Australian business scheme to aid start ups but not PV deployment

Australia's Department for Industry, Tourism, and Resources (DITR) announced a $100 million AUD ($75.6 million USD) fund to support »cutting-edge renewable energy technology« on June 8. 

The first round of the Renewable Energy Development Initiative (REDI), offering between $50,000 AUD ($37,800 USD) and $5 million AUD ($3.8 million USD) in matching competitive grants over three years per proposal, is slated to close on Aug. 25, says Con Himonas of DITR's AusIndustry division, which is overseeing the scheme.

Australian-based Origin Energy Solar, which is getting close to launching its Sliver cell module, a technology requiring one-eighth the silicon of conventional cells (see PI 2/2004, p. 29), wasted no time in submitting its proposal. Philip Mackey, executive manager of Origin's solar division, says his company is applying for the maximum funding, but he is not aware of any other PV companies going for the money. Given the amount of overhead necessary to match the government support, he thinks small companies would have trouble taking advantage of the REDI backing. And since it is focused on bringing products to market, REDI most likely won't be suitable for companies with very early-stage proposals. Himonas, who declined to give any information on the number of companies dealing with PV that have made proposals so far, says while REDI is expected to be offered twice a year through FY 2007-08, if at that point any money is leftover, further rounds will be run to support proposals below the current three-year minimum. 

The Australian Business Council for Sustainable Energy (BCSE), the country's renewable energy lobby group, calls the AusIndustry scheme a good initiative, but worries that its effect won't be felt for 10 to 15 years, meaning that such a commercialization program won't do anything for PV deployment. »The technology is basically proven,« says Ric Brazzale, BCSE executive director, who is still pushing the government to support a feed-in tariff for PV. »For us it is all about assisting in getting scale economies to drive costs down.«

In May, after much urging by BCSE, the government of John Howard finally agreed to extend for two years its Photovoltaic Rebate Programme (PVRP), which otherwise would have run out of funding by June (see PI 6/2005, p. 67). It will be replaced by Solar Cities, a scheme designed to push grid-connected PV starting in 2007, but only in several metropolitan areas (see PI 5/2005, p. 96).

William P. Hirshman
© PHOTON International, July 2005