Solar Thermal Now

A Carbon Tax

2010-07-19T19:12:00.000-07:00

Australia and the world needs a carbon tax and the money from this providing green cheques to the community and towards the growth of renewable energy.

THE WAY TO GO

2010-05-10T18:45:00.000-07:00

On many many occasions those who have insisted that there is an inextricable link between nuclear power and nuclear weaponry and that this is a serious thing have never gotten the publicity they deserve. All the time trust; trust that no state will use their resources to achieve nuclear weaponry by stealth. is all we have between those who haven’t got the bomb yet. and trust is all we have between those who have. There is no other deterrent than trust and the love we have for the human species and indeed for all of life on earth. Unfortunately brought down by evolution we have in our genes and used by ideologies the desire for disastrous confrontation to resolve problems. Spare plutonium and fissionable unaccountable material floating around the world is not a good mix in this situation. But sixty-eight tones of plutonium destined to be for weaponry has had a strop placed on it both by Russia and the United States. That’s only the accounted amount. More is floating around and it’s this stray unaccountable amount, together with yet unprocessed fissionable material, which causes greatest concern. There are still countries that are nuclear weapon states that will not sign up to the NPT and there are countries that want nuclear technology and we in Australia have a pro-nuclear lobby gaining strength believing that nuclear technology is the answer to global warming. There will be lots of countries in the world and through Asia developing nuclear reactors and some of them will want to have nuclear weaponry and the more nuclear material floats around the world the greater the chance of disaster. Nuclear reactors are very safe and there would have to be multiple things to go wrong for present generation reactors to melt down. I am a ‘not in my back yard’ person though even so. To sum this up:
1 We don’t have the genes as a result of evolution and as a result of ideology encouragement to resist using nuclear weaponry to resolve confrontations.
2 More nuclear material floating around as a result of civil projects means a greater risk of disaster through states wanting a nuclear weapons program too.
3 There is only one way to mitigate against this and that is to encourage the use renewable energy and not go anymore into nuclear energy.
4 Solar thermal with storage, wind, wave, and geothermal are just some of the many renewable energy systems to produce base power and all the power we need.

AREVA AQUIRES 100% OF AUSRA

2010-03-08T21:06:00.001-08:00

This sounds a wonderful step forward for CSP but I can’t help being cynical about it. What happens when a big fish swallows a small fish? The big fish remains and grows even bigger but the small one is gone forever and the big fish can continue doing what it was always doing i.e. eating the small fry. Companies all over the world are eating the smaller companies and getting even bigger dominating the market, dictating the price and closing down that which they deem not to be viable. It would be easy to engineer it this way for CSP and other renewables.

World Wide Tax For The Polluters

2010-02-10T17:09:00.000-08:00

Tony Abbott the leader of the opposition in Australia has joined Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in paying the polluters. His idea is that everyone will be paying much much less to reduce carbon in his direct action approach but he is still paying polluters to continue polluting. We all know that to reduce carbon we will have to pay to do it. It certainly is not going to happen by itself. In my opinion there’s only one way to do it that will work. A universal carbon tax all over the world directed at those that pollute. If you pollute you pay, and if you pollute more you pay more. This tax can’t be traded or sold in any way but is administered by a worldwide authority (to be decided) and this tax money is given to those who do not pollute i.e. the renewable power generation sector. This of course is very severe and is a double whammy for the polluters because they will be paying for the renewable sector to grow and this stick approach will also push them into stopping their own pollution. They (the polluters) will eventually morph into the renewable sector. And it has to be a universal tax being simpler to administer and each country will have the same conditions.

Copenhagan Was a Failure

2010-01-27T15:56:00.000-08:00

Yes it was. Well if you really wanted to see the results that should have happened. Will that happen in a years time when the next conference occurs? I think we will not see the result the earth needs. But who cares? Skeptics say the earth is cooling. But cooling is just as serious. Greatly affected parts of the earth will wipe out population anyway. Veritical farms using city skyscrapers are touted as being a way of producing food and there are many unused sky scrapers in all cities but they will need lots of energy especially in cool or frozen environment. And so we get back to the energy question. Renewable energy will be of utmost importance to keep the ship sailing. Mining coal,uranium, and oil will be all that much harder in a frozen environment and will therefore become prohibitively expensive. Wind blows almost continuously in polar regions. It probaly will do the same when the earth is frozen over large parts of it and wind generation will be one of the main power sources.We had better get on greatly increasing renewable energy NOW and not wait if what's has happened in the Northern Hemisphere this last twelve months is any guide.

PAID TO POLLUTE

2009-11-28T02:54:00.001-08:00

If you pollute you get paid and if you pollute more you get paid more. That’s the policy of the Rudd government now and it’s the policy all over the world. Who pays for this? Those who don’t have the money to pay, and don’t have the money to lobby and buy government and therefore democracy- if you are in some sort of a so-called democracy. And if you are in a totalitarian nation state you can’t even try and buy it! Democracy is not for all, even in a democracy, but its very much better having at least some democracy in a democratic state and if you are of the majority, and the majority in Australia is 70% who believe that global warming is real and is happening at ever increasing rates and will threaten our very existence soon, then you would want to do something about it now!! No you can’t! At least you can’t do all that’s necessary to save the planet. And you wont be able to channel enough money into the right areas. You haven’t got the money to do that even if you are of the majority because the Pondsi schemed financial sector has ensured that they will be paid for the pollution they’ve created, the crash of the economy they’ve created and the threat to the environment they’ve made and go on business as usual continuing the lie and hoodwinking you. But the environment is not silly even if we are. We are basically environmentally, economically and ethically bankrupt.The environment has limits and we are seeing those limits right in front of us as we smash into the world’s finite resources. Like it or not we are going to have to change immediately!! Otherwise we will keep on smashing into the environmental limits and we will be bounced back each time. None of the proposed options to reduce CO2 emissions by the polluters will work in any effective way because to do so will close their businesses. The polluters will probably control the Copenhagen meeting in December and make promises and perhaps listen to the poorest and most affected nations. That’s likely all that will happen. Effective emissions reduction means a total cut in emissions now!! The anthropogenic triggered rise in CO2 has tipped the fine balance between positive and negative feedbacks of this planet resulting in a summed positive warming effect rising exponentially. This is a disastrous situation to be in. Disastrous global warming will now happen certainly at least in our grandchildren’s lifetime or possibly sooner instead of playing out over the millennia. We need to understand that the planet is a heat sink gradually absorbing heat from the sun hence the rise in temperature as result of positive feedback. We can’t say the planet is cooling because of local temperature decrease. Or warming because of an increase in local temperature but we can say it is warming because we see more extremes of weather everywhere. And we all know about the polar icecaps melting. An analogy would be to see convection currents becoming more vigorous as more heat is applied to a pot of water on the stove eventually resulting in boiling. Already just a half-degree sea temperature rise has caused fish to migrate out of their usual areas to other areas. This is both good and bad as we are now seeing fish we never have seen before resulting in the collapse of some fishing industries. Overfishing and pollution has exacerbated it. More warming and hence more vigorous convection currents in sea and air –well you know the result. There now is a never-ending list of environmental degradation and collapse that could be cited. Carbon capture and storage for the coal industry, with all its other pollutants, will never work on a global scale and certainly the amount of money being spent to realise this is far too small and it will never happen. Nuclear power has its inextricable connection to nuclear weapons and is very costly. The pebble bed nuclear power system has not been proven for global scale and still involves transport of uranium with its inherent dangers and has more waste to deal with. The only way forward is to dump the model we have, understand how we are interconnected with the environment and all its ecologies and build an economy based entirely on the environment. We can use immediately already proven technologies for the energy sector using the environment for energy production and using it in a way that doesn’t destroy it and us, as we are part of the environment. We have taken a long time to learn and as an example we have built and are still building large-scale hydroelectric schemes but they have tended to destroy the environment at best and at worst destroyed it entirely and with it also peoples livelihoods. We need to know how to not do it that way. It’s hard to see how future projects of damming rivers to produce hydropower could help the environment. So we need to concentrate on technologies that impose little or no degradation and are not dangerous to human, and environmental health or security. Large-scale wind farms spread throughout the country in uninhabited areas or out at sea away from sight an analysis has shown will provide base power if connected to a grid over a sufficiently large area as at any one time there will always be a third of them producing base power 24/7. Tide and wave power together with direct absorption of photons from the only safe nuclear reactor we have-the sun in solar thermal installations with storage will provide the rest of needed base power. Solar thermal installations can be sited in desert areas. There’s plenty of desert in China, the Middle East, North Africa, Australia, America. And only relatively very small areas would be required and connection to where the power is needed by High Voltage Direct Current transmission lines which loose less power typically 3%. The present push for carbon capture and storage system of credits, it would be better to have a carbon tax all over the world where carbon taxes can’t be bought. This tax could then be put into financing renewable power systems. Worldwide cooperation will be needed. The Copenhagen talks should work along these lines.

DID GLOBAL WARMING DO THIS?

2009-11-16T18:15:00.000-08:00

A few days ago Sydney received the worst dust storm in history. Of course Sydney has had many dust storms over many years as has most of Australia, but this one was THE WORST for Sydney. In my opinion global warming could be the genesis of more of these to come. After all the world’s weather is doing strange things nowadays resulting in horrendous destruction more often than usual, and even more extreme events could occur in future, and not too far down the track at that. It blew many many tones of top soil and fertility away but for this dust storm, what is of concern also is the fact that this dust came from dust in the heart of Australia where uranium mining is active, in particular Olympic Dam. A mine which is intended to be increased in size to a hole three kilometres wide, four kilometres long and one kilometre deep. True, the radioactive dust was diluted in the mix, but it spread out all over the Eastern States and even as far as New Zealand. With greater intensity and frequency of extreme weather events expected as global warming occurs it would not be too difficult to imagine, that we may be entering a time when carcinogenic certainties manifest themselves in the same way as we have seen in the asbestos scenario, as we will be receiving more radio activity than we would have normally from background radiation, this dust once driven deep into the lungs could cause 20-100 times more problems. And it only takes a minute particle size of plutonium to cause cancer once in the lungs as specks of plutonium are still lying around from the Maralinga atomic tests in the 50’s and we also have rare earth metals associated with uranium and all tailings from mines release radon gas. With the new scenario emerging this time all of Australia’s population will be at risk, which will have even greater consequences. And this of course will happen anywhere in the world where this scenario occurs. It must be added to the list of reasons why we must not go down the nuclear path and why we must adopt the very sound reasons of producing our power from renewable sources.

A global Warming Shock

2009-02-09T20:04:00.000-08:00

The unprecedented bushfires in Southeastern Australia being Australia’s worst natural disaster and the floods in northern Australia in Queensland has shocked Australia. Fire fronts from Warnabool in the west to the Alps in the east and traveling at speeds of 120km/hour consuming and flattening and killing everything in its path. A wild fire of gigantic proportions left the landscape bare just like a nuclear holocaust. To date 181 people have died and will likely grow to more than 300, hundreds of others injured, 4000 homeless and 750 homes destroyed. At the same time at one stage 60% of Queensland was under water or affected by floods having had 2 meters of rain in about 5 days. All over the world extremes of weather are now happening. Is this a result of global warming? We only know that as time goes by more extremes of weather will occur and they will be even worse! Thousands of scientists discredit global warming at least that which is triggered or generated by man saying the earth is warming anyhow and some say it is cooling and we humans have had nothing to do with it. No matter which way you look at it, it is warming and we know that we have to do as much as we can to retard the process. We still have a small window of opportunity to do so, ten years at the most. If we all as global citizens understand better how nature works and have a better understanding of science, biology, geology and physics of the earth, we will understand that we need to look after the big fish, the large animals, the large old growth forest trees, as well as the understory, the macro as well as the micro in order for the earths ecologies to survive and we will know how we fit in and how dangerously close we are to extinction. We actually can’t live without intact ecologies! Also importantly we will have a greater chance to reverse the direction of global warming. It will quickly come upon us that we have to change our ways drastically. To do so needs massive education worldwide. The only mass worldwide educational tool is the Internet. Think for instance how those who cut down forests in third world villages to replace them for palm oil production or whatever, if they had a computer connected to the internet, they could learn how to earn a living without cutting the forests down or continuing in destructive ways and to protect the environment as well. In Australia our government is still pandering to the fossil fuel industry providing billions of dollars to it whilst leaving the renewable industries to almost fend for themselves saying that the fossil fuel industries provide the jobs and therefore have to be helped. This pandering has to stop. Our government like many governments in the world today are plowing massive funds providing an economic stimulus with the intention of preventing global economic collapse. It has been suggested that a small part of the 42 billion package in Australia be directed towards the funds needed to rebuild all that has been destroyed by the recent bushfires. This should be at least 2 billion. But it is also plainly evident that in view of global warming massive funds need to be directed to the renewable industries and to mass education worldwide. Understanding the physics of this planet and the implementation of renewable industries is where our future jobs will be and this is where the economy will be on a secure footing taking the environment into the economic equation. This is where global warming will safely be reduced and eventually stopped and where we will ultimately arrest those massive bushfires and disastrous floods and extremes of weather and where our food supply will be secured.

Commit to New Technologies

2009-02-01T18:41:00.000-08:00

This planet is on a course for massive global warming. It is difficult to see if anything will arrest this as not only do we have global warming we also have world economic problems. But there is a way to help both. Global warming has to be considered the only issue, as we will not have an economy if we do not stem global warming. Presently politicians and business do not understand how serious it is. On the technical front we have the know how to produce 100% of our power needs from renewable sources. When the true cost of the market system is seen in terms of environmental degradation as it is at present only then will we be in a position to understand how to run our economy in a manner that will also help the environment. Today our market system is still based on the theory that there is no biophysical limit to growth of the market system. We are still in the age of trying to find new environmental horizons and plundering expectant wealth those horizons might reveal and plundering what we already have. There is no possible way to grow our economy using the old system. That’s why it’s imperative we change our ways now and one of the ways to help is to inject massive funds into renewable energy. It is a sunrise (excuse the pun) pursuit. It will provide much needed jobs and grow the economy in an environmentally responsible manner. Similar economic management has been done in many times of recession or depression e.g. the building of the railway system although back then there was no understanding of environmental issues and purely economic gain were to be had. We have that environmental understanding now, be it very limited, and we can now move ahead with the environment in mind. “Dramatic immediate commitment to nurturing new technologies is essential to averting disastrous global warming” –Jeffrey Sachs director of the Earth Institute Columbia University.

ENERGY OPTIONS IN THE WAR WE HVE TO WIN

2008-03-27T17:15:00.000-07:00

If we can spend billions of dollars on wars in this world, we can spend just as much on global warming because we have to win this war!

Here are some of the things happening in Australia towards the war. It’s not much at all but worldwide it will have to be!

http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2007/s2197789.htm

http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2007/s2196083.htm

http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/2008/03/13/2187801.htm

Due to a serious health condition I will be unable to post to this site for several months. Hopefully it won’t be too long and I will post again. In the meantime look at this site and the links I have provided, they will lead you to new pathways in renewable energy that perhaps you have not seen before. Please continue commenting.

It's Happening and Growing

2008-02-24T20:41:00.000-08:00

Proponents of nuclear power will always cite figures that are taken from old renewable energy data to boost their argument in favor of nuclear power as to how much more viable nuclear power is suppose to be and proponents of renewables often don’t take notice of the latest in nuclear power but there are some very fundamental differences in the two that make renewables much more attractive. Meanwhile there are many economists who say that we can do it by using renewables without negatively damaging the economy. Prof. Ross Garnaut is one of those [1]. So the renewable industry in Australia like elsewhere is just getting on with it [2] [3].

[1] http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2008/s2168338.htm

[2] http://www.worldwatch.org/node/5625

[3] http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,23238663-5006301,00.html?from=public_rss

Helping the planet to cool itself down.

2008-02-03T17:03:00.000-08:00

This planet was on course to cool down towards another ice age but it’s not. Why? Because of human intervention. We have tipped the balance and set the course for our extinction by burning fossil fuels and disrupting the normal ecological processes. The only thing I criticize Lovelock on is his idea that nuclear energy will save us. His idea of the planet being regulated by life forces should not be ignored however. Every indicator that the earth is warming up fast can be seen by faster than predicted rises in sea level, CO2, and temperature. Still everything that can be done should be done to try and stem or slow down it and new ways to do it must be given serious money. Solar thermal power is going ahead and we expect big things from this. But there are other ways of doing things and they don’t happened to be nuclear. A huge amount of research is going on to find new ways and some success is coming through. New ways to produce hydrogen [1] storing sun and wind energy [2] harnessing wave power [3]. It’s this last thing that’s as important as any because if we are going to use the planet to help it cool down, like James Lovelock says we need to, then we need those scientists on that front, take seriously his idea of using the planet itself to do it. Due to global warming the normal regulatory mode of the oceans keeping the planet cool is breaking down. The top layer of ocean is clear and devoid of algae and nutrients that would otherwise regulate the atmosphere because this warm water stays on top not mixing with lower layers. His idea is to use an enormous number of tubes vertically about 100 meters long and 10meters diameter with a valve on the bottom and as the waves pass over them this has pumping action bringing cold water from below. Or next big thrust must be in wave technology not only in producing power and desalinated water but cooling the planet down as well.

[1] http://www.news.com/Producing-hydrogen-with-water-and-a-little-metal/2100-11392_3-6184879.html?part=rss&tag=2038-12_3-0&subj=news

[2] http://www.news.com/Storing-sun-and-wind-power/2100-13840_3-6221396.html?part=rss&tag=2038-12_3-0&subj=news

[3] http://www.news.com/2100-13840_3-6223220.html?part=rss&tag=2038-12_3-0&subj=news

TREV an Electric Vehicle for Cities

2008-01-27T20:09:00.001-08:00

The arguement as to whether electric vehicles will be mainstream will go on for a long time yet. It depends on just how you express the problem and what figures you include and what you don't and the same applies for using bio- fuels or doing anything else for that matter. Meanwhile manufacturers are just getting on with it and using the best technology available knowing that there will be a market in a sunrise industry ( no pun intended) which will enable them to get to the next stage and what doesn't come up to scratch of course will fall by the wayside. An example is the TREV which I think has a bright future.

clipped from www.product-reviews.net

Trev which stands for The Renewable Energy Vehicle has been designed by a bunch of students in South Australia. These university students describe this car as the possible future for Australian cities, thanks to some impressive figures. Trev will go from 0 to 100kph in about 10 seconds, and will reach a top speed of 120 km/h; TRev will have a range of about 150km until you need to re-charge again.

To give you an idea of how cheap the car is to run, just $1 AUD will see you to at least 100km. The reason why you get so far so little money is due to Trev’s design, the wheels are made from low-mass allow along with low rolling resistance tires. The body is made from foam, fiberglass and acrylic, with an aluminum honeycomb chassis, all of these materials helps to keep weight down.

Trev is a two-seater, so you as the driver will have room for just one passenger and not much else.

Visit Trev

Khosla and the Electric Car

2008-01-20T17:04:00.001-08:00

We rely on scientists and companies like Khosla Ventures to bring battery costs down so that the electric vehicle can be in the majority. Khosla doesn't seem too confident yet. But there are many types of batteries like the fuel cell running on hydrogen that could well be the way we go. It remains then for companies like Ausra to complete the picture and the motor industry would then be carbon free from hydrogen produced from solar thermal power plants. Luckily Ausra (another Khosla interest) are building large scale power plants now based on much more mature technology.

clipped from gristmill.grist.org

Search Gristmill

Search Gristmill using Grist's improved search.

I am open and hopeful, especially longer term, on serial plug-in hybrids (a point I'll address in Part III). Price still remains a major issue. Even for serial hybrids, the ability to keep cost, or at least monthly payments, close to that of a regular ICE (internal combustion engine) car is unclear. Maybe another blogger with knowledge of practical automotive costs can detail the likely trajectory of serial hybrid costs (say, with a typical 40-mile "battery range"), as this remains the critical question.

I believe that battery costs will decline and performance increases will continue, but my review of the technology suggests that the upside with known chemistries is limited to maybe 2-4x change in cost per kwh of capacity -- a significant improvement to be sure, but not nearly enough to change the hybrid or plug-in hybrid cost dynamic.

The Concepts of James Lovelock

2008-01-13T21:30:00.000-08:00

Dr. James Lovelock: “There is no sensible alternative to nuclear power if we are to sustain civilization.” - James Lovelock, preeminent world leader in the development of environmental consciousness. Since 1974, Lovelock has been a Fellow of the Royal Society. Since 1994, he has been an Honorary Visiting Fellow of Green College, University of Oxford. New Scientist described him as “one of the great thinkers of our time. The London Observer has called him, “one of the environmental movement’s most influential figures.” Prospect magazine named Dr. Lovelock in September 2005, “one of the world’s top 100 global public intellectuals. But in fact he just about tries to demolish every renewable energy source as of little benefit in tackling global warming! His response to nuclear waste. “I have offered in public to accept all the high-level waste produced in a year from a nuclear power station for deposit on my small plot of land it would occupy a space about a cubic metre in size and fit safely in a concrete pit, and I would use the heat from its decaying radioactive elements to heat my home. It would be a waste not to use it. More important, it would be no danger to me, my family or the wildlife.” This of course would be a stunt as universal disposal in this manner. For one thing we would end up with nuclear material of a strength or activity much higher than background radiation all over the place, a rather irresponsible thing to do. Lovelock does not appear to have perception that the nuclear industry will never ever be a safe one as the world is entrenched in crazy ideologies and to disperse material such as this even in a limited way will play into the hands of the black market even more than what is happening now. Granted we are in dire need to produce clean energy but there is an even greater need to produce this energy without creating an apocalypse that can easily destroy us long before global warming does.

There are 27000 nuclear weapons 70 times more powerful in the world today than those dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima and of those 27000, 4000 are set on hair trigger alert to explode at a few minutes notice from threat or perceived or through accident or malfunction or by decision of the machine. There is no safe nuclear waste storage anywhere in the world and there is no properly managed inventory and probably will never be, to account for spent and waist products or nuclear fuel itself. There are many buyers out there to buy black market nuclear fuel and there were 650 cases of smuggling nuclear fuel in the last ten years. Thanks to the internet diffusion of knowledge a good PhD student could make a crude nuclear weapon in the backyard in two or three years.

No ethical code for scientists exists. Too many scientists have nuclear knowledge and not containing it and putting it up to the highest bidder and making money out of it. Scientists must think of the end result of their work. And not just say I’m a computer scientist or I’m a nuclear scientist or an environmentalist etc. And despite it being true that the world is bathed in low level radiation both from within and from our nearest safe nuclear reactor, the sun, it is not a legitimate reason to use this to deaden the understanding of just how tremendously dangerous the nuclear path is. A huge amount of capital is invested in the armament industry and hundreds of thousands of jobs are directly involved in it and we are all involved in some way or other and it will become worse if we take Lovelock’s approach. And he states, “I believe nuclear power is the only source of energy that will satisfy our demands and yet not be a hazard to Gaia (Planet Earth) and interfere with its capacity to sustain a comfortable climate and atmospheric composition This is mainly because nuclear reactions are millions of times more energetic than chemical reactions. The most energy available from a chemical reaction, such as burning carbon in oxygen, is about nine kilowatt hours per kilogram. The nuclear fusion of hydrogen atoms to form helium gives several million times as much, and the energy from splitting uranium is greater still.” He cites Biomass, writing, “Bio fuels are especially dangerous because it is too easy to grow them as a replacement for fossil fuel they will then demand an area of land or ocean far larger than Gaia can afford… We have already taken more than half of the productive land to grow food for ourselves. How can we expect Gaia to manage the Earth if we try to take the rest of the land for fuel production. Just imagine that we tried to power our present civilization on crops grown specifically for fuel, such as coppice woodland, fields of oilseed rape, and so on. These are the ‘bio fuels’, the much-applauded renewable energy source…We would need the land area of several Earths just to grow the bio fuel.” This I do agree on! And we could also damage even further our health and not only the planet’s health. Presented by National Geographic, Strange Days on Planet Earth, reveals intriguing new discoveries about the health of our fragile planet which in turn affects our health e.g. dust blown from one continent causing asthma and many other strange things happening in a far removed country. He also tries to demolish all natural energy flows as being worthless not noting that the whole annual energy requirement of the world in sunlight falls in just two days over the area of Australia alone and that economies of scale will kick in with all the technologies used. Or that new solar cells are many times more efficient than the older generations of them and also many times less expensive e.g. slither solar cells and distributed on every roof are a very sensible way to produce extra power. And he appears to be uninformed about the potential of solar thermal energy with storage as it is now. His fossilized concepts of a past century appear to not allow him to understand that energy wise we do not need to continue in the same way as we have done in the past.

Renewable Energy Best Way to Cut Emissions

2007-12-28T15:48:00.001-08:00

Ultimately it is the only way.

clipped from sustainablog.org

A report commissioned by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) says that renewable energy is making a difference in the fight against global warming and that we need more of it. In fact, renewable energy is the best way to cut carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.

So how to do we keep this momentum going? While renewable energy may have moved from an “alternative” source into mainstream use, Mohamed El Ashry, head of the global policy network REN21 that produced the report with the WorldWatch Institute, said that policymakers can do more:

Unlike the promises of future technologies like “cleaner” coal or mainstream carbon sequestration, renewable energy is the best option to mitigate global warming because it is here, now, and making an impact. The UNEP reports that the costs of renewable energy will continue to decline and that the clean energy sector is an avenue to economic development, energy security, local environmental benefits, and a global warming solution.

Climate Change Prophets Condemned by the Pope

2007-12-20T23:28:00.000-08:00

The Pope condemned climate change prophets of doom but he says that to combat climate change nuclear power must be used?? And he warned them that any solutions to global warming must be based on firm evidence and not on dubious ideology. He is the leader of more than a billion Roman Catholics and he said that fears over man-made emissions melting the ice caps and causing a wave of unprecedented disasters were nothing more than scare-mongering. He thought that some concerns may be valid but that the international community must base its policies on science and not dogma of the environmentalist movement..

The 80-year-old Pope said the world needed to care for the environment but not to the point where the welfare of animals and plants was given a greater priority than that of mankind.

Does the Pope not know or understand that extinction of plants and animals is happening on a massive scale and largely as a result of human activities and increased over many years by the teachings in the bible go forth and populate the world and have dominion over plants and animals? Does he also not understand that it is the very plants and animals-the biosphere right down to the extremely important micro flora, fauna, viruses, bacteria, plankton etc supporting them, and constituting the largest amount of life on this planet, singularly strengthening a synergism are actually more important than all humans and without them we would all be dead no matter what ideology or faith we have. We come last in the scheme of things! We have to look after them totally! And that means looking after the environment totally! The total environment is the currency of our priority. Without it we have none. And to rely on nuclear power as the only future major power source saving the planet shows little or no understanding of the immense power of natural energy sources. It also shows little regard for the fact that the nuclear industry can never be a safe one because of the world’s entrenchment in crazy and dubious ideologies and we are in dire need to branch out on a safe power source devoid of either nuclear or fossil fuel with science as the currency. It is of great concern that a man is such a position leading the world of so many people will by his very pronouncements increase the chances of an apocalypse.

Hot Rock Power for Adelaide

2007-12-15T20:56:00.001-08:00

No doubt it could be done by wave or solar thermal power too. But anything that's not powered by fossil fuel is a winner.

clipped from www.smh.com.au

An exploration company has been granted a licence to search for
a source of geothermal power in the Adelaide suburbs.

Torrens Energy Ltd has been granted a licence to establish heat
flows over the Port Adelaide region, in Adelaide's north-west.

If successful the company could tap into a source of clean
energy that could boost Adelaide's electricity supplies and provide
power for a future desalination plant.

The Tindo Bus

2007-12-15T20:15:00.001-08:00

Great to see! I'm sure it wont be long before completely solar powered buses will be seen in most cities of the world. If Adelaide can do it so can any city.

clipped from www.ubergizmo.com

Australia will play host to the first solar-powered electric bus in the world, with Tindo leading the charge in Adelaide, Australia. 100% powered by solar energy thanks to a BP Solar-sourced photovoltaic station, this green ride can ferry up to 42 passengers at once - without forking out a single cent. According to the Adelaide City Council, "The solar electric bus and the recharging system at the Adelaide Central Bus Station represent a significant investment by the Adelaide City Council into a sustainable future for the City of Adelaide, while providing leadership in sustainable public transport options for cities around Australia." When will we see such buses roaming the streets of US?

Energy Options to Tackle Global Warming

2007-12-10T21:50:00.000-08:00

The question as to how we combat global warming on the energy front given that nuclear energy is not an option for several reasons and the Rudd government is relying heavily on “clean coal” and sequestration, which is only on the drawing board as yet and may not be proven for 15 years-we don’t have that sort of time so our transitional time for gas fired power plants will have to be very short. And biofuels are not a good idea due to global warming causing unreliable weather conditions failing the parent crop and biofuels causing food shortages as well. Notions of renewable energy being somewhere in the mix as a niche or damaging the economy has been shown to be very wrong it remains that renewable energy our insurance is going to play a very much more important role than we ever dreamed of. Thoughts of renewable energy always come with wind generators foremost in the public’s mind with lots more spread around the country and in distribution together with flow batteries can level out peaks and provide some medium power. But Australia in particular has abundant other sources of renewable energy. The sun’s energy falling on Australia in one day is equal to half the total annual energy required by the whole world and can be tapped by solar towers [1] or PV cells [8] or concentrated solar thermal stations with storage enabling it alone to provide base power production for all of Australia [2] and in America with Australian know how is now in the commercialization phase [3] and will provide power at equal to or cheaper than fossil fueled power. Pity the Howard government caused those scientists to go off shore. They should be here now doing it and we selling it to the world! Solar thermal stations work well in desert areas [1] [3] [7] and we have plenty of that as has the Middle East and China. Solar thermal power in conjunction with geothermal power [4] using HVDC transmission lines [3] [7] which in themselves tend to stabilize transmission, could provide large amounts of base medium or peak power on demand. Wave energy and tide [5] in the demonstration phase and touted to be able to provide 10 times more than Australia uses and as Australian cities are in the main spread around the coast could easily provide that power and the system inherently producing high pressure sea water for desalination as well. All of the above can provide power to produce hydrogen for motor vehicles with fuel cells but in the lab are new ways to do it directly from sunlight water and ceramics and there are new ways to store it. If given the political will the hydrogen economy would soon be here. And in the commercialization phase slither solar cells [6] at least four times cheaper than conventional cells and much more efficient should be on every roof. The Rudd government has promised it will very greatly increase spending on renewables. They will have to be kept up to it and do even MORE on this front than they have promised.
[1] http://www.enviromission.com.au/
[2] http://www.trec.net.au/
[3] http://www.ausra.com/
[4] http://www.aussiehotrocks.com/
[5] http://www.ceto.com.au/home.php
[6] http://www.originenergy.com.au/1160/Solar-manufacturing-facility-SLIVER-plant
[7] http://www.trec-uk.org.uk/index.htm
[8] http://www.solarsystems.com.au/

LET’S EMBRACE THE NEW RENEWABLE ECONOMY

2007-12-03T21:34:00.000-08:00

Now that Kevin Rudd has signed Kyoto Australia will have to abide by the targets set for CO2 which may go up very quickly as time goes by and will be penalized if it doesn’t meet those targets. It’s a pity the previous Australian government under Howard caused many scientists to go overseas as we would now be in a better position to meets those targets. A major energy source e.g. utility scale solar thermal with storage which produces large amounts of power on a reliable bases is being utilized and catching on fast in USA, Spain and Germany. Australia with its vast amount of renewable energy in the form of natural flows will now have to buy back the expertise to realize this asset in order to have something similar here. Clean coal and nuclear are not an option and are only touted by those fossilized in a previous century with vested interests in them and in complete denial of the soon cheaper power by the renewables. "If you want to get a lot of megawatts on the grid, solar thermal is the best, scalable technology available," said Bob Fishman, Ausra's chief executive officer and Ralph Cavanagh, of the Natural Resources Defense Council said he's pleased to see the recent attention on solar thermal plants. "They're a very good idea for California, and they're also a really good idea for the world," said Cavanagh, director of the environmental group's energy program. "This is one of the scalable solutions that can make a big difference."
There’s no getting away with the fact that natural flows of renewable energies are able to proved all the world's power. And another example; tide and wave power. The CETO project in western Australia and wave technology demonstration at Port Kembla show that in just wave alone, wave power can provide all Australia’s power ten times over! There is only one sensible way to tackle the climate crisis-not by fossil fuel or nuclear but by renewable technologies that will provide the new economy and wealth for all Australians.

A New Hope For Renewables

2007-11-26T22:08:00.000-08:00

What a great day to see John Howard and the Liberal Party out of office and John Howard loosing his seat!!!

Now at last there is great hope we should see renewable energy going down the path it should have gone at least 30 years ago, being seriously taken as THE major alternative to coal and nuclear power with gas being only a backup-if at all. We all know a liberal government would have secured the nuclear industry and renewables would have only become a niche market at best. We need to put the case to the politicians that renewable energy is the way to go and leave the coal in the ground-and also the uranium. Right now of course they (Labor Party) have no perception of this and the liberals don't even want to know. The first thing to do is to show that renewable energy can provide all power simply because as any renewable energy scientist knows, there is enough free energy there to provide ALL the world with power indefinitely and we are getting better at extracting it and transmitting it to the people. And we need to continue doing this full bore because it's the safest strategically and environmentally, and is economically the best way.

In taking this road all renewable options should be put on the table as opponents will always argue that there is not enough capacity to provide reliable base power 24/7 e.g. wind or solar photo voltaic, solar thermal or even wave power and therefore requiring coal or nuclear to provide base power and that all the eggs should not be put into one basket-just so long as coal and nuclear have the most eggs and baskets! The argument usually centres on one renewable source completely forgetting that renewable energy is wide spread and is available from many sources and combined is continuous. And the public needs to know that in Australia alone there are many companies involved in renewable energy, perhaps several score, and many have their parent companies overseas but that we in Australia should be home to them and our scientists should be brought back.

Renewable Energy-The Safe Way Forward

2007-11-18T21:45:00.001-08:00

The planet is not going to wait and it doesn't care about our costs or economies. We have to stop emitting CO2 immediately! This is a war and it means turning off fossil fuel produced power now! This leads governments to increase nuclear power but we can more easily and safely plow money into renewable energy eg wave,tide,wind with storage, concentrated solar thermal with storage, solar photo voltaic with storage, and not forgetting geothermal from the only safe nuclear reactor the sun. Every country can tap into renewable energy. Many countries can tap into a number of them. There's enough power there to supply the whole world with power for ever. Pity we went down the wrong road with fossil fuel and nuclear. Nuclear is not safe because the world is entrenched in crazy ideologies and nuclear reactors have shown not to operate reliably in a warming climate and we all know what fossil fuel is doing to our planet. Had we gone down the renewable energy path 50 years ago we would have been able to produce all our energy this way including power for motor vehicles. It's not too late-yet. It just means we have to have the political will and get stuck into it. It can be done. Scientists know renewable energy (apart from hydro) can supply base power and is doing it in many parts of the world be it in only a minor way yet. But the nuclear and fossil fuel industries don't know and don't want to know. It's time they unfossilized themselves and came into the 21st century!

clipped from www.cosmosmagazine.com

In a panorama of the evidence, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) declared Saturday that the impact of global warming could be "abrupt or irreversible" and no country would be spared.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon appealed to political leaders to push for "a real breakthrough" at a key conference running on the Indonesian island of Bali from December 3 to 14. "We cannot afford to leave Bali without such a breakthrough," he said, branding climate change as the "defining challenge of our age."

There Is No Silver Bullet

2007-10-25T00:32:00.001-07:00

There Is no silver bullet but a shotgun approach of renewable energy would have considerable affect. It's not that Kyoto does nothing but we need to make the switch and go full bore into renewable energies from natural flows. It's time to take really seriously that we HAVE TO stop CO2 entering the atmosphere from our activities. I think world renown scientists such as these two should be listened to.

clipped from www.theaustralian.news.com.au

"Time to ditch Kyoto," British social scientist Gwyn Prins of the London School of Economics and leading climate change researcher Steve Rayner of Oxford University, who holds dual US-British citizenship, wrote in the journal Nature.

Governments should view global warming as a strategic challenge, like the US drive to put a man on the moon in 1969 or to help Europe recover after World War Two, and move away from Kyoto-style caps on greenhouse gas emissions, they said.

"Investment in energy research and development should be placed on a wartime footing," the experts wrote of efforts to create clean energy such as wind and solar power.

Renewable Power is the Only Way!

2007-10-22T17:42:00.001-07:00

Renewable energy will in fact be cheaper than any other power source and it will get there first.

clipped from www.theage.com.au

"If you ask me whether we'll ever have nuclear energy in
Australia, I have to say that if clean coal turns out to be a
cheaper alternative then we may never build a nuclear power station
in Australia," Mr Turnbull said.

The Case For Renewables

2007-10-18T23:17:00.000-07:00

This planet is saying to us we have to produce base power without carbon and do it now!!! There is a way. Use natural flows. We have the know-how and technology to provide all our energy needs using solar and wind with integrated storage of the energy. In the case of solar using photo voltaic cells, storage can done by using flow batteries, and in the case of solar thermal it can be done thermo chemically, and in the case of wind also flow battery storage can be used. Base power for industry can be achieved 24/7 this way. Wind and photo voltaic cells also have the advantage of distribution so distribution of these adds to the capacity factor and or can allow for less storage requirement. In some countries geothermal energy can provide large amounts of power 24/7 and tidal and wave flows are possible in many countries. Combinations of all of these could provide for an extremely reliable power supply. Doing anything else e.g. building nuclear power stations or developing “clean coal” or CO2 geosequestration is wasting time and will in the long run result in more CO2 in the atmosphere and in the case of nuclear, is only continuing what should be wound down as a dangerous technology, not only because of it’s inherent safety requirements but because the world will never have a safe nuclear industry because the world is entrenched in crazy ideologies. And it can’t provide power without carbon because of the progression of the fuel from mining through to refining transport and disposal. The biggest uranium mine in the world Olympic Dam will be expanded to become the deepest and largest hole in the world emitting carbon on a grand scale! And carbon will be produced in construction and decommissioning. There is only one way to go to satisfy zero carbon now; it’s by using natural flows of renewable energy. For any success for renewable energy in the commercial world to happen it has to provide base power for industry 24/7. Storage of the sun’s energy together with competitive prices to the consumer is the key to this. We are at the crossroads of this happening now with employment of cheap construction materials, zero input energy cost and the utilization of already mature technologies and large-scale setups enabling solar power to enter the commercialization stage. See http://www.ausra.com/ and http://www.trec-uk.org.uk/index.htm but no nuclear or fossil fuel power will be able to provide cheap clean and safe power in time to address the impending crisis in global warming caused by the human species. Only renewable energy from natural flows will do that. Lets get on with it!!

Don't Vote For the Howard Government!

2007-10-15T19:26:00.000-07:00

More than ever before we need a safe power source to power this world. The latest report by the CSIRO and The Bureau of Meteorology in Australia that we have come to the threshold where global warming is going to go out of control demonstrates clearly that we must move immediately from CO2 polluting power production to non-CO2 power production. The only way to do this is to shut down all the fossil fuel burning industries. That’s a mad thing to do you say. I don’t think so given the fact that within the life of our present generation this may easily happen from disastrous weather changes. No food production will shut down anything!! It probably will not be quite that bad but pretty close to it. And now we have the Vatican, James Lovelock, Hans Blix and Green Peace and many other environmentalists advocating nuclear power to help prevent global warming. They don’t cite however nuclear proliferation and the fact that we will never have a safe nuclear industry because the world is entrenched in crazy ideologies or the huge amounts of CO2 to mine uranium, transport and refine it (Olympic Dam the largest hole in the world and uranium mine will produce millions of tons of CO2) or the CO2 produced in building nuclear power stations and their decommissioning. John Howard our prime minister has announced that elections will be held on November 24^th. and nuclear power will not be on the agenda. But the Howard government will if it’s returned with the nuclear issue now tucked presently away bring that up to full bore. Basically the Australian Greens Party has the only published political policy to deal with the CO2 threat. The Labor Party has not said what it will do but has intimated that they have a number of renewable energy strategies. There is only one way to go. Don’t vote for the Howard Government!

It's the Storage System Too

2007-10-04T23:34:00.000-07:00

To all those who think that solar thermal power or in fact any renewable power employing natural flows will still have limited 24/7 base power output- there are a number of storage options already in existence. A star performer in these is the disassociation of ammonia closed loop system. This enables power to be produced 24/7 even in the wintertime from a summer sun without any power loss from storage at ambient temperatures! Correct scaling with input, load and time enables this as with any storage system. And there is an explosion of promising technologies being developed. It’s worth keeping in mind that the mount of the sun’s energy falling on Australia in one day is equal to all the world’s requirements for 6 months 24/7. And wind, tidal and wave are equally of large scale and can be stored actually surprisingly cheaply. An explanation of the ammonia storage system is at, http://engnet.anu.edu.au/DEresearch/solarthermal/high_temp/thermochem/index.php

Renewable Energy Will Get There First

2007-10-04T18:50:00.001-07:00

This is the way we will go and it's likely to be sooner than expected because economies of scale and new technologies are already attracting investment such that power prices from renewable energy will be equal to or cheaper than either coal or nuclear without any subsidy. Take a look at http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2007/s2047734.htm
and http://sst.pennnet.com/display_article/307597/5/ARTCL/none/none/Wall-Street-analyst:-Take-long-view-on-solar-PV/?dcmp=WaferNEWS

clipped from votegreenpassiton.wordpress.com

”Don’t let people tell you we can’t keep the lights on without nuclear,” says Shawn-Patrick Stensil of Greenpeace Canada. “We have the know-how and clean energy potential to build a modern energy system founded on renewable energy.”

Solar Thermal is a Major Alternative Power

2007-09-24T23:44:00.001-07:00

If we are going to meet the targets set to reduce global warming safely we must build large solar thermal stations now!.

clipped from digg.com

The stigma of solar only as one of many solutions needed to satisfy our energy needs may not be true. David Mills, chairman and chief scientific officer of solar company Ausra, presented a paper at the International Solar Energy Society conference saying that solar thermal plants could indeed solve all of our energy problems.

We Can Have Solar Thermal Now

2007-09-21T22:15:00.001-07:00

Peter, I think it’s about time you state that renewable energy is able to supply 24/7 power at base load for industry. Every time you mention solar and renewables you virtually never mention solar thermal power. And when you have mentioned it you certainly have never said that solar thermal power (CSP) is different from solar photovoltaic power in that it is a system incorporating the storage of the sun’s energy enabling 24/7 base power for industry. Many systems of storage are available and turn out to be rather cheap to do. Mills, Khosla and associates are building the first utility scale power plants in the USA supplying power for 10 cents/ KWH now and all America’s power is touted to be able to be supplied by solar power alone! And Europe, Africa, the Middle East and China are on the agenda for this power system using High Voltage DC transmission lines. Australia has abundant renewable energy and solar thermal power is a must for Australia. Why have you not informed the completely unaware Australian public that solar thermal power is able to supply base load, medium and peak power 24/7 and this can and should be done here in Australia now?

clipped from www.theage.com.au

A wide range of renewable energy sources could form part of
Australia's future energy supplies under a Labor government,
opposition environment spokesman Peter Garrett says.

2007-09-12T22:28:00.000-07:00

There is too much reliance on the idea that nuclear power is the only way forward for base load power for industry and it is ridiculous that it should even be considered for a desal plant in South Australia when there are other ways much less expensive to provide the energy needed such as wind generation which could have vanadium redox battery storage for 24/7 power output and wave and solar thermal power. Apart from the obvious safely concerns and its cost nuclear power must be ruled out of the question.

2007-08-30T20:26:00.001-07:00

How can we have an informed debate and vote on the issue when a great deal of information is deliberately hidden? The public knows that there is nuclear power, fossil fuel power, and then there are the renewables. But the thrust about renewables is that they can’t provide base power for industry 24/7. This is entirely incorrect.

Nuclear power stations will not be a reliable power source in a warming global climate Dave Lochbaum of the Union of Concerned Scientists' nuclear safety project director said. "The industry can't use global warming as a justification for building more plants without papering over the fact that they don't do well in extremely hot weather.” We also have to cite the very obvious that we will never have a safe nuclear industry because we live in a world entrenched in crazy ideologies. We are in dire need to have safe cheap power sources and reduce global warming as well and only renewables will in the end do that. We should understand and be aware that renewable power sources can be the alternative to nuclear power despite what the pro nuclear lobby says. We are at the crossroads of that happening now.

2007-07-23T21:30:00.000-07:00

The debate as to whether there is global warming due to human influence is over. The hard evidence that warming is taking place in the last few years not correlating to the sun’s activity as it had in the past but correlating to increased fossil fuel burning e.g. as in China and India as an example, is proof enough for any business. That is the reason why business is insuring itself as much as possible and taking onboard all possible actions to ameliorate the problem and keep in business. Risk management is not scare tactics and is normal rational behavior. One of the ways to do it is to embrace renewable energy power production but to date this has not resulted in a concerted effort in that direction simply because government and big business has been fossilized in a previous century and has the belief that coal and nuclear will be and will have to be used as major sources to provide jobs and wealth. And the belief there has not been a breakthrough and probably will not be for quite some time that renewables will displace coal and nuclear as major sources of power is as result of that fossilization. It is not a question of whether there is a breakthrough in technology that will displace fossil fuel and nuclear as major sources. It is because of a lack of awareness that renewables can do it and in fact we are at the crossroads of that happening now.

There has been a breakthrough in renewable energy base power production! I refer to solar thermal power using a cheap flat mirror system and storage by the disassociation of ammonia in an endothermic reactor then stored at ambient temperature and used at any later time even during wintertime the sun's energy is not lost being chemically locked up. Then reapplied to an exothermic reactor heat is produced at about 500 degrees to provide steam for power generation. This closed loop system enables 24/7 base power production for industry and it also is able to provide medium or peak power on demand. Not only that the storage system is easy to do and cheap and is based on mature technology and enables the sun’s energy to be stored any length of time without loss so that the energy can be extracted in the wintertime if necessary or any time in the future! No other storage system can do this and it is a real breakthrough. A gigawatt plant is right now being built in America financed by venture capitalist Vinod Khosla who says that solar thermal power is poised for explosive growth because of it’s low costs together with Australian scientist Dr David Mills who had to leave Australia because of our government’s unfavorable policies. We could have had this happening in Australia if our government had been receptive. There is certainly no need to have nuclear power here! And in Europe a TRANS-CSP report commissioned by the German government calculates that solar thermal power is likely to become one of the cheapest sources of power including the cost of transmission. Not producing any carbon and it does not have safety issues it’s easy to see why. This is the power that needs to be, and can be sent to third world counties and the rest of Europe via High Voltage Direct Current Transmission lines from solar thermal plants in North African deserts or the Middle East with only 3% loss in transmission. In fact the whole world could use this as a major power source as there are many deserts around. The potential for it to power the world cleanly and safely and reduce greenhouse gasses at the same time is a real bonus. And it is being done now. Lets get on with it and continue! A general understanding and awareness of solar thermal power (CSP) can be seen on http://www.trec-uk.org.uk/index.htm and http://www.trec.net.au/ and understanding of the storage system in schematic form can be seen at http://engnet.anu.edu.au/DEresearch/solarthermal/high_temp/thermochem/index.php

2007-07-01T22:33:00.001-07:00

There has been an unbelievable lack of action on the renewable energy front from Labor, the Greens and the environmental movement in Australia. It’s action that should be at least as strong as John Howard’s push for nuclear power in Australia. The labor Party although endorsing uranium mining has not shown what they would do as an alternative to nuclear power apparently relying on “clean” coal technology as the major energy source and the Greens voice is snuffed out. Little drive from any of these groups has been shown publicly as to what would be a clear major alternative source of power. And John Howard’s government relies on lack of public knowledge and understanding about renewable power and indeed also hides the real truth about it in bolstering their nuclear and fossil fuel policies. Of course why would they want to do otherwise? And why would they want to announce a breakthrough in renewable energy production that enables base load power with grunt for industry when that announcement would challenge the nuclear and fossil fuel industries? Keep it quiet, throw in confusion and doubt and withdraw funding is their renewable energy policy. Much of this is as a result of fossilized ideas from another century backed up by big business and industry that nuclear and fossil fuel power will be the major sources and will have to be in order for jobs growth and prosperity to occur and that renewables is not capable of it and therefore will have an insignificant effect. Indeed the opposite will be true. There has been a big breakthrough in the renewable energy field that does enable it to provide base load power with grunt for industry and in doing so will provide future growth jobs and prosperity. Using mature proven technology and well understood science and applying it to solar thermal power have brought this about. I refer to the use of cheap simple flat mirrors system in the collection area of concentrated solar thermal power sites and the disassociation of ammonia for the storage of the sun’s energy which turns out to be a simple and cheap thing to do and first demonstrated in May 2002. This closed loop storage system locking up chemically the sun’s energy is efficient and does not loose energy over any period of time either by storage or use and enables 24/7 base power production with grunt for industry or readily medium or peak power on demand in a stand-alone situation not relying on any back up from fossil fuel! This means also that the sun’s energy can be stored for use in the wintertime or for any extended period of time. No other concentrated solar thermal power storage system is able to do this. An explanation of this system is shown on the ANU website and has been developed by Australian scientist Dr David Mills who had to leave Australia due to our government’s unfavorable political policies and join forces in USA with venture capitalist and founder of Sun Microsystems Vinod Khosla in order to build a gigawatt solar thermal power station based on these technologies. And they intend to do this within one year! Renewable energy does not produce CO2 and therefore does not have that burden and the energy is freely delivered. These facts together with the cheap flat mirrors and the ammonia storage system will enable economies of scale plummeting prices to cheaper than nuclear or fossil fuel power. This is when the crunch will come for these industries. Any venture capitalist putting money in the renewable energy industry will be on a sure winner. Based on these technologies a collection area 50kmx50km if it’s in one block but could be in smaller blocks in Australia is enough to provide all of Australia’s energy needs including the production of hydrogen, which is part of the process for motor vehicles. In fact there are plans to provide the whole world’s major power from CSP and using high voltage direct current transmission lines that have only 3% loss.

2007-06-16T21:32:00.000-07:00

I cannot believe that both the Greens, Labor and the Australian environmental movement can not show that there are alternatives to both nuclear and fossil fuel power which will not produce CO2 or send our economy bankrupt and would enable it to function and which can be used in many countries of the world including China. Solar thermal power is the simple but effective technique of concentrating sunlight with mirrors to create heat and then using the heat to raise steam to drive turbines and generators, just like a conventional power station. Solar heat can be stored in melted salts and in the splitting of ammonia and then recombining it and this turns out to be a very easy and cheap way so that generation of electricity will continue at night and on cloudy days and no additional fossil fuel burning is required. This storage method allows for variable output for peak, medium and base power production on demand.
Far from being inefficient, and a negative for the economy solar thermal power (CSP) has huge potential to supply the world with a major way to produce clean electricity, jobs and wealth. It has been calculated that, if it was covered with CSP plants, an area of hot desert measuring 254 km x 254 km—which is less than 1% of the area of deserts around the world—would generate as much electricity as the world currently consumes. If used in Australia alone and area 50KM square in desert areas would supply all of Australia’s energy requirements. And it is feasible and economic to transmit solar electricity over long distances using highly-efficient 'HVDC' transmission lines. 90% of the world's population could be supplied from this source.
US venture capitalist Vinod Khosla of Sun Microsystems says that CSP is poised for explosive growth because of its low costs. In part this has been brought about by the use of simple cheap flat mirrors and the ammonia storage method developed by Australian scientist Dr David Mills. The 'TRANS-CSP' report, commissioned by the German government, calculates that CSP is likely to become one of the cheapest sources of electricity in Europe, including the cost of transmission. Information about CSP can be found at www.trec-uk.org.uk and www.trec.net.au

2007-04-05T21:25:00.000-07:00

Wind, wave and solar renewable energy options to reducing CO2 emissions actually are more efficient and cheaper than fossil fuel or nuclear power simply because they don’t produce any carbon at all! That the Australian government’s insistence that coal and nuclear are the only ones that will be provide base power grunt is totally flawed. And that to wait for another fifteen or more years to research, develop, build and have resultant proof that geosequestration actually works or to build nuclear reactors that will increase nuclear proliferation and terrorism targets, a legacy for our children, will drive us to our peril with irreversible climate change. Vast amounts of energy from the sun alone in one day falling on Australia is enough to provide half the whole world’s annual energy. And the other renewable sources like wind, wave, tidal, and geothermal are equally large. Using the sun alone, an area 50kmx50km in the desert areas of Australia would supply all of Australia’s power including base power for industry and the free energy will be delivered forever. And this is not counting geothermal power or the new five times cheaper slither solar cells with a pay back of four years are just as affective in cloud as they are in sun and should be on every roof.There are also solar cells being made of new plastic materials which are many times cheaper. Many ways are now possible to store the sun’s energy enabling 24/7 base power production! Even distributed wind generators using vanadium redox batteries along Australia’s grid system from north Queensland to east of Adelaide will provide base power. All systems are based on mature proven technology and are in operation in many parts of the world. And there are many ways to provide renewable base power production in very cold cloud covered and windless climates as well as in hot sunny climates like the solar heat pump electrical generation system, the bi-directional solar tower, to low boiling point fluids for any low level heat source. Politicians and business people fossilized in a past century do not realize the potential, the power and wealth that can be had from clean free renewable energy. Renewable energy our greatest and cleanest resource is where jobs for Australians will be and we must move immediately in this direction. The oceanographer Dr Tony Haymet asks for innovators. Well for innovators, there’s certainly plenty of scope here.