It could be a big fortnight for the Australian solar industry. The shortlist for the first two projects in the $1.5 billion Solar Flagships program is expected to be announced soon, and so will the much awaited but long-delayed winners of the solar component of the Renewable Energy Demonstration Program.

Giles Parkinson in The Australian (26 April 2010):  

It could be a big fortnight for the Australian solar industry. The shortlist for the first two projects in the $1.5 billion Solar Flagships program is expected to be announced soon, and so will the much awaited but long-delayed winners of the solar component of the Renewable Energy Demonstration Program.

The announcements will be a major boost to the solar industry, which has enjoyed something of a mini-boom in small-scale rooftop installations, but has made no progress on larger, utility-scale installations and those in between.

The federal government is expected to announce half a dozen candidates to build Australia’s first large-scale photovoltaic project and its first large-scale solar thermal project. There have been some 52 applications, attracting most of the world’s leading solar energy developers, equipment suppliers, engineering groups and financiers. The winners are expected to be announced later this year, although there is some concern this timetable may be derailed by the election.

The REDP grant allocations had been expected last year and were feared lost in a bureaucratic reshuffling of funds but, according to a spokesman for Energy Minister Martin Ferguson, they will be announced “in the very near future”.

These grants, possibly as much as $130 million, will focus on funding demonstration projects for emerging solar technologies. The local industry is rich in natural resources and R&D but has been forced to watch as European countries and China forge ahead with strong government incentive schemes.

Australia is expected to install around 50MW of solar PV this year, mostly the result of sate-based incentive schemes. But according to a survey by Bloomberg New Energy Finance, it trails behind less well solar-endowed countries by a wide margin.

Its survey found 7300MW of solar PV was installed worldwide in 2009, with nearly half of this coming from Germany, followed by Italy at 580MW, Japan and the US with nearly 500MW each, the Czech Republic with 397MW and Belgium with 233MW. A further 11,000 may be installed this year.

And solar thermal, which differs from solar PV because it uses the sun’s heat to create steam and drive conventional generators, is also making solid progress. Areva, the French nuclear giant which recently completed the purchase of Australian-founded solar thermal group Ausra, is in talks in India with a view to building several 50MW solar thermal plants as part of that country’s stated goal to build 1000MW of solar thermal capacity by 2013 and another 3000MW by 2017.

Germany’s Solar Millennium, one of the applicants for the Solar Flagships, reportedly said last week it was on track to complete a 150MW solar thermal plant in Egypt this year, which will be boosted by gas turbines and is being touted as a template for a series of solar farms and other renewable energy installations that will form part of the proposed $700bn Desertec project that will supply up to 25 per cent of Europe’s energy needs.

Chinese firm to list on ASX

THE Australian appetite for IPOs in the rapidly emerging clean-tech sector will be tested this week when Chinese company Novarise Renewable Resources makes its debut on the ASX.

Novarise, a recycler of polypropylene waste materials, had sought between $25m and $32m, but had to settle at the lower end, although it did manage to secure the interest of a few institutional investors such as CBC Credit Suisse Asset Management and ABN Bank-Singapore Private Bank. The market debut comes just a week after the completion of the first clean-tech float in the US this year, Codexis, a US bioscience and biofuel specialist backed by Shell and Chevron. Codexis had aimed to raise $US100m ($107m) but had a similarly lukewarm reception, rustling up $US78m with its shares priced at the lower end of a $US13 to $US15 range at the end of its first day.

The Codexis IPO is expected to be followed by other green floats in coming months, including solar firms Daqo, Jinko and Solyndra, electric car company Tesla, and Fallbrook Technologies. Most of the action in green IPOs, however, is centred on China, with two wind energy groups completing multi-billion IPOs in recent months and others in the pipeline. In Australia, a new exchange, the Sustainable Investment Market Venture Security Exchange, which has ambitions of creating a global centre for “green” stocks, is edging closer to reality. CEO Anne Bowering says it expects to receive the first applications for listing next month, one from a renewable energy company and the second from the “pollution reduction” sector.

Pay pegged to green criterion

GERMAN energy giant RWE has announced that its executive bonus scheme will now be partly measured on longer-term sustainability criteria such as the environment and employee satisfaction rather than just short-term profit achievements.

parkinsong@theaustralian.com.au

Source: www.theaustralian.com.au