Victoria needs renewable energy planning (let’s kick Baillieu out)
Hot planning issue as solar left in shade, The Age November 18, 2012 Jason Dowling HOME owners are calling for solar panels to be protected with new planning rules and compensation should a neighbour build up and block sunlight to rooftops.
Victorian residents spending thousands of dollars installing solar power systems to offset escalating electricity prices now have no protection for their investment. There have been more than 142,000 roof-top solar systems installed in Victoria since 2000 – one in 15 Victorian homes now has solar panels.
The shading of solar panels as Melbourne’s housing density increases is becoming a hot planning issue.
Planning and building regulations protect north-facing windows and shading of back yards but do not specifically address the shading of solar panels…..
Stephen Ingrouille, owner of solar company Going Solar, said shading was occurring more frequently and could have a big impact on solar panels.
”The one thing they [solar panels] do need is direct sunlight and so they just have to be in full sun. And any shading, even shading over a portion of one corner of one cell can actually knock out a whole bank of cells – that’s the issue,” he said.
He said protection for solar panels through building and planning rules was needed.
http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/hot-planning-issue-as-solar-left-in-shade-20121117-29j1g.html#ixzz2ChetfaFZ
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– go to https://nuclearinformation.wordpress.com/
Antinuclear 
Completely agree, but to do this, renewable energy, we need rare earths, yet this website has continued its misguided and unscientific support if the anti lynas activist group. As an environmentalist rare earths mining and processing provides enormous benefit for very little risk.
The anti lynas groups have claimed the facility is akin to a nuclear reactor and that the whole south China sea will be polluted.
Please don’t continue your support for these eco-terrorists anti lynas. Its anti sustainability and anti green. You will have my support if you speak out against this group.
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Thank you, Lee
This website is fully aware of the need for rare earths, (and also perhaps, some sympathy for Lynas’ predicament)
The Lynas situation is very complex. AS far as I can see, Lynas went ahead in Malaysia before it had approvals, and more importantly, before it had a plan for radioactive waste disposal. That was unwise, as Lynas was going into a country that had already had an environmental disaster caused by reckless radioactive waste management from rare earths processing. (AS China had experienced, too – which is an additional reason why China has had a virtual monopoly on rare earths processing. We hope that China now manages it cleanly, but you never really know, with China).
The thing is – Lynas rare earths processing project has become seen as a precursor for things radioactive and nuclear, in Asia. And the other thing, Lynas’ rather cavalier attitude to the wastes question. These are the reasons why we support the anti – Lynas campaign.
As for rare earths – we sure do recognise the need for them, if the transition to renewable energy is to happen. However, rare earths processing does produce some radioactive wastes. The world has got to face up to this, both by managing these wastes as cleanly as possible, and by, more importantly. innovative design, so that rare earths can easily be recycled .
This website has publicised these questions. Our items can be found, by simply tapping in “recycling” into the SEARCH facility at the bottom right of the sidebar.
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