Australia is contributing to the solar economy in very exciting ways.

South Australia recently hosted the world’s third international solar cities congress. Premier Mike Rann is recognised as a global leader in urban solar thinking and action. The state is well known for its aggressive support of renewable. South Australia provides nearly half of Australia’s wind power, more than 45 percent of the nation’s grid connected solar power, and is home to more than 80% of all geothermal exploration activity in Australia. Recently the South Australian Parliaments passed the nation’s first solar-feed-in laws which will see consumers get double the retail price for surplus power they feed back into the grid.

Victorian Premier John Brumby recently announced his government would provide a seed grant of $50 million will help deliver the world’s largest photovoltaic (PV) solar power station to be built in northern Victoria. The grant will support an investment of A$290 million in renewable energy by TRUenergy, which will invest in renewable energy company Solar Systems to build the 154MW solar power station, with construction due to begin in 2009, once the site has been finalised. The TRUenergy investment follows on from the $50 million contribution by the Victorian Government and $79.5 million from the Commonwealth in 2006 towards this leading-edge solar power station.

Australian technology – including solar thermal inventions of David Mills from Sydney University – has become the core intellectual property behind some of Silicon Valley’s most high profile start-up investments.

These are precisely the type of policy initiatives and direct capital investment that Green Cross will support in Australia as part of our global solar initiative.

We seek policy changes that would help to kick-start fast PV take-up across OECD countries where we work. These policies include:

• Guaranteed access to the Grid for all levels of solar generation 
• Guaranteed “net-metering” rates for energy provided to the grid by solar panels 
• Eliminate caps or limits for solar energy provided to the grid 
• Redirect subsidies on the basis of real benefits and real costs of power generation taking into account health and climate impacts 
• Unify Standards to support innovation and increased manufacturing capital
• Educational and public outreach initiatives

Green Cross embraces community education in new ways – for example Global Green has launched an online greenhouse game with Starbucks that helps people to engage with energy issues in a new way. Education will be a continuing focus for our global solar initiative.