Businesses hear of latest strategies for clean energy revolution

By Murray Silby

Mar 14, 2024

**Future focus:** CSIRO energy expert Dominic Zaal addresses businesses in Shepparton on renewable heat solutions.

As businesses around the world do their best to navigate the clean energy revolution that's already under way, regional enterprises are also facing the complexities of major change.

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On Thursday, March 14, that path may have become a little clearer for some companies thanks to a Committee For Greater Shepparton event.

It hosted an address by Dominic Zaal, the director of the Australian Solar Thermal Research Institute at the CSIRO.

Mr Zaal addressed Goulburn Valley companies on decarbonising their processed heat and how they could generate and deliver cost-effective, reliable renewable heat solutions which help meet sustainability targets.

“The transition is happening. It’s going along. You don’t have a choice. It’s going to have to happen," he said.

"Don’t feel as though there isn’t a solution because the technologies exist."

The focus of Mr Zaal's work is the likes of food manufacturers who use between 50,000 and 250,000 gigajoules of gas.

“Even today in Shepparton, talking to a whole bunch of companies, when I put up the question, I said, ‘Do you think that there are 14 to 16 hours of power available on the grid at a price cheaper than gas?’ They all said ‘no’," Mr Zaal said.

“And when I showed them and said, ‘the answer is yes, there is’, and explained how it worked, they went, ‘oh, yes, we understand that, but didn’t know that was available to us’.

“And I said, ‘well, traditionally it’s not, but because these systems don’t need to be connected to the grid 100 per cent of the time, it’s the difference.

"It is really a game-changer for them and it only works at the moment in Victoria."

The Australian Solar Thermal Research Institute has created a pilot initiative called the Renewable Heat Industrial Decarbonisation Program, which advises on what options might work for a site, the economics, the issues and how to go about making a transition.

That's included working with MARS Petcare, which has a factory in Wodonga.

Mr Zaal said MARS was working towards becoming the first major company in Australia to generate 100 per cent renewable heat by the end of 2025.

“The work MARS has done with us, it’s great to see a company that committed to the environment," Mr Zaal said.

“The challenge for companies is understanding how to align renewable resources to the way they operate.

“It’s not a technical problem; it’s just an operational issue at the moment."