Peter Szental has over 20 years’ experience in electrical and electronic engineering and in building projects across Asia. He has numerous industry roles including President of the Energy Efficiency Council and Treasurer of the Australian Sustainable Built Environment Council. He is a member of various advisory committees for the AGO Greenhouse Challenge Plus, Australian Building Codes Board, Standards Australia and the Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate and holds degrees in science, politics and philosophy and a Master’s degree in business.

1. Where does your interest in clean energy stem from?

Climate change is the most important issue facing us today. For the past two decades, I have focused on producing good business results that add value to, and are in harmony with, the environment. In 1983, I established Energy Conservation Systems (ECS), which provides energy and water efficient solutions to help companies reduce their carbon footprint.

2. What top two steps does the industry need to take to be cost competitive with traditional energy generation?

Reducing energy waste is already the cheapest way to create new generation capacity by far. However, realising the potential is made difficult by significant barriers and distortions from a market geared towards increasing generation. For example, 50 per cent of the cost of energy comes from its transportation, which is applied across the board even when efficient sites do not rely on transmission networks. We need to re-align the incentives in the system so that embedded generation can be fairly valued compared to traditional fossil fuel sources.

Secondly, we need to tap into the more than $5 billion a year being used to upgrade transmission poles and wires. Instead of supporting this old infrastructure, we should be using these funds to upgrade our existing building stock.

3. What has been the greatest achievement of your sector, in the past five years?

The rise of sustainable buildings and the business case for them has created a wide range of economic and environmental opportunities. Building owners now want to future-proof their buildings, make them more efficient, improve working conditions and reduce their environmental footprint.

4. Where do you see the green building sector going in the short and long term?

Unfortunately, the GFC has taken some of the momentum off the sustainable building sector. However, energy efficiency is on the rise as building owners and tenants look to reduce costs and decrease their exposure to energy prices. Now that COAG has agreed to implement Mandatory Disclosure for buildings, improving energy and water performance will become a major business opportunity.

5. What are the top two government incentives/policy measures you would like to see implemented today? Why?

As the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme has been weakened, it will not create the transformation that is required to significantly lower greenhouse gas emissions. Therefore, the need for complimentary measures is even greater. In addition to the Renewable Energy Target, the Government should set an Energy Efficiency Target to meet all future demand growth through energy efficiency.

A substantial Demand Management Fund is needed to offset electricity market barriers while the national electricity market is reformed, which is a much longer term problem.

6. What promising project/technology is Szencorp currently developing or implementing?

The most exciting technology we are developing is solar air-conditioning for non-residential buildings. ECS has installed the two largest systems in the world – one in Thailand and the other in Queensland.

I am also hoping to commercialise a facility to transform various green and food organic wastes into base load renewable electricity and a premium organic fertiliser using anaerobic digestion technology.

Another project we have recently developed is an advanced online monitoring and verification system to measure and manage a building’s energy and water consumption.

7. What one piece of advice would you give new entrants to the clean energy industry?

New entrants need to contribute to developing a better policy environment for the industry and they need to understand the market barriers we currently face. Top quality engineering is also necessary, as it is an essential skill required when working in energy efficiency. The newly formed Energy Efficiency Council can provide guidance on these issues.