Since 2008 you have been Chief Executive Officer of the Clean Energy Council (CEC); what are some achievements you are most proud of?

The most important thing we achieved was getting the Renewable Energy Target legislation through the parliament and then getting it improved a year later. It is very rare in anyone’s life as a politician or as a lobbyist that they have the chance to get legislation through that delivers $25 billion worth of investment over a decade. The legislation was passed by the Labor Government and supported by the Coalition. This is reflective of both major parties recognising the importance of getting this legislation though.

Creating the CEC in itself is a remarkable achievement, as not a lot of renewable industries in other countries have managed to do it successfully. It made a huge difference and the success we have achieved reflects well on those people in the industry who put so much effort into the merging of ideas between their organisations. My job was just to deliver against their blueprint and make sure that we got there. I think, therefore, that the transformation of the industry is not surprising, but significant.

Ultimately though, the objective of the CEC should be to put itself out of business. At the moment the CEC is a separate body that advocates for renewable energy as opposed to regular energy. The succession of the CEC ism complete when that is no longer relevant and renewable energy technologies become the mainstream.

Looking back, is the industry now at the level you expected it to be when you joined the CEC?

I think that when I got there the challenge for the clean energy industry was speaking with one voice, and working out internal differences in order to communicate effectively to the government about what needed to happen. This has been achieved and the industry has realised how successful and how powerful it can be. The fastest way to not succeed is to be fractured and lack unity. These things are lethal for successful advocacy.

What are some of the challenges that face the clean energy industry?

The really big challenge now is about becoming mainstream. When renewables are new and exciting and futuristic, they are not mainstream and people indulge in their high costs and technical failures. When renewables become mainstream they will have the same expectations as other technologies have – to be reliable and safe.

What will your new position as Chief Executive Officer of the Energy Supply Association of Australia involve?

I will still be engaged in the same energy debate, just on a broader scale. My new position will deal not just with renewables, but the whole energy market. It is important to recognise that the energy industry understands the needs and the challenges of energy supply, and that it sees renewables as major stakeholders in that process.

My focus will also be on trying to keep the lights on and keep the costs of power bills down, and trying to raise billions dollars for financing and infrastructure. I am interested in that process as it is an expansion of what we have been doing at the CEC.

What are some issues you predict will be debated in the clean energy industry in 2012?

I think the next really big challenge is to find how we can move the energy market in Australia to a much more deregulated market. That kind of change is fundamental if we are going to deliver affordable infrastructure across the whole market. Full transparency in pricing means that – in the home – you could be buying electricity in the middle of the night very cheaply, storing it in a battery, and selling it during the day at a much higher price. That kind of possibility can either siphon investment away from renewable energy systems or it can enhance it. Understanding those changes and what they mean for individual companies is really important.

I think what we have seen is that the changes are quite complex and it takes companies in the industry a while to realise the full consequences of policy reform or various changes. The multiple flow-on effects of different reforms is going to be a fascinating thing to watch.

Will we continue to see significant clean energy industry policy developments in 2012?

I think it depends on what happens over the next two or three years in Australia’s political space. There are still things that need to be done, and that is assuming the carbon price is not revoked, which ultimately is a question of numbers.

The Renewable Energy Target is not enough on its own, and there is a review coming up, legislated to begin after June 30 2012, which will be an opportunity to refine it slightly. There are still mechanisms such as the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) and getting that right is really crucial. There is a lot of debate about the CEFC and what it is and what it is going to do. The CEFC has a lot of potential if it works.

If we learn anything from the boom bust of solar photovoltaic (PV) it is that, invariably, some technologies need a hand to get across the line, but we have got to be smarter in the way we lend that hand so we don’t build an industry and cripple it and build it again, as that does not do anyone any good. We need to be more efficient because at this stage we are still guessing about how technologies are going to evolve.

Nobody anticipated how sizeable the fall in the cost of solar PV would be. We are moving towards a more market-based approach, but there is still a degree of things you cannot measure. There needs to be an element of flexibility and an acceptance that not everything will work out smoothly, and that’s part of this process.