Powering Australia with solar energy
How Many Solar Panels To Power Australia Renewable Energy News 25 JANUARY, 2010 Supporters of solar power often wonder how many solar panels it would take to power Australia and if grouped together, how much land would they occupy?
We can estimate the land coverage needed thanks to a project from the Land Generator Initiative. Continue reading
Victorian govt fails to support Milldura’s solar plant
Tennis funded, solar power left hanging Green Left Ben Courtice, Melbourne23 January 2010“…..Save Solar Systems spokesperson Chris Breen said: “The Mildura solar power plant would provide jobs and real climate action, for not much more than the $363 million being directly given to upgrade the Tennis Centre. Continue reading
Australia not interested in Abu Dhabi’s solar city?
Deutsche Bank ranks Australia, which had a low-key presence at the conference, as the best place for certainty on clean energy investments
A green city arises from the desert of Abu Dhabi Matt Chambers Australian January 25, 2010 IN the most unlikely of places, what could be the world’s most expensive clean energy project is just eight months away from its first residents moving in………… Continue reading
Is nuclear energy a reasonable option for Australia?
Nuclear power and Australia John Quiggin January 21st, 2010 There’s been a bit of discussion about nuclear power lately, but it tends very much to the abstract. I thought I would look into the question of when, if ever, nuclear power might be a reasonable option for Australia to consider, and how we should go about it.
An obvious starting point is the Switkowski report commissioned by the Howard government, which I’ve uploaded here. There are three main points which allow me to provide an answer to the question, at least for the next decade or so.
(i) In the absence of a substantial carbon price nuclear power is not competitive with coal
(ii) First-of-a-kind (FOAK) nuclear plants are likely to be very expensive (above $80/MWh), not competitive with wind or gas (even with CCS)………………minimal conditions can’t be met before 2025 at the earliest.
The US, which has been attempting for a decade to restart its nuclear industries is still at the pilot stage, exploring a number of technologies, and offering to subsidise the construction of three plant designs for each major option. Most of the proposals are on existing sites, only six have reached the point of a plant actually being ordered, and none is anywhere near starting construction……..
……That suggests that Australia should forget about nuclear power entirely for at least the next five years. If things are going well for nuclear, and not so well for renewables, that would be the time to start setting up regulatory structures, looking for sites and so on. http://johnquiggin.com/index.php/archives/2010/01/21/nuclear-power-and-australia/
Interim carbon price would mean a start to action on climate change
We are under no illusions that this solution is perfect. It is clearly a third or fourth best solution. But, unlike the CPRS, there is no way it can hold back climate action.
This deadlock helps no one. The community is denied action on the climate crisis, the business community is denied the investment certainty it craves, the government looks increasingly impotent and the opposition looks like spoilers.
Interim carbon price preferable to time-wasting political stunt Christine Milne: The Australian January 22, 2010 There is a solution to this deadlock, one that Ross Garnaut suggested a year ago in his final report, Continue reading
Greens call upon Rudd to help Australia’s nuclear veterans
“We know the Australian government was complicit in these tests which saw many soldiers used as human guinea pigs..”
Time for Rudd to step in and ensure justice for Maralinga nuclear vets: Scott Ludlam 20th January 2010, The Australian Greens are dismayed by the Rudd Government’s refusal to help Australian veterans of the Maralinga atomic bomb tests of the 1950s and 60s. Continue reading
“Australia Day” celebrates shameful land grab
That these horrors began on January 26, 1788 is why many Aboriginal leaders denounce Australia Day as Invasion Day and call for the date of Australia’s national day to be changed to one that can be celebrated by all Australians.
Indigenous Peoples: 222 years of struggle for Australia’s Aboriginals Peter Robson
Green Left Online 17 Jan 2010 “………Colonisation then took the form of taking land. The land grab was justified by the doctrine of Terra Nullius, which said the native people of Australia were simply fauna, not owners of the land that colonists stole. Continue reading
Australia participated in sabotaging progressive initiatives at Copenhagen
On December 18, the international NGOs Avaaz and the Climate Action Network awarded Australia their Fossil of the Day award for “bullying Tuvalu and other small island nation states”.
Australia’s dirty role at Copenhagen Green Left Simon Butler16 January 2010 With the help of an all too submissive local media, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has crafted an image for himself as a world leader on climate change. This image took a beating at December’s Copenhagen climate change summit. Continue reading
Roxby Downs uranium mine will blow out greenhouse gases
“All of our efforts to reduce emissions, to conserve energy, will be undone by just one company, one project” The Advertiser DAVID NOONAN, 20 Jan 2010
The science of climate change demands action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2020. BHP Billiton’s proposed new open-pit mine at Roxby Downs would blow out SA’s greenhouse gas emissions by more than 12 per cent. Continue reading
Fremantle Anti Nuclear group (FANG) join international walk to the U.N.
Australian government continues to cover up radiation damage to veterans
successive governments continued to cover up the atomic test issue.
Rudd Government refuses to help Maralinga veterans sue Britain: The Courier-Mail Ian McPhedran January 20, 2010
THE Rudd Government has refused to help Australian veterans who are suing the British Government over radiation exposure during atomic bomb tests in the 1950s and 60s. Continue reading
Review- the nuclear week that has been
Australia: Climate denialists Monckton and Plimer touring Australia (wonder who’s paying for this tour?). Maralinga nuclear veterans must take their case to England. Tony Abbott calls for uranium sales to India, as India builds its nuke weapons arsenal. Australian Super decides that uranium is ethical enough. Point Lowly Action group trying to save iconic Great Australian Cuttlefish. ERA uranium shares and production fall. Govt considers airport scanning amid public ignorance on the issue.
International: Huge global renewable energy summit. France’s nuke industry embroiled in strife. Critical talks about Iran’s nukes. Germany in dilemma over mounting nuclear waste. Future very complicated for USA’s nuke industry. Colorado anti-uranium legal bid moves along. Revelations of Israel’s uranium tests on workers. Doomsday clock – slight improvement. USA – anti-uranium protest. Court action over depleted uranium in Hawaii. Protest against NASA’s radiation testing on squirrel monkeys.
Tony Abbott dancing around nuclear power
his support for nuclear options surfaces fairly regularly in media releases.
Abbott won’t rule out putting a nuclear power station on a headland near you -NORTH COAST VOICES 18 January 2010 Continue reading
Australian media, Climate Denial, and Pro Nuclear Hype
I used to think that the Australian media publicised fraudulent and anti-scientific opinions just out of a desire to have a controversy, and stir public attention to the media. I now think, alas, that it also has to do with the ignorance about science of not only the public, but also of the journalists.
Australia is now in grave danger of falling for the simplistic views of people who put up good-sounding information about very complex problems, with little regard for the scientific or economic facts.
We can now expect a year of this, with Tony Abbott in the lead position, expert in claimimg “green” credentials, while in fact furthering the interests of powerful fossil fuel and nuclear lobbies.
I would hope that climate-denialist speakers like Lord Monckton, and Ian Plimer will be met byt the media with sceptical srutiny – with those tried and tested old questions; – “Does he really make sense?, and What’s in it for him?
Beware of slick anti-science Climate Denialists
It’s a huge problem for Australian democracy and political debate in general.
Quiggin: Why I won’t debate Lord Monckton by John Quiggin Crikey 15 Jan 2010 Lord Christopher Monckton believes the hypothesis of human-caused global warming is a fraud, extended as part of a plot to destroy the world economy and establish a communist world government………… Continue reading
1 This month
of the week – Australians for War Powers Reform (AWPR)
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity
Antinuclear 