Antinuclear

Queensland government would welcome an Elon Musk renewable energy storage project

Queensland’s door would be open to Elon Musk: Trad, The Age, Felicity Caldwell, 13 July 17, Queensland’s door would be open to billionaire Elon Musk if he wanted to talk about a project in the Sunshine State, Deputy Premier Jackie Trad said following a leaders’ roundtable featuring former US vice president and climate change activist Al Gore.

Last week, South Australia announced Mr Musk’s Tesla company as the principal builder of the world’s largest lithium ion battery to expand the state’s renewable energy supply.

Mr Musk has promised to have the SA system installed and operating within 100 days, otherwise it will be free.

Ms Trad said Queensland would say yes to Mr Musk if he wanted to turn his attention to the state once the South Australian battery was built. “The door would be absolutely open,” she said.

Would she hope Mr Musk might come knocking and set up a facility in Townsville?

“I think that would be incredibly exciting for Townsville and for Queensland as a whole,” she said.

On July 11, the Queensland government announced its plan for zero net emissions by 2050 and reducing emissions by 30 per cent on 2005 levels by 2030.  Ms Trad spoke to Fairfax Media from Melbourne, where Queensland, Victoria, South Australia and the Australian Capital Territory have signed a “leadership declaration” at a roundtable attended by Mr Gore, who narrowly lost the 2000 US presidential election……

Australia’s states and ACT have agreed to work together to meet obligations under the Paris Agreement, a zero net carbon emissions by 2050 policy and to share information on their successes.

“We want to share innovation, understanding and learning in this space so that as a nation we can move towards what we committed to do and that is to do our bit, to reduce our emissions and keep global temperatures below an increase of 2 degrees,” Ms Trad said.

“We know that this [the Paris Agreement] is a big challenge, we know this is something that Australia signed up for.

“But what we also know is that the Turnbull government has failed to show the necessary leadership for us to move in that direction.”……http://www.theage.com.au/queensland/queenslands-door-would-be-open-to-elon-musk-trad-20170713-gxaty0.html

July 14, 2017 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | energy, Queensland