Greens slam Ferguson on solar projects


The Greens have launched an assault on Resources Minister Martin ­Ferguson over the government’s most expensive solar power projects yet, declaring he had favoured them to defend the coal industry.
“Martin Ferguson has mismanaged this process from start to finish, helping to keep renewable energy from challenging coal’s dominance,” Greens deputy leader Christine Milne said of the two projects, which now face doubts because they missed a deadline for finding a commercial financial backer in addition to the government support.
The government is also under ­pressure from other companies that missed out on $750 million in funding under the Solar Flagships ­program and are now lining up to revive their applications should the two favoured projects fall over.
The Moree Solar Farm in NSW and the Solar Dawn project in Queensland have been unable to strike power purchase agreements with energy retailers, forcing Mr Ferguson to make a decision within weeks on whether to extend the deadline to allow time to obtain finance or reopen the tender process.
The opposition has also seized on the projects’ problems, revealed by The Australian Financial Review yesterday, with opposition climate action spokesman Greg Hunt demanding Mr Ferguson provide a full explanation to Parliament on the projects’ funding.
The two projects have received the bulk of the government money to foster solar energy, which will become part of the $3.2 billion Australian Renewable Energy Agency being set up alongside the carbon tax from the middle of the year.
But the director of the Solar Dawn project, Anthony Wiseman, said project delays were not expected to affect the commercial operation date of December 2015.
“Like all major infrastructure projects, finalising all commercial, financial and approval aspects takes time, and work on our large-scale solar thermal plant is progressing well,” Mr Wiseman said.
“We do not expect near-term delays to impact our project’s commercial operation date and longer-term goals.”
The consortium was in commercial negotiations with a number of parties but could not make comments about commercial aspects of the project that may prejudice progress, Mr Wiseman said. Two companies – Infigen and China’s Suntech Power – which proposed a project involving up to 150 megawatts of solar photovoltaic capacity across NSW, would “certainly be interested” in reapplying for funds, Infigen spokesman Richard Farrell said.
“We believe our development pipeline was at the most advanced stage at the time of the bid, so we certainly look forward to participating in any future allocation of funding,” he said.
AGL Energy’s and TRUenergy’s proposed solar photovoltaic ventures would not be expected to have the same difficulty in nailing down power purchase agreements because the companies are retailers themselves and could buy both the electricity and renewable energy certificates generated by the projects.
Greens leader Bob Brown accused Mr Ferguson of failing to consult adequately with industry to ensure the programs would work. Senator Milne said there were design flaws with the Solar Flagships program, which Greens sources said was a bias towards funding solar projects linked with existing coal-fired plants.
Mr Ferguson rejected criticism from the Greens as “dishonest and factually incorrect”. “The fact is, the government consulted widely with industry in developing the Solar Flagships program,” Mr Ferguson told the Financial Review.
“These are challenging multi­million-dollar projects. Recognising the complexities involved, the two projects that were offered funding under round one of the program were selected based on merit and in accordance with expert, independent advice from the Solar Flagships Council, at arm’s length from political processes,” he said.
Mr Hunt said the government’s problems with the Flagship projects were symptomatic of wider management issues. “The significant problems with the Solar Flagships is further evidence of Labor’s inability to manage ­programs.
“It is a problem of their own making through their creation of phantom credits in the renewable sector, which has created an oversupply which is damaging both large and small projects.”

http://www.afr.com/p/national/greens_slam_ferguson_on_solar_projects_Mm8k0oRnGRT...

Would the greens be in deficit with their policies or in surplus, if they were elected into government?

____ wrote on Feb 7^th, 2012 at 10:33am:

You gave a link to their policies. Are they not really their policies? Will they not really use those policies. Arethose policies taking the greens budget into deficit or surplus?

But Infigen Suntech are developing a solar farm at Nyngan, aren't they??

They got approval in January last year....

gizmo_2655 wrote on Feb 7^th, 2012 at 10:55am:

That is my red herring 

ABSOLUTELY!!!

LibLabs are anti Renewable energy

What are you going to do about it Greens?

You are having an effect now because Gillard allow you in

Abbott knew better and told Bob Brown to p!ss off

Swagman wrote on Feb 7^th, 2012 at 12:01pm:



They are allied to backing supply, no Labor policies.

That's the difference between an alliance and a coalition.

____ wrote on Feb 7^th, 2012 at 9:40am:


Labor mismanage?
Who would have thought.