Antinuclear

• “……The move to cleaner energy is now part of a strengthening global trend. According to Bloomberg New Energy Finance, new global investment in clean energy is now greater than in coal and gas. In 2004 only $US34 billion was invested in clean energy globally. In 2012 Bloomberg estimates that it was almost $270 billion.

This is all happening a good deal faster than most predictions and is being stimulated by technological innovation, multi-million dollar investment and a rapid decline in the cost of renewables.

In Australia and elsewhere, cleaner energy growth has been driven by policies including renewable energy targets, feed-in tariffs and government incentives. There is nothing new in this. Last century, providing electricity to every home and business involved direct action by governments through extensive public funding and active regulation. The largest engineering project in Australian history is still the Snowy Mountains scheme: a nation-building clean energy project driven by political optimism….. Our energy system will continue to change as clean energy costs continue to fall, and both businesses and individuals move to take control of their electricity costs.

The political debate in this federal election year will no doubt be fierce. Notwithstanding differences over the carbon price, it is heartening that both sides of politics in Australia accept the need to maintain the current national renewable energy target of achieving at least a 20 per cent share of electricity supply in Australia by 2020.

But beyond power generation, energy innovation will also involve developing a better understanding of the electricity we use in a cleaner, smarter energy system. It is a change that Australia can, and I believe will, embrace. http://www.climatespectator.com.au/commentary/focus-australias-energy-system-heats