A group of regional councils, universities as well as mining, engineering, renewable energy and engineering companies are stepping up the pressure on the state government to invest in solar power.
A group of regional councils, universities as well as mining, engineering, renewable energy and engineering companies are stepping up the pressure on the state government to invest in solar power.
They have formed a regional solar alliance to push for a significant increase in the use of solar power in WA.
The group have launched a vision "The Sunniest State, the Solar State" calling for the state government to adopt a policy of having a five per cent of all the state's energy supplied by solar power by 2020.
The alliance believes such a policy will deliver thousands of jobs in regional WA, secure private investment in the state's energy infrastructure and put WA at the forefront of clean, renewable solar energy.
"Because of our location, Australia has one of the greatest solar resources in the world and WA has the highest sunshine hours of all the states," said Alliance spokesman and managing director of Mid West Energy Richard Harris.
"A target of generating five per cent of our energy supply from the sun by 2020 is completely achievable with the right support from Government and a commitment from industry."
Perenjori Shire CEO Stan Scott said the Wheatbelt, Goldfields and Pilbara regions were especially suited to large-scale solar projects.
"Given our fantastic solar resource, we have the potential in regional WA to produce reliable, clean power that supplies mining projects, farms, businesses and homes," Mr Scott said.
"We implore the WA Government to support this opportunity by setting a target of five per cent on top of the existing 20 per cent renewable energy target."
Mr Harris said a five per cent solar target would deliver over 1000MW of large scale solar power by 2020 and reduce WA's greenhouse emissions by 38 million tonnes compared to a business as usual scenario.
"From an energy policy perspective, increasing the use of solar power in WA is a no brainer" Mr Harris said.
Dr Trevor Pryor, academic chair of Energy Studies at Murdoch University, said that the technology behind large scale solar power has developed considerably in the last decade thanks to supportive policies in countries such as Spain and Germany.
"Large scale photovoltaic and concentrating solar thermal power systems have been constructed and are operating on electricity grids in Europe and the USA. As a result, costs are reducing, reliability is improving, and systems are delivering significant amounts of renewable electricity into mainstream power systems," Dr Pryor said.
"It is sensible, from an energy security point of view alone, to have an increasing proportion of power on the grid supplied by large scale solar to insure against price rises and supply disruptions for fossil fuels, and this becomes even more so if you include a carbon price into the equation."
