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ENTHUSIASM is a primary -- and renewable -- energy source generated by Martin Thomas, managing director of the acrcre/acrcre.html">Australian CRC for Renewable Energy.
 The centre (often known by the non-metric acronym ACRE) is based at Murdoch University and brings together nearly 30 organisations around the country engaged in a wide spectrum of research and development.
Martin Thomas, visionary and engineer, administrator and scientist, sees this group as working towards goals that are both idealistic and of great material benefit to Australians.
The idealistic path will lead Australian companies and research institutions -- already world leaders in many applications of renewable energy -- to provide electric power, possibly for millions of people in Asia, who will never have access to conventional power generation. If they did have such access, it would compound the world's alarming problems with the Greenhouse Effect, and other environmental issues.
At the practical end of the task, Martin Thomas sees the export of alternative power supply technologies, such as photovoltaic systems, wind turbines and new technology to support these, as likely to earn Australia hundreds of millions of dollars in exports.
If such products gained only one per cent of the world electricity market by, say, the end of the decade, it would be worth $300 million a year to Australia.
Mr Thomas sees the Centre as being a catalyst in moving innovation from the workshop and laboratory to the international market place.
Australian technology could find ready markets in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Brunei, Singapore and the Philippines.
He points out that Australia's impressive developments in renewable energy have been handicapped by fragmentation.
In a country in which Perth is further from Brisbane than London is from Moscow, 'the tyranny of distance' has indeed been a handicap. The Co-operative Centre will overcome this sense of isolation felt by many Australian researchers.
The Centre's early objective is to demonstrate the impressive array of new products already developed in this country. It will also provide strategic research for systems producing from 1kW to 100kW. Long term, its ambitions are nothing less than global.
Martin Thomas acknowledges that the Centre's efforts will have little impact on greenhouse gas emissions in the short term -- 'we're shooting at the possibility of reducing emissions about half a century from now.'
Practical engineer that he is, Martin Thomas points out that 'existing power stations have a life of 30 to 40 years, so no one is just going to turn them off.'
The Centre was launched last year, with a Federal Government guarantee of $15 million in funds, over seven years, a major part of its programme being to encourage the use of renewable energy.
Martin Thomas was an appropriate choice as the Centre's interim director, and now managing director.
He is particularly knowledgeable about renewable energy, and has been involved in promoting energy exports from Australia and has encouraged close co-operation between Australian groups in this field, and their counterparts in South East Asia. His enthusiasm has been directed, at among other issues, the way in which Australia has a unique set of circumstances which give it a ideal position from which to become a world leader in renewable energy.
He notes (again as the practical engineer, with a strong grasp of market realities) that the Australian market is too small to generate a strong industry in renewable energy technology.
He soberly estimates that renewable sources, setting aside hydroelectricity, might deliver 1-2 per cent of Australia's energy within our lifetimes.
However, Australia is a 'giant outdoor laboratory'; its vast, sparsely populated areas provides unparalleled opportunities to demonstrate that Australian renewable power and remote area strategies are workable.
Mr Thomas points out that the organisations participating in the Centre have a unique combination of experience which has been used to select demonstration projects with participating funding totalling about $50 million.
These will be the foundation for demonstrations in the Asia-Pacific region which could involve spending another $30 million.
He stresses that the CRC's philosophy will be integration... linking renewable energy technologies to create systems offering the greatest efficiency in specific situations. With this in mind, the Centre has created a healthy diversity among its supporting organisations.
Among the 10 core companies involved are BHP, Australia's biggest company, and small, highly-specialised firms.
See also
ACRE partners in energy research
Energetic response
Smart move to be in 'robust' renewables
Tropical technology
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