Antinuclear

Quiet optimistic lesson from Obam on renewable energy

The President is achieving through energy and defence policy, what he cannot do as climate policy…..Secretary Chu’s “SunShot initiative” will fund solar so that it provides electricity for the same cost as coal in 9 years. That means that between now and 2020, a wave of new investment in solar power will wash over the USA.

Gillard in Washington: Using energy on climate is the big story, Unleashed (Australian Broadcasting Corporation), Dan Cass, 9 March 11, Coverage of the meetings between Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard and the administration of US President Barack Obama is missing one of the biggest stories of them all.

The President is achieving through energy and defence policy, what he cannot do as climate policy.
The Labor Government should take a minute out from its carbon tax fight to learn how President Obama is losing the ‘negative’ debate about saving the climate, but he is winning the ‘positive’ debate about energy independence, security and cost.
……Secretary Chu’s “SunShot initiative” will fund solar so that it provides electricity for the same cost as coal in 9 years. That means that between now and 2020, a wave of new investment in solar power will wash over the USA. Crucially, the Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) subprogram will get it to parity with thermal storage that gives it the ability to dispatch 12 to 17 hours of “baseload” power, when the sun goes down. Forget the carbon markets and the UN, that one shift will mark the end of the age of coal.

Solar PV will reach parity in Sydney by 2019, but this will not have the “baseload” capacity to deliver large amounts of electricity at night. (Download the latest projections here)

While President Obama argues with the climate denialists in Congress, Secretary Chu is quietly using his Nobel-prize winning physics mind to micro-manage the renewable energy sector into a powerhouse. He is also overseeing a smart grid that makes ours look truly dumb……..
If Australia’s economy is to have long term resilience, it will be because we have decoupled energy prices from the volatility of gas, oil and coal markets, by building baseload renewable electricity.

If Australia’s consumers are to save money on energy, it is because they will have access to a genuinely smart grid, that will help them cut waste……

Gillard in Washington: Using energy on climate is the big story – Unleashed (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

March 10, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Uncategorized