BCME - Autumn 2008

CONSTRUCTIVE VIEW
CLIMATE CHANGE BRINGS
OPPORTUNITY
BY PHYLLIS STYLIANOU

The building advisory service of the Royal Australian Institute of Architects has called on the Federal Government to encourage the development of new climate change products. The organisation believes this would, in turn, promote the growth of a strong local manufacturing industry while helping to reduce the country’s greenhouse gas emissions.

Archicentre managing director, Robert Caulfield, says the Rudd government has a unique opportunity to create some positive outcomes from climate change by bringing together the diverse industries needed to research and create new products to combat the effects of global warming. These include solar powered air conditioners and roofing panels or tiles bonded with a material that enables them to double as solar energy collectors.

“With over 100,000 litres of water falling on the roof of the average home and enough solar energy to power a house five times over also available, the major challenge for

implement a national solar powered air conditioning strategy.”

Caulfield says while everyone is aware of the effects of global warming, at the same time people want to be more comfortable in their homes and are installing air conditioners to combat the increasingly hot summers that result from the greenhouse effect. This not only exacerbates the problem of creating even more greenhouse gases, but places added strain on the power grid.

“There’s a logical connection between the two of them,” he says. “Energy authorities have been warning for years that the explosion of power-hungry air conditioners in Australia threatens the stability of the electrical grid during peak power demands in summer. When this demand is at its highest, potential solar energy supply is also at its highest level. This is a natural association and should be a key strategy.”

According to Caulfield, the Federal Government would need to spend $20 billion building new coal-fired power plants

‘The major challenge for federal and state governments is to fund
roof research and mass market energy and water saving products’

federal and state governments is to fund roof research and mass market energy and water saving products,” he says.

“We also believe governments should also be investing in solar powered air conditioning research to make a major contribution to Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions by diverting some of the funds being used to provide massive solar subsidies to home owners. With increasing temperatures due to climate change, Australia needs to

over the next 15 years in order to cope with the increasing demand for power.

“If you diverted five per cent of that money to research, you’d create a new industry that would produce technology we could export around the world,” he says.

Caulfield says while some research is being done in the US, the only solar powered air conditioning system in the world is a prototype installed in part of the Pentagon building.

He believes the Australian Government can play a part in bringing together the various manufacturers needed to research and develop the technology for domestic and commercial use. “We could then export the technology to the world,” he says.

Caulfield says such different areas of expertise are required to develop the new technology, it will take government leadership on the issue to bring industries such as roofing, solar panel, paint and air conditioning manufacturers together and initiate discussions on how they can work together.

He says while Archicentre has already raised these issues with the previous Federal Government, it is hopeful that the new Prime Minister will take its suggestions on board.

“We’ve put proposals to the previous Howard government and what tends to happen is we end up being involved in committees,” he says. “I think there’s a tremendous opportunity with the Rudd government. This could be one of the ideas that’s taken up. We’re hoping to take part in the Prime Minister’s Australia 2020 Summit in April, so we

can raise the case for the development of climate change technology.”

“Our energy and climate problems are a clear and present danger and all of the government funded agencies dealing with the issues of the greenhouse effect should be coming forward with a plan to develop solar powered air conditioners,” he says.