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Source:
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Herald Sun
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Author:
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Olga Galacho
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Date
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27/11/2008
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PRECISION rather than passion is what you would expect a German national to exude at an energy technology gabfest.
But Dr Bertram Ehmann, head of the 100 billion ($A200 billion) Munich-based Siemens Transformers, was positively excited about the message in his keynote address to the Clean Energy Council conference this week.
To be fair, it was more about the "power" than the "passion" . . . to twist the lyrics of one environment minister who has made a remarkable transformation from vocal greenie to inert pollie . . . thank you, Peter (Midnight Oil) Garrett.
Dr Ehmann, on the other hand, is a transformer of another type . . . he implores economies to seize opportunities in what he says is the "paradigm shift away from fossil fuels to renewable energy".
"Baseload (electricity) generation has to transform from a fossil fuel base to a sustainable energy," he told BNWin a tone reminiscent of the nerdy utility guy who stops under a transmission line to admire it in those old "We get excited about electricity" TV commercials.
"I'm passionate for Australia to contribute and become a role model for Asia . . . to add more sustainable forms of energy . . . not more coal or uranium . . . but as an exporter of electricity," Dr Ehmann said.
The notion of value-adding to commodities before exporting them is so brilliant, even I'm excited.
It goes like this . . . harness energy from wind and solar resources, convert it into electricity using existing technologies, build sub-sea cables and export the power to Asia and beyond.
And guess what? You would never have to dig up another piece of coal again, or for that matter import oil, ever.
Which is the sort of paradigm shift President-elect Barack Obama said a few days ago he wants to see in the US, much to Siemens' growing excitement.