Solar Thermal can provide energy for two billion people, just from Australia alone

This is an interview with Australian Professor David Mills. In it he state he believes he can provide energy for 2 billion Australian by developing Solar Thermal Plants
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David on the 7:30 Report
"KERRY O’BRIEN: Australia's main energy suppliers have released a study today supporting the Federal Government's expressed view that clean coal, if and when it is economically feasible, backed by nuclear power is the nation's best hope for reducing future greenhouse gas emissions. The study puts solar power and other renewables down the list. Coincidentally, Australia's leading solar power innovator leaves the country tomorrow because big American investors want to put his technology to far greater use in California. Professor David Mills, a Canadian expatriate who has made Australia home and carved out a reputation here as a world pioneer in solar research, has developed solar technology that, he believes, could power Australia. The frustrated scientist believes this country can't see past its rich coal and uranium reserves and recognise that the sun is Australia's richest energy resource of all. Matt Peacock reports.

MATT PEACOCK: Solar power in NSW coal country, where Macquarie Generation’s Liddell power station is topping up its dirty coal power with this clean, green solar plant.

DAVID MILLS, CHAIRMAN, SOLAR HEAT AND POWER (2004): Eventually this field will be 135,000 square metres. At the moment it is 1 per cent of that size and what will happen is that sunlight on a clear day like this strikes those mirrors and is gathered up onto the tower, and there is an absorber underneath that tower. In that absorber there are steam pipes and water and water is simply boiled there and that steam is drawn off and taken to the application. In this case, the application will be spliced into the power station that already exists.

MATT PEACOCK: Professor David Mills is a world leader in solar research and his company, Solar Heat and Power, has no doubt about the potential of this plant.

DAVID MILLS: Our solar technology can probably run the biggest size turbines today of any solar technology.

MATT PEACOCK: So what you are saying is that you could power Sydney?

DAVID MILLS: Yes, we could power Sydney, but we can power Australia on it.

MATT PEACOCK: But a study released today by the Energy Supply Association of Australia's CEO, Brad Page, rates clean coal, nuclear and gas far ahead of solar in the race to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

BRAD PAGE, ENERGY SUPPLY ASSOC OF AUSTRALIA: Solar and wind remain relatively low on the list because we don't see that their cost is going to come down to competitive levels.

DAVID MILLS: We've never been in contact with them about this technology. But what I will say is that when we look at our situation in the United States for a coal plant built in the United States, and the building of such a plant would not be significantly different in cost than in Australia, our construction cost for a large plant would come within the range of present coal plants - not in the mid range, but we don't have fuel costs.

MATT PEACOCK: Today, like a string of other Australian solar researchers before him, David Mills is packing his bags to move overseas.

DAVID MILLS: For 30 years, I've been trying to develop a solar industry in Australia. So I think that's a good effort. I've given it a good go. I'm happy, because I think the planet needs this technology. It's not just Australia that needs this technology.

MATT PEACOCK: Mills and his company headquarters are moving to California, the world's seventh-largest economy, where in a biapartisan move Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has vowed to cut greenhouse emissions by a massive 80 per cent over the next 45 years. Now the race is on.

ARNOLD SCWARZENEGGER: Our goal is we have to roll it back to the 1990 level. We can do that.

PROF STEPHEN SCHNEIDER, CLIMATE SCIENTIST, STANFORD UNIVERSITY: California is at the moment leading the world in terms of its commitment to reduce greenhouse gases. There is also a lot of people here and a lot of money. There is a lot of sunshine. There is a lot of wind, and as a result of that there is going to be a lot of experimentation to see who comes out the cheapest and the safest and the fastest."

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