Delegates at the Central Highland Agribusiness Forum’s Bioenergy Expo in Ballarat, Victoria were told that other countries had set timelines for replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy, including bioenergy. Source: Weekly Times Now
Bipartisan political support for bioenergy in Australia is needed to drive development according to Lismore forester Andrew Lang.
Lang said the state of Upper Austria under a coalition government had a target to produce all its electricity and space heating from renewable energy by 2030.
“They are already at 30% – 15% from hydro, 15% from biomass.
“We need to get bipartisan activity,” he said. “We need to get more people going overseas from local government.
“We need to get off our backsides and start developing the mature areas of waste to energy and biomass to energy.”
He said bioenergy developments did not have to be on a large scale.
Despite recent bioenergy staff cuts in the Victorian Department of Primary Industries, Lang said there were about 600 people in the Victorian Bioenergy Network.
“So things are really starting to roll, it’s a very exciting time, local government is the driver.
“I think empowering local government is probably the way to go.”
