The latest edition of the Union Show highlights a key tool for job creation.
The ETU has always championed measures that create jobs, particularly now through the current downturn. A key policy that is proven to create jobs around the world is the introduction of a gross feed-in tariff. It simply pays renewable generators a premium for all electricity that they produce.
The Union Show meets Ian Levell to talk about the Global Green Electricians Training Programme.
The Union Show meets Wes Shields who takes them through a house audit, and shows us the solar system he has installed.
The Union Show speaks to Dean Mighell, Secretary of the Victorian Electrical Trades Union, about the future of the solar industry in Australia, and what the government should be doing to support it.
Job creation: REPORT LAUNCHED - The case for a national gross feed-in tariff report
On September 2, at the 2009 Shop Stewards training conference, the ETU launched Job Creation: The case for a national gross feed-in tariff report. The report, which includes economic modeling by Access Economics, reveals that over 22,000 jobs could be created nationally in the next ten years. Creating these jobs requires the Federal Government taking a simple step to encourage the installation of rooftop solar panels.
We can create over double the amount of real jobs in the renewables industry then will occur under existing policies. This includes the recently passed Renewable Energy Target legislation.
Seizing this opportunity will require a new nation-wide approach to how electricity generators are paid for the electricity they produce. Currently we have different state based schemes that only pay generators for the surplus energy they feed back into the grid. We know from international experience this will not provide adequate incentive to increase uptake, investment and employment. What is needed is a national commercial gross feed-in tariff. This would pay generators for all of the electricity they produce.
The cost of inaction is not just environmental - without action we are exporting talent and jobs. This is a great opportunity which we must seize. This issue transcends politics.
The ETU Victoria aims to spark debate on this important job creation opportunity with all relevant stakeholders.
For further information and to download a copy of the report please Click here
Power Forward Forum 2009
EPIC Industry Training Board is hosting a one-day event to engage members of the Generation, Transmission, Distribution, Rail and Renewable Energy industries to discover and discuss current issues affecting their business. Read more >>
Quotes
“I’d put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power! I hope we don’t have to wait until oil and coal run out before we tackle that.”
Thomas Edison (1931)
“No problem can be solved from the same consciousness that created it.”
Albert Einstein
Become a GGE
Find out how you can become a qualified Global Green Electrician and do your part to protect the environment now. Click here >>
