Antinuclear

Solar power’s bright new prospects

World wakes to new dawn for solar power
The Age PADDY MANNING September 19, 2009
WHEN Lindsay Tanner says greenies are ”obsessed” with solar energy, he’s right. And it’s obvious why.Clean coal is a myth. Nuclear has radioactive waste and security issues and (read Helen Caldicott) it’s not as efficient as they say.

It would also be impossible to commission a nuclear reactor in Australia within a decade – especially near anyone’s backyard – and we haven’t got a decade to lose.Natural gas is a huge opportunity in the transition to renewables, offering quick emissions reductions compared with coal. Gas-fired power stations are a good companion to renewable energy supply, because they can be turned on quickly to make up any shortfall without a lengthy start-up. But gas won’t get us the emissions cuts we will need by 2050…………….

Solar technology has been around for decades, the resource is abundant and the costs are coming down.

How abundant? This month’s National Geographic cover story on solar power estimated that the amount of electricity that could be generated by solar photovoltaics (PV) and concentrating solar thermal (CSP) each year was roughly 40 times the world’s present electricity use. (In round figures, 745,000 terawatt hours a year of solar power is available, and the world generated 19,000 terawatt hours in 2006, mostly from fossil fuels)……………….

investment in renewable energy increased by 17 per cent between 2007 and 2008 and, despite a dip earlier this year, is climbing again.

World wakes to new dawn for solar power

September 19, 2009 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | 1, AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, climate change - global warming, energy | Australia, climate change, climate change - global warming, energy, renewable, reneweable energy