lead inventor of the PERC silicon solar cell technology and co-inventor of Sliver solar cell technology.
*Dr Richard Corkish is chief operating officer of the Australian Centre for Advanced Photovoltaics at the University of NSW and has worked in photovoltaics research and education since 1990.
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