Page 79 - Week 01 - Tuesday, 9 December 2008
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Members may have noticed in the appropriation bill tabled by the Treasurer this morning the sum of $250,000 for this financial year was allocated to fund the procurement of an external adviser to assist the government in the development of its solar power facility initiative. That funding will allow us to engage PricewaterhouseCoopers as the preferred provider of advice in terms of engagement with the market and the establishment of the request for proposal submission. As part of that, PricewaterhouseCoopers will engage Mr Wes Stein, who is currently the leader of the CSIRO’s National Solar Energy Centre and manager of renewable energy for the CSIRO’s division of energy technology, to assist the government in the technical aspects of the proposal.
We are working to implement what we promised to do at the last election, and this exciting project will help build Canberra’s reputation as Australia’s solar capital. The development of the request for proposal will involve the development of the necessary parameters to go to the market early next calendar year with a detailed request for proposal from private sector proponents.
The government has indicated its willingness to provide up to $30 million in assistance for the development of this solar power facility and, at the same time, we have indicated our preference to require at least power generation to the equivalent of 10,000 homes from this facility. Of course, if the scope is there to build a larger scale facility, the government will be very interested in it. Indeed, the request for proposal initiative will allow us to test the market in detail as to what they believe is capable and appropriate for the ACT. This will be a nation-leading project. If we are able to establish a sizeable facility, it will be one of great interest to those outside the territory as well as to our local community.
The funding provided in the second appropriation will allow us to request this proposal in a timely way and I look forward to reporting to the Assembly in more detail early next year on the request for proposal process and the results from that.
Mr Stanhope: I ask that all further questions be placed on the notice paper.
Papers
Mr Speaker presented the following papers:
Study trip—Report by Ms MacDonald MLA—Australasian Study of Parliament Group Annual Conference, Parliament House, Queensland, 10-12 July 2008.
ACT Legislative Assembly Secretariat—Annual Report 2007-2008—
Annual Report.
Erratum.
Standing order 191—Amendments to:
ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal Legislation Amendment Bill 2008, dated 9 September 2008.
ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal Legislation Amendment Bill 2008 (No 2), dated 4 September 2008.
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