Motion to Establish Select Committee on Solar Thermal

17-Oct-2012

Mr VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN (Stuart) (11:03): I move:

That this h ouse establish a s e lect c ommittee to investigate into and report upon the effects of the proposal by national group Beyond Zero Emissions and loca l group Repowering Port Augusta that the Northern and the Playford coal-fired power stations at Port Augusta (which are owned and operated by Alinta Energy) be replaced by a concentrated solar thermal power station when the coal supply from the Leigh Creek mine is no longer viable and in particular, consider —

(a) the full cost of implementation of this proposal and how it may be met;

(b) the impact on household and business electricity prices;

(c) the impact on employment in the region;

(d) the ability of solar thermal technology to provide a reliable power supply comparable oth er mainstream technologies; and

(f) any other relevant matters.

This is a very important matter for Port Augusta, our state and potentially our nation. I say at the outset that I acknowledge Alinta's role as the owner and operator of the two power stations at Port Augusta and the Leigh Creek coal mine, and everything I say from hereon includes recognition of the fact that they are a key player and what they would like to do is vital to this whole issue.

But, of course, it is also vital to the government, and the government, both state and federal, has a very important role to play in this. Funding for any potential solar thermal power generating facility would be very expensive and would include contributions, I am sure, from both state and federal governments.

I also acknowledge that the Minister for Energy has had meetings on this issue with various people, including myself, the Mayor of Port Augusta and the CEO of Port Augusta Council, and I understand that he has met with other interested parties and that he has also been to Nevada to look at one of these power plants firsthand.

The Hon. A. Koutsantonis: California.

Mr VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN: California, thank you minister. So I thank him for the work that he has done already to look into this issue. I also thank all members and staff who attended the briefing held here in Parliament House several months ago, and it was terrific that they turned up. There is some knowledge of this issue among members already, particularly in the minister's office.

I also acknowledge that many responsible organisations are advocating on behalf of solar thermal, including Doctors for the Environment Australia, Beyond Zero Emissions, and Repower Port Augusta, which is a local Port Augusta group with a very broad cross-section of people supporting them. This is not just one section of the Port Augusta community getting behind this issue, and they have worked very hard and very responsibly to put this issue forward, and certainly so have others.

I would also like to make very clear to this house that this proposal is in no way in conflict with the operation of the existing power stations in Port Augusta. The power stations in Port Augusta are incredibly important. They employ about 500 people between the power stations and the coal mine at Leigh Creek in our region in the north of the state—so, they are very important—and those jobs are vital. Leigh Creek, as well as being a very important community in its own right which needs employment in the coal mine to survive, is also a very important community that supports the whole of the north-east of outback South Australia. In much the same way as Coober Pedy is a focal hub for the north-west, Leigh Creek is a focal hub for the north-east and so plays a very important role.

The coal at Leigh Creek is going to run out. None of us knows exactly when and, like all mining operations, the coal will deteriorate in quality and become more expensive to access over time. At some point in time the mining company will decide that it is not economically viable to continue to use that coal and send it to Port Augusta. It is going to run out, and there are estimates anywhere from five to 25 years (my estimate is that there is 10 to 15 years worth of viable coal there), but it is a fact that the coal will run out and that we will come to a day when we do not have coal for the Port Augusta power stations.

I am not suggesting for a second that we would generate electricity in Port Augusta in any other way before the coal runs out, but we have to start thinking today about what the solution to the problem is going to be when the coal runs out. We have to pick a solution and we have to start to work towards it straightaway, otherwise it will not be up and running and in place and be useful in 10 to 15 years' time, or whenever the coal is not available; we need to start that transition now. This is a statewide issue, not just a Port Augusta and north of the state issue, because the Port Augusta power stations supply 30 to 40 per cent of our state's electricity at the moment, so this is an issue for the whole state.

In regard to my position on this issue, I have been very clear with everybody I have met. I cannot tell you and I do not stand here to say that solar thermal technology is the right idea, but I do stand here to say very firmly that it must be investigated and that it must be given every opportunity to find out whether it is as good as people honestly believe it is, and I take that role very seriously—to really push that it gets the opportunity to do that.

I have also said to strong proponents of solar thermal that the three key issues for me are, obviously: the jobs that come out of any proposal like this, as we need to know that there will be good, strong employment in the north of the state, in Port Augusta; we need to know what the cost is, and there are a lot of varying cost estimates and they are all very high, and we need to know whether it is economically viable; and, very importantly, we need to know about the reliability. We need to know whether this technology is really as reliable as people believe it is and, if so, I am fully behind it—I am absolutely behind it if those three things can be established.

This is a proposal that I think would be irresponsible not to fully investigate. It cannot be ruled out. I know there are other options like gas that should also be considered, but you cannot rule out that this new technology might be the one that we should replace the power stations with in approximately 10 years up at Port Augusta.

There are enormous potential opportunities here. One is the fact that, as I have said, when the coal runs out, when the existing power stations are forced to stop operating, we are going to need to do something. We cannot avoid that fact, but this solar thermal seems to provide an exceptional opportunity for our state to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to reduce pollution. Regardless of where anybody's views are with regard to greenhouse emissions and climate change and all of that sort of thing, I am confident that every single member here believes that reducing pollution is a good thing. It is incontrovertible, and this proposal would do that.

Health issues are extremely important. It is a fact that Port Augusta has a higher incidence of smoking than most other towns in South Australia, but it is also a fact that it has an even higher incidence of lung cancer than other towns in South Australia. Doctors tell me that there should be a direct linear relationship between increase in smoking and increase in the incidence of lung cancer. In Port Augusta there is more lung cancer than we should have and many people believe that that is directly linked to emissions from the power station. Reducing pollution and improving people's health are very important.

Is this technology right? Is it affordable? That is what we need to look at, but what we know already is that Port Augusta is the perfect place to locate this technology, if it is just right. We already have transmission lines in place from Port Augusta supplying electricity. We have an abundance of solar energy through the sun; we have an abundance of land. We already have a very highly-skilled workforce in place at the existing power stations which could be transitioned over years. Today they are all working in coal and coal-fired electricity generation. Perhaps over 10 to 15 years there could be a steady change, so that those people all end up working in solar thermal. We have the workforce there, they are already skilled and, over time, their skills could be transitioned into this new form of energy.

There would be significant employment generated in Port Augusta during the building of any new power station, so it is exceptionally important to me as the member for Stuart that this new power station is in Port Augusta. A gigantic employment opportunity will be generated by solar thermal when the plant is built—if it is built—and of course there will be many jobs in running, maintaining and operating the plant from then on, which is very important.

Potentially there will even be a new manufacturing industry for our state. If this technology is proven and if it is worth doing in Port Augusta, it will be worth doing in many other places around our state, so it is a very important opportunity for a new manufacturing industry in our state. I know that all members of parliament from both sides of this chamber would certainly welcome that.

The terms of reference that I have suggested are flexible. I am certainly willing to discuss potential changes with members if they think that is warranted. I think they are appropriate. I would also like to just address one opinion that has been put to me and that is that the terms of reference in my motion were set up so that an investigation would fail. I put very clearly on the record that that is not the case. There are some very serious tests that this technology would have to pass before it could be taken seriously into a full proposal phase, but I would be as happy as anybody else if it succeeds. I think that would be absolutely wonderful.

What we have here is a tremendous concept. We need to know whether it is workable. We need to know whether it can actually be put into practice and we need to answer the questions that I have put in my motion. I think that is a very important process and I suggest that all members of parliament would be pleased if any new non-polluting technology could jump those hurdles and be proven to be effective. That would be a very important thing.

Something else that is important to say is that we need a bipartisan position on whatever we are going to do with future electricity generation in our state. We need that for several reasons. We need a bipartisan approach because there will be an enormous cost involved, a gigantic cost, so of course it is going to be something that we all need to agree on. There will also be many years of building and many years of operation. If solar thermal is the way to go in Port Augusta and the way to go in South Australia, then we would be setting ourselves up for the way that we will generate electricity into the middle of this century. Any decision that big of course requires both sides of parliament and both sides of politics to come to an agreement on it.

I think a select committee is the best way to do that. There have been suggestions that one of parliament's standing committees could look into this issue; I do not think that is appropriate. I know from personal experience that getting a select committee and getting the government to agree to a select committee to look into an issue can take years before it actually happens. Ten years down the track seems like a long time, but if we do not get working on this now we will not get a solution in place in 10 years' time, and waiting for a standing committee to look into this in a year or two, or potentially more, is not soon enough. This is a big enough issue on its own that I believe this house should establish a select committee to look into it now.

Let me say again that, in principle, I think everyone would agree that this is exceptionally attractive technology. What we need to know is: is it viable, what is the cost, can we afford it, how can we fund it, is it an economically viable way to produce electricity, is there job security for the region in this form of electricity and, very importantly, is it reliable enough, is it as good as people believe? We really need to do a very thorough investigation. If those issues are not dealt with then we certainly cannot move ahead

I think a select committee is the way to go to find out if this technology is the right one, if it jumps those hurdles, and I certainly hope it does, and I urge the government to support this motion and establish a select committee, on behalf of this house, to investigate this very important proposal.

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