The work on the plan, officially titled Zero Carbon Australia Stationary Energy Plan, is being led by Patrick who often goes overseas to find out what the rest of the world is doing to combat climate change.

Patrick Hearps

He was in Spain recently checking out solar thermal power plants with BZE’s executive director Matt Wright, wrapping the trip up with a three-week rock climbing holiday with friends on the Mediterranean south of Barcelona.

But with just two days left on the holiday he took a fall while climbing up some sea-cliffs on the Mediterranean coast.

“I’m used to falling, but this time a bolt, rusty from sea spray, broke and I hit the deck from about five metres up,” said Patrick.

He had to be rescued by helicopter, but thankfully he had no bones broken.

“I was just incredibly sore and stiff for a few weeks, but it hasn’t stopped me climbing,” he said.

“It’s my passion and that’s what you can find me doing when I am not working on the Zero Carbon plan.”

That’s the kind of never-give-up attitude Patrick has and one that BZE needs with its lofty, yet achievable aims.

“I’ve been rock climbing for a few years now. It’s an exhilarating and unique way to experience nature and I wish I had more time so I could get better,” he said.

So how did Patrick get involved in such a major project. His story goes back to childhood days.

“I grew up on a farm in Tasmania until I was 13-years-old. I loved the outdoors, and always had a keen interest in science and how things worked. I had heard about the greenhouse effect but didn’t really understand how big a deal it was,” he said.

“And while I had seen the hydro dam up the road which produced electricity just using the flowing water, the only cultural reference I had to coal was Ebenezer Scrooge’s coal heater which featured in Charles Dickens book A Christmas Carol.”

So when he eventually came to live in the Sunshine State he had a shock.

“A couple of years after moving to Queensland, I visited a coal power station and coal mine, and was absolutely amazed at both the scale of the plant, and the fact that we were still using technology and a fuel source from several centuries ago; burning vast amounts of coal in what is essentially a glorified kettle,” he said.

“Engineering was a natural path of study for me, and as I became fully aware of the scale of the climate and energy problem in my later years of uni, I knew that my role in life was to be part of solving one of the largest problems we have ever faced.

“So I took a job with ExxonMobil to gain experience with an international energy company, but frustrated by the old-fashioned views and limitations of full-time corporate work, I resigned to get more directly and immediately involved in creating a renewable future.  He says it is ‘incredibly enjoyable and satisfying’ working with the Melbourne Energy Institute and Beyond Zero Emissions on the project.

ECO put some more questions to Patrick:

ECO: How did you gather together such a wide field of expertise to develop the ZCA plan? Please give an indication of the global reach of this amazing venture and from where you have been drawing your technical knowledge and tell of the encouragement/hurdles you have experienced along the way.

PATRICK: The contributors to the Zero Carbon Plan are a diverse range of people. Key professions represented are chemical, mechanical, electrical, and environmental engineers along with physicists and others with specific qualifications and experience in renewable energy. Collectively, they have decades of experience in the energy industry and academia and understand the requirements of a rigorous study.

Furthermore, Beyond Zero Emissions through the media and research have links to institutions and companies in the global renewable energy industry. We have personally interviewed the CEOs and reps of the companies building and operating solar thermal power plants, in Spain and the US, such as SolarReserve, Torresol/SENER, Solar Millennium, Brightsource, Abengoa etc, along with researchers who have been involved in the field for decades.

For example, from the US Department of Energy’s Sandia National Laboratories and National Renewable Energy Laboratories, the German Aerospace Centre, the UAE’s MASDAR Institute and many more.

ECO: How difficult/easy has it been, as technical director of BZE, to draw together the scientific team to take this forward? Please give a little background.

PATRICK: The ZCA Project is primarily a pro-bono effort, started by Beyond Zero Emissions, using their networks of industry contacts, media and partner organisations to find people with the skills and motivation to work on the Zero Carbon Project, with the Melbourne Energy Institute providing both staff, students and alumni.

It should be pointed out from the start that what brings them together is an understanding of the physical scale of the climate and energy challenge, and a desire to get to work fixing it, recognising that the mitigation measures currently being looked at by most industry and policymakers just isn’t going to cut it.

Recognising the disconnect between policy, reality and perhaps the limitations of their day jobs, the authors are keen and motivated to put their skills to work truly creating the future they want to see, not just getting half the job done 10 years too late.

So while I wouldn’t say it has been an easy process to guide the project, once people are involved and feel ownership I am continuously impressed by the quality of work and ideas that come together.

ECO: Your forthcoming visit to Woodford is being eagerly anticipated by many festivalgoers. What does it mean to you personally in bringing the latest news of this important development to such an event which is noted for its green ethic? Also, whether this is your first Woodford experience or you have been before, what are you looking forward to seeing and experiencing at this festival?

PATRICK: I’ve never been to Woodford before, though I’ve had it highly recommended by friends. It sounds like a great combination of good music, relaxed atmosphere and people keen to find out how to create a better future.

I enjoy different audiences for different reasons. For example, when talking to relatively conservative audiences, it is a sense of achievement to be able to blow aside many people’s misconceptions about the ability of renewables to provide energy for society at a cost and scale that is required.

For relatively progressive audiences, as I suspect Woodford will be, it can be gratifying to give people information that can be used to strengthen their own work in pushing for a safe climate.

One of the great things about the ZCA Project is that it shows how achievable 100 per cent renewable energy in a decade really could be if we choose to push for the right decisions, which is more empowering than what we usually hear about it being too hard, too expensive or infeasible.

Being armed with the right information is important. And we are also always looking for more people to contribute to our work, whether on the technical side, or aiding in communication and organising, or if you can’t donate your time then helping to fund our research is also effective and appreciated.

ECO: Please tell us of your hopes and fears regarding the further development of this plan and the continuing research. Also, what can we, the public and interested parties, do for you?

PATRICK: Our research shows that we already have the technology, the knowledge, the resources, the money, the capacity to achieve 100 per cent renewable energy in 10 years, which is a necessary timeframe if we are to give ourselves a decent chance of avoiding runaway climate change.

I think its value is that it demonstrates that such an infrastructure rollout is achievable, while also giving us a sense of the scale of the task. It will require significantly more political commitment than is being shown today, and should be used as a benchmark for proposed climate mitigation measures.

It is encouraging to see other countries around the world pushing ahead on building a renewable energy future – the first few concentrating solar thermal plants in the US for 20 years are currently breaking ground, Spain is in the flurry of their $20 billion rollout of CST, China’s wind power output is growing exponentially at phenomenal rates, Germany’s commitment to their feed-in-tariff is seeing solar and wind installed in gigawatts per year, the countries around the North Sea are investing in huge offshore wind capacity, as are South Korea, and the Desertec Industrial Initiative has commitment and funding from Europe’s leading energy companies and banks.

However, Australia is at high risk of being left behind, as our leaders pretend that a tiny diversion from business-as-usual is all that is required.

Everyone can play a role in publicly pushing for more aggressive energy policy that will actually see us re-powering the country with renewables, and holding our leaders accountable.

Patrick Hearps will be at the Woodford Folk Festival Greenhouse venue on Wednesday, December 29 at 4.30pm, Thursday, December, 30 at 4pm for his BZE sessions, Friday, December 31 at 2pm with ‘Green Mythbusters and at 4pm with ‘Green Innovators’.

BZE, stands for Beyond Zero Emissions, and is an organisation that has been going since 2006 and is committed to providing a real, comprehensive, technically and financially feasible blueprint for Australia to slash its carbon emissions to zero by 2020.

They believe their 10-year target is attainable and it has meant coming up with a plan to transition Australia to 100 per cent renewable energy sources using existing proven technologies. It’s a plan that promises to ensure the nation’s future energy security.

Already, BZE, led by its driving force Matthew Wright, 31, has come up with the first stage. With the help of post graduate students from the University of Melbourne Energy Research Institute they have this year launched the Zero Carbon Australia 2020 Stationary Energy Plan.

It’s a comprehensive, detailed plan, documented in 170 pages of reasoned argument, heaps of facts and figures, graphs, charts and photographs. And it is very persuasive – already endorsed by enlightened politicians, leading conservationists and environmentalists.

“Not only do politicians support the Zero Carbon Australia initiative, but so do leading academics, energy experts, business people, and community leaders,” said Matthew,  the executive director and founder of BZE.

Solar Power towers -- set to create zero-emission, baseload-solar electricity in Australia.

“I found that I just couldn’t stand by as climate action progressed at such a glacial pace – I soon got addicted to the momentum we were building.”

It has taken four years to assemble the team, do the research, come up with some solutions to this massive planetary dilemma of carbon emissions and climate change, and then compile the first report. And now the momentum is with them to take the project to the next stage in 2011. So what is the Zero Carbon Australia plan?

The BZE researchers say they propose a 60/40 mix of large-scale solar thermal power plants with storage and wind farms to provide the bulk of Australia’s energy needs as part of a national energy grid.

“It will allow for geographically dispersed solar and wind power installations, with our existing hydroelectric capacity and small amount of biomass used for back-up generation,” said BZE’s 24-year-old technical director, Patrick Hearps, a chemical engineer and co-author of the ZCA plan.

Patrick will be attending the Woodford Folk Festival (December 27 – January 1 inclusive) as a speaker at the Greenhouse venue. There, he will present the plan and tell of the organisation’s incredible journey to develop and promote the plan, including a trip to Europe, touring solar thermal storage and wind power plants and attending an international solar conference.

Patrick says a combination of wide-spread large-scale concentrated solar thermal plants with molten salt storage (otherwise known as ‘baseload solar’) and wind farms can power Australia 24 hours a day, every day of the year.

Concentrating solar thermal plants use mirrors to concentrate sunlight onto a receiver ZCA2020 proposes the use of ‘solar power towers’. The sunlight heats molten salt. The hot molten salt is safely stored in insulated tanks. At any time of day or night, the hot molten salt is used to generate steam for the turbine, creating zero-emission, baseload-solar electricity.

According to US Department of Energy projections, solar thermal will soon be cost-competitive with coal and gas power, as the solar thermal industry scales up to an installed capacity in the thousands of megawatts around the world. The ZCA2020 Plan has 12 solar regions across the country, consisting of 3500MW of power tower units. These would supply 60 per cent of Australia’s electricity in 2020.

The other 40 per cent of Australia’s electricity would come from wind ? 6400 gearless Enercon 7.5 MW turbines would be distributed across 23 sites around the country.

“We’ve completed the research that no Australian government or organisation has been prepared to investigate,” said Matthew, who was voted ‘Australia’s Young Environmentalist of the Year’ at the 2010 Banksia awards.

“We really seek to debunk the myth that renewables can’t cover baseload power needs and dispel concerns that it’s going to be too expensive.

“The projected investment is around 3 per cent of GDP over 10 years, or $370 billion. This is about as much as we spend on insurance over the same time.

“For an average household this would mean an increase to their electricity bill of $8 per week, which isn’t bad when you consider Australians spend over $30 billion on imported new cars each year. And after the initial decade of set-up costs, we should remember that the fuel is free from the sun to help pay for upgrades and maintenance.”

So, now it’s into the next phase.

“After the success of the Stationary Energy plan and new volunteers on board, we will develop transition plans for buildings, transport, steel, cement and other industrial sectors,” said Matthew.

The expected publication date for the ZCA2020 Buildings Plan is August 2011. Potential contributors to the buildings and transport plans can help provide content for the research database by getting in touch with BZE.

The projects already involve expert contributions in many areas relating to BZE’s specific calculations and forecasting, but they say more help is needed and that there are many different roles on offer.

“Though we first set up BZE back in 2006 it feels like we’ve only just begun,” said Matthew as he rolled up his sleeves for the next round.

But while he rolls up his sleeves he will also need to tighten his belt. For Matthew must continue to work part-time in radio to help him survive life in the penny-pinching world of an unfunded not-for-profit organisation.

However, it’s all worth it, he says. And the donors are starting to dig into their pockets and bank accounts to fund this massive project. The two front men, Patrick and Matthew, and their growing team of expert volunteers have shown that no other initiative has generated such excitement in Australia’s quest to address climate change or provided such a practical, scientifically-based solution to transition Australia to a zero carbon economy.

“The growing wave of support is at times overwhelming. Every week, our in-boxes are filled with messages of support and requests to join the Beyond Zero Emissions team and address climate change, so we wonder if the average Aussie knows just how strong this force of grassroots action is becoming,” said Matthew.

At Woodford they will be able to spread the word even further and, hopefully, attract some strong support. This time, it’s Patrick’s turn to deliver the message. He will be telling many Queenslanders that while their state might be leading the world on carbon emissions per capita at the present time, all of that could be reversed within a decade.

And that will be an easy job compared to his tough task of overseeing the growing team of pro bono engineers and scientists now involved with BZE. But neither of this dynamic duo ever really switch off message. Matt uses his previous experience and skills from working in the provision of financial information and news to corporates, energy and commodity markets, banks and other financial institutions, to lead the development of further ZCA plans across a range of priority areas.

Their diligence and brilliance has resulted in plaudits and encouragement across the spectrum. The various launches around the nation of the first part of the Zero Carbon Australia 2020 plan has drawn packed audiences over the past several months.

These launches have not only seen Australians turn out in their thousands, but have also featured endorsements from politicians as diverse as the past Premier of NSW Bob Carr, independent MP Senator Nick Xenophon, Australian Greens deputy leader Senator Christine Milne, and Federal Shadow Minister for Communications, Malcolm Turnbull.

In Brisbane, the forum of speakers even included Queensland Premier Anna Bligh, who recommended the plan. However, she did turn up late, leave early and gave a plug for the coal industry while she was at it.

But the attention given to BZE is not just from within Australia’s shores. There has been considerable international interest shown such as from luminaries at the International Energy Agency and the director of the Atmosphere/Energy Program at Stanford University, USA.

At home, there has been a welter of encouragement including that from leading conservationist and former Australian of the Year, Tim Flannery, who described the plan as “an ambitious, technically feasible plan that should be looked at seriously”.

The Woodford Greenhouse crew and hundreds of festivalgoers are looking forward to Patrick’s sessions.

“We at the Greenhouse are enormously excited and feel honoured to host this young, resourceful visionary from Beyond Zero Emissions to our festival. His team’s cutting-edge research is inspiring and fills us with optimism and hope that a carbon-free future is truly possible,” said Greenhouse programmer and coordinator Jillian Rossiter.

“At last, Australia has an energy plan that demonstrates that renewables CAN provide baseload power; so no longer are there valid arguments for mining our farmland for fossil fuels or nuclear energy power plants.

“Let society lead our governments towards the Transition!”

Patrick Hearps will be at the Woodford Folk Festival Greenhouse venue on Wednesday, December 29 at 4.30pm, Thursday, December, 30 at 4pm for his BZE sessions, Friday, December 31 at 2pm with ‘Green Mythbusters and at 4pm with ‘Green Innovators’.

To learn more or donate visit Beyond Zero Emissions.

Life on this planet has run from solar energy for eons

Even though we live in the ‘sunshine state’ and those of us in south-east Queensland have recently witnessed the impacts of leaking oil tankers, there are some that still doubt the ability of the big ball in the sky to supply clean, efficient and cheap energy. Even though those doubts make as much sense as the tightly spun marketing term, ‘clean coal’.

Below is an excerpt from Ken Hickson’s popular ABC Carbon Express (Issue 62:13 – 19 June 2009).

He interviews Ausra’s founder and chief scientific officer David Mills. Ausra designs, manufactures, installs, and operates solar thermal energy systems for customers around the world.

When people ask David Mills why he got into the solar field, he puts it this way:

“Energy is a huge problem for humankind, with an obvious solution that beams down on us every day.

The obviousness is so complete that it can be shared by many different personalities:

1. For the fastidious, solar is perfectly clean. No radiation waste dumps, oil tankers to pollute our coastlines, smog, or buried carbon dioxide ready to bubble up in an earthquake.
2. For the economists, if they can be persuaded to add total benefits properly, solar is cheaper.
3. For geeks, solar is high tech. The sun is an advanced fusion power system with the reactor at a safe distance. Think 10 square kilometre steam boilers, super sophisticated thin film PV, advanced computer control, high temperature materials science, and solar sailing space ships.
4. For power engineers, solar power with 15 hours of storage is a much better match to human activity than their beloved ‘base load’. A square less than 100 km on a side would power the US electricity sector and a future electrified vehicle sector with greater than a 95 per cent correlation between supply and demand. Ditto China and India, and of course Australia.
5. For ‘big number’ fetishists, solar is really huge. Caltech estimates that humans will only pull up a total — including all past mining — of 662 billion tons of coal out of the Earth. The thermal value of solar energy reaching the earth’s surface each year is 230 times larger than that. The sun also generates a smaller but still very large wind power resource.
6. For the insecure, solar makes us safer. No nuclear technology to divert to bombs. No energy wars over oil. No struggles for water rights (via access to solar desalination). No additions to climate change. Just make sure you wear a hat at the beach.
7. For the historians, life on this planet has run from solar energy for eons, and for futurists, solar is the key to ensuring that we and our biosphere have a satisfactory future relationship.”

Read more at the ABC Carbon website.

Australia's green future. Image: greghardwick.com.au

How many times do green groups need to shout if from the roof tops? Roof tops that could easily be covered in green, clean energy.

Clean energy and energy efficiency industries will create more than 28,000* new jobs by 2020, according to ground breaking economic modelling released today by the Clean Energy Council (CEC).

CEC Chief Executive, Matthew Warren, said the report demonstrates that renewable energy jobs are the key to Australia’s defence against ongoing global recession and the front line response to climate change.

“We have a burgeoning renewable energy industry in Australia that is ready to become an economic powerhouse when the parliament passes critical Renewable Energy Target legislation,” he said. ? ?“We now need politicians from all sides in Canberra to set aside cheap political point scoring and pass the RET bill now.”

Mr Warren said that immediate deployment of renewable energy projects has the clear support of most stakeholders and the community.

“Any political tricky manoeuvre to hold the legislation up now will simply end up being a remarkable own goal,” he said.
The report concludes that at least 50 percent of Australia’s energy will be derived from renewable sources by 2050 and this will require the creation of a new renewable energy workforce.

“This is a tremendous opportunity for employers, investors, education providers and jobseekers to reap the benefits of a green jobs revolution,” Mr Warren said.

The CEC is working with all levels of government, industry and educational institutions to make sure we get the RET legislation right and pave the way for the creation of this exciting new industry.

The report is now available for download at the clean energy council website.

*jobs – modelling does not account for jobs created under the $1.6bn Solar Flagships program nor does it include jobs created under the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS).

“WorleyParsons is planning to build the world’s largest solar thermal power plant in Australia by 2011 and is undertaking a study to find potential sites for its first 250-megawatt station, which, in theory, is sufficient to power 100,000 houses. Locations under consideration include the Pilbara in Western Australia, South Australia, Queensland and New South Wales.” Read more