Tassie farmers bringing power to the paddock

TASMANIA’S

energy network was designed and built for last century’s technology. Massive centralised energy generated from coal on the mainland and Hydro in Tasmania, was distributed via transmission wires to our homes and businesses. The cost to maintain the network is expensive and keeps increasing. In the 1990s new technology gave us the option of generating on-site energy. It’s what we call distributed energy and it’s growing quickly. It’s only taken a few decades for solar to grow to provide power to more than two million homes in Australia. The trend suggests that will double in the next five years, during which time falling battery prices are expected to result in strong uptake. In this time, the energy distribution network remains bound up in regulation, stifling innovation and putting the handbrake on lowering power prices.

If this is not attended to quickly, the network will have fewer and fewer customers to meet their increasing costs. Remaining customers — those who cannot afford to generate their own energy, renters, retirees and other low-income earners, will be left to cover the bill. We must find a new way to buy and sell energy and make our network fit for purpose in the new 21st century economy.

Tasmania is not facing this problem alone. New technology means it’s a global challenge, but Tasmania is in a unique position deal with it. We only have one network owned by the people. We are already a renewable energy powerhouse with large storage capacity and a large innovative agricultural sector which is hungry for, and in a position to, generate large amounts of energy.

The State Government’s vision of a $10 billion agri-industry by 2050 has no coherent plan to achieve that goal. Two of the biggest productivity drivers of agricultural businesses are energy and water. The government and farmers have invested heavily in irrigation infrastructure to improve onfarm production, but economical energy is needed to leverage that investment.

Under the current outdated energy transmission system, a farmer with solar panels, is generating energy (the surplus of which is sold into the grid) while two paddocks away that same farmer is purchasing energy from the grid at three times the price at the woolshed. This lack of equity acts as a handbrake on farmers investing in energy resilience. It’s like buying a tractor and only being allowed to use it on one paddock.

Wouldn’t it be much better if that farmer could harvest the sun’s energy like he harvests a crop — use it where it’s needed, sells some and stores some. Imagine the benefits to all Tasmanians — more power to sell to the mainland via the proposed new Basslink, more regional employment, more money being circulated through local townships. Downward pressure on power prices benefits all Tasmanians.

To use a music metaphor for our energy distribution problem, we have all the instruments in Tasmania to make a great orchestra, we just need the conductor to turn the cacophony into a symphony.

Australia has done well from exporting raw materials to a world hungry for development but the 21st century economic powerhouses export knowledge and new technology. Our island state at the bottom of the world is perfectly positioned to ride this innovation wave.

All these issues will be discussed at the Power to the Paddock conference on March 19 at Adam’s Distillery, Perth.

Global leaders will be speaking beside a group of early adopter farmers who will share their experience. See www.agrienergyalliance.net