Exporting the dollars: How Australian solar technology is making foreigners rich
By The Queenslander staff
Queenslanders are missing out on the jobs of the future because governments have not focused on making things in Australia.
That’s the forthright view of Smart Energy Council chief executive John Grimes who has found himself in the centre of a federal election brawl over the politics of renewable energy and its place in economic growth in coming years and decades.
Mr Grimes told a Smart Energy Council industry conference last week that successive federal governments had stymied job creation in the renewable energy industry, something he called an “economic crime”.
“The solar cells going up around the world were invented in Australia but, because of bad policy, we did not develop the technology.”
“Australians invented solar panels and solar hot water but we have not reaped the economic benefits.”
Mr Grimes told The Queenslander that the state had missed out on thousands of new jobs due to government polices that have frustrated the uptake of renewables and the manufacturing sector employment that is created by new technologies.
“Everyone knows putting solar on your roof is the best way to cut your power bills and governments should be making its easier, not harder, for families to cut their power bills.”
“This is a sliding doors moment for Australia. Either we reap the benefits of being the sunburnt country and deliver cheap solar power to Australians or we continue to operate expensive fossil fuel plants well beyond their operating lives.”
Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese attended the Smart Energy Council expo in Sydney on Thursday and lent his voice to the need for more jobs and commercialisation in the renewables space.
“The future is here right now. What we need to do in Australia though is to learn to commercialise our scientific breakthroughs,” Mr Albanese said.
“There isn’t a (solar) PV panel in the world that doesn’t have some intellectual property that came from Australia, whether that’s from the Australian National University, from the University of NSW. What we haven’t always done though is commercialise these opportunities to maximise the jobs and economic growth that can come from Australian scientific breakthroughs.”
The debate about investment in renewables was put back under the election spotlight this week after Liberal senator Andrew Bragg called for the Smart Energy Council to be stripped of its charity status because, Senator Bragg claims, it has promoted political parties or candidates.
Mr Grimes said the Council is focused on “policies, not politics” and had repeatedly invited Energy Minister Angus Taylor Smart Energy Council events.
The Smart Energy Council had strongly supported the renewable energy and climate policies of the NSW Liberal National Parties Government and held events with people as diverse as NSW Liberal Premier Gladys Berejiklian, Clive Palmer and Greens leader Adam Bandt.
