The House of Representatives’ Industry and Resources Committee announced in May that it would continue its inquiry into the development of Australia’s non-fossil fuel energy industry, with a new study into solar, wave tidal, geothermal, wind and hydrogen power.
Then late last week, the committee said it would expand the study to include bio-energy, which involves converting organic matter into energy.
It will look the current status-quo of each sector and then determine the future prospects for economically viable electricity generation, storage and transmission.
Committee chairman Geoff Prosser said they had recently been reminded of the importance of bio-energy, which is an source of stationary base-load renewable power generation overseas.
“Following representations made by the bio-energy sector, and with the encouragement of the Minister for Resources [Ian Macfarlane], the committee has decided to expand the terms of reference for its renewable case study to also examine the bio-energy sector,” he said.
Various organic materials, or biomass, may be used to generate energy including agricultural crops, forestry and food industry residues, municipal solid wastes and residues from the agricultural industry.
Biomass may be converted into bio-energy using a variety of technologies.
Companies and individuals can make written submissions by Friday, June 29.
