Profile: John Daley

Reducing Australia’s carbon emissions requires a substantial shift in electricity generation. Acquiring options to roll out any one of a number of technologies is prudent given uncertainties about future technology. Nuclear is clearly a candidate, but it is just one horse in the field – there is no guarantee that it will finish first. John Daley in his Grattan Institute report in Melbourne last week and to the Beyond Zero Emissions Brisbane launch.

John Daley gave a report on Nuclear Power in Context to the Melbourne Energy Institute Seminar last week. Full report available from the Grattan Institute.

He says that reducing Australia’s carbon emissions requires a substantial shift in electricity generation. Acquiring options to roll out any one of a number of technologies is prudent given uncertainties about future technology.

Nuclear is clearly a candidate, but it is just one horse in the field – there is no guarantee that it will finish first. On best guess assumptions, Australia cannot count on a nuclear option towards its 2050 low-carbon electricity targets unless its politicians commit soon to building capabilities and planning.

John was one of the leading speakers at the Brisbane launch of the Beyond Zero Emissions plan for Australia to be 100% dependent on renewable energy by 2020. Here’s the report from Brisbane:

Kerrie Sinclair in the Courier-Mail (28 October 2010):

SURGING gas prices are expected to drive a doubling in power bills within seven years and Australia will still be left with a carbon-intensive economy as carbon penalties ramp up globally, experts say.

Grattan Institute chief executive John Daley said the average household’s annual power bill, currently $1100, was projected to hit $2200 about 2017.

“It is a not-well-understood political fact that within the next six or seven years that is likely to double as a result of investing in transmission because of rising airconditioner use and as gas prices are likely to double as Australian gas prices achieve parity with world prices,” Mr Daley said.

He was speaking to an 800-strong audience last night at the Queensland launch of a plan to wean Australia off coal and gas-fired power by 2020 and switch to zero-emission power using solar technology now deployed in Spain and being built in the US.

President Barack Obama this month hailed a 390-megawatt solar thermal plant, to be built by a Californian company with the aid of US loan guarantees, as part of America’s shift to “the new economy”.

The Australian energy plan from Beyond Zero Emissions and University of Melbourne involves 12 solar thermal plants, using currently available energy storage technology, and 23 windfarms.

If funded via power prices – rather than project financing and policy settings – it would equate to a cost of $8 per household per week to 2020, or about $400 a year.

The total investment needed was $370 billion and it would create 40,000 operational and maintenance jobs and 30,000 manufacturing jobs.

Mr Daley said the plan was “doable and manageable” when viewed in the context of currently forecast price rises and because it was becoming “increasingly unclear” that carbon capture and storage technology – to lower coal and gas plant emissions – could be done at an acceptable cost.

“As I said, prices are going to go up anyway but if prices go up under this plan, we have a fighting chance of building ourselves a competitive industry,” he said.

BHP Billiton chief executive Marius Kloppers last month called on the Gillard government to put a price on carbon emissions before any legally-binding global pact in order to protect Australia’s long-term economic interest.

“We do believe that such a global initiative will eventually come and, when it does, Australia will need to have acted ahead of it to maintain its competitiveness,” Mr Kloppers said.

The Victorian government has made $50 million available to a listed solar company that plans to build what would be one of the world’s largest solar power stations and was also providing $100 million to projects short-listed under a federal program.

The Queensland government’s total funding for solar, mainly rooftop panels, is $115 million over five years. It has committed $300 million to carbon capture and storage.

It has spent $45 million on the first drilling program of its wholly-owned company ZeroGen. But ZeroGen’s site has been dismissed as economically unviable and the venture is looking to launch a second drilling program.

Scientists say developed nations’ annual greenhouse gas emissions need peak by about 2015 and be 80-95 per cent below their 2000 levels within 40 years to give a reasonable chance of holding global warming to 2C.

Source: www.news.com.au

John is one of Australia’s leading strategists. He has 20 years experience at the intersection of the public sector, private enterprise, and academia. His diverse background includes law, finance, education, and workers compensation.

Previous roles include the University of Melbourne, the University of Oxford, the Victorian Department of Premier and Cabinet, consulting firm McKinsey and Co, and most recently ANZ where he was Managing Director of the online stockbroker, E*TRADE Australia.

John has a DPhil in Public Law from the University of Oxford, and degrees in Law and Science from the University of Melbourne.

Grattan Institute aspires to contribute to public policy in Australia as a liberal democracy in a globalised economy. Our work is objective, evidence-driven and non-aligned. We foster informed public debate on the key issues for Australia through both public events and private forums engaging key decision makers and the broader community.

The current programs of Grattan Institute focus on productivity growth, cities, school education, energy, and water. These programs were selected as important to Australia’s future, where fact-based analysis could assist the debate, and where we believed key issues could benefit from further public debate.

Grattan’s Mission

Grattan Institute aspires to contribute to public policy in Australia as a liberal democracy in a globalised economy. Our work is objective, evidence-driven and non-aligned. We foster informed public debate on the key issues for Australia through both public events and private forums engaging key decision makers and the broader community.

The current programs of Grattan Institute focus on productivity growth, cities, school education, energy, and water. These programs were selected as important to Australia’s future, where fact-based analysis could assist the debate, and where we believed key issues could benefit from further public debate.

Source: www.grattan.edu.au