This September saw representatives come together at the highly successful Renewable Energy & Regional Australia Conference to discuss the challenges regional Australia faces as a result of climate change, as well as the opportunities moving to cleaner forms of energy can provide.

Community leaders, government, industry and business representatives and academics converged in Bendigo, Victoria for the three-day event which was presented by the City of Greater Bendigo and La Trobe University’s Bendigo Campus.

Key questions addressed at the conference included what are the most likely sources of renewable energy for regional Australia? What is the state of development of these different sources? How accessible are these energy sources to people in regional Australia? What needs to happen to make them readily available? And what can regional communities do to assure their access to renewable energy?

After Victorian Premier John Brumby opened the conference, Victorian weather presenter and environmental campaigner Rob Gell took over as MC. Over two days there were twelve keynote presentations, including an informative and enlightening presentation by the Clean Energy Council’s CEO, Dominique La Fontaine on The Potential for Sustainable Energy Systems in Local Council Areas.

On the subject of whether renewable energy is a viable option for regional Australia, Dr Richard Corkish from the University of New South Wales gave a keynote address titled Renewable Energy – Australia can do it.

Dr Corkish emphasised the fact that the benefits of renewable energy far outweigh the risks and problems posed by Australia’s excessive consumption of fossil fuels. Renewable energy sources are sustainable resources, said Dr Corkish. Renewable energy sources are indigenous and secure resources that are accessible to all, have low environmental, climate and health impacts, are socially compatible and are low risk.

Energy management executive Grant McVicar gave another interesting keynote address, Renewable Energy Opportunities - Thinking Outside the Box. Mr McVicar spoke about his work in Saskatchewan, Canada, where he has joined the Saskatchewan Research Council to develop the Office of Energy Conservation to assist Saskatchewan’s implement energy conserving initiatives. He said that the Canadian province is the largest producer of uranium in world and produces a large proportion of Canada’s petroleum resources. Using Saskatchewan as a case study, Mr McVicar emphasised the use and implementation of alternative energy sources, including ethanol, natural gas, hydrogen and biodiesel vehicles.

From the Office of the Renewable Energy Regulator, David Rossiter spoke about the Renewable Energy Certificate (REC) System in a presentation, Is Regional Australia Contributing to Renewable Energy?

The REC System was established in 2001 and will run until 2020. Since 2001, there have been 237 accreditations with hydro power stations, landfill gas, wind and PV leading the way. Showing attendees where Australia’s accredited power stations are located, Mr Rossiter emphasised the important contribution regional Australia is making to boosting Australia’s clean energy production.

As well as the keynote presentations, there were many other sessions for attendees to learn and discuss regional Australia and renewable energy.

A number of renewable energy generation measures were addressed, with presentations on using timber for renewables, generating hydroelectricity in a drought, creating ‘Energy Wedges’ in regional Australia, using small scale biomass gasification, photovoltaic energy, linking renewables through hybrid technology and solar powered desalination and cogeneration.

The Clean Energy Council’s Industry Development Manager Jenniy Gregory told delegates about the Certified Wind Farms Australia scheme and detailed how wind energy generators can get accredited. Speaking about Australia’s wind energy industry, Ms Gregory said Australia has world class wind energy resources, with 807 MW of installed capacity, 43 operational wind farms, 37 installed wind farm sites and 5491 MW of generating capacity proposed.

The accreditation scheme is a world first and has been designed for planners, developers and operators of wind farms. The scheme includes an auditable framework for managing the environmental, stakeholder consultation, and amenity aspects of wind farms and aims to reduce real and perceived risk for stakeholders, through a national, transparent, consistent, best practice approach.

Ms Gregory highlighted the benefits of a national scheme for all parties involved, including developers, regulators, the community, local councils and the wind industry, adding that wind energy has a major role to play in providing for Australia’s future electricity needs.

The Renewable Energy & Regional Australia conference was a great success and the Clean Energy Council was proud to be a major sponsor of such an important event.