WASTE and trash from a range of crops could offer farmers huge potential with the passing of new legislation on renewable energy targets (RET), Minister for Agriculture Tony Burke told parliament last week.
But while the Government talks up the RET opportunities, the Coalition lost its drive to have amendments made to the RET legislation which would have helped protect food processors from the higher cost of electricity under the new targets.
The Government and the Opposition did a deal last week to de-couple the Renewable Energy legislation from the emissions trading scheme, and pass the RET bills so efforts in that area could start immediately.
The legislation will require electricity users to get 20 per cent of their power requirements from renewable energy sources by 2020.
Mr Burke said the passing of the legislation meant there were some exciting times ahead for agriculture, particularly industries like sugar, because of opportunities in "co-generation".
Mr Burke said the Australian Sugar Milling Council looked at potential cogeneration sites up and down the sugar coast from Queensland to northern NSW.
That research found that there was now a capacity for cogeneration to provide service of electricity to the same capacity of 70 per cent of households in far north Queensland.
Mr Burke said a little further south in the Burdekin region more than 140,000 households could be serviced with their electricity supplies from these new energy sources.
It's believed agricultural crop wastes could potentially generate as much as 50,560 gigawatt hours (GWh) of renewable energy electricity.
It's a nice thought given all renewable energy currently produced in Australia is around 10,000 GWh. (One gigawatt is the equivalent of 1000 megawatts).
Meanwhile the Opposition narrowly lost on amendments it put to the RET legislation moving for lower renewable energy tariffs for food processing.
Queensland Nationals Senator, Ron Boswell, said agricultural products were among the most trade exposed in the world and any additional costs imposed on food processing could not be passed on.
Senator Boswell said as the legislation stands, agricultural processors will be hit with "the full force of electricity price rises" because they won't meet the criteria set down for emissions-intensive, trade-exposed assistance.
Senator Boswell said a Senate Committee was told by a manager at Murray Goulburn Co-operative, Robert Poole, that the RET would impose an additional $1 million in cost impacts to its members in 2010, which would compound the forecast losses among its 2,500 dairy farmer members of between $5000 and $10,000 a year under the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme.
The amendment was voted down because the definition for food processing was seen as too broad.
The Government said concerns about the food processing sector under the RET legislation should be referred to the Productivity Commission.
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