A nice spot for some solar panels?
Australia needs its own green energy mega-project to rival the USD $540 billion solar-in-the-Sahara development Desertec, a Siemens executive has said.
Siemens Chief Financial Officer Joe Kaesar told The Australian newspaper that the country “has everything it needs” to launch a massive solar project. The German industrial giant has made four separate applications to the Australian government to build large-scale solar energy facilities by 2015.
But the country needs to be bold, Kaesar said:
Australia should be in the lead (in solar energy) and showing the world how it works. If you source solar energy for nothing, and sell natural resources to other countries, it makes for a powerful business case.
Desertec, a project spearheaded by German reinsurance company Munich Re, Deutsche Bank and others, would use massive concentrating solar plants and then ship the power to Europe.
A similar project in the Australian deserts could presumably power all of the country’s populous east coast.