ASSUMING the government's climate legislation gets the parliamentary green light, it promises more than just forcing large industries to pay for their carbon dioxide emissions.The plan includes a Clean Energy Finance Corporation, with about $10 billion to spend over five years on seed loans, loan guarantees and equity funding for new technologies that may not otherwise get off the ground.

There will also be $1.7 billion in unspent grants handed over to a separate new body, the Australian Renewable Energy Agency. And there will be money to improve energy efficiency, which some experts say can yield the biggest emissions cuts and financial savings in the early years.

Nano solar

It is technology that could revolutionise the solar industry and do away with bulky rooftop panels: tiny solar cells – one-millionth of a millimetre in diameter – that can be printed on surfaces such as glass, steel and plastic and used for powering homes or as part of large-scale stations.

The technology is being perfected by researchers at Melbourne University, in partnership with CSIRO, who hope they can make it commercially available in five to 10 years.

Before it can be be commercialised the efficiency of the new technology – which currently generates just half the power of standard solar panel technology- will need to be improved. The researchers are seeking a corporate partner or venture capital, potentially through the new funding bodies, to help build more panels to refine the technology.

The tiny panels are made from crystals called nanoparticles. Nano-crystal panels are suspended in a liquid such as ink and then printed onto flat surfaces. The ink dries and the panels are connected to the electricity grid.

''They could be used for either smaller-scale uses like households generation, but also large-scale power generation where you set up in a field, or somewhere in the desert, large arrays of these types of solar panels,'' said researcher Brandan MacDonald.

Mr MacDonald envisages long strips of thin metal or plastic – 75 centimetres wide and several kilometres long – painted with the panels, rolled out over vast stretches of land and hooked up to the energy grid. For households, the panels could be painted onto windows and rooftops, removing the need to install chunky solar systems.

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