Solar power’s bright new prospects
World wakes to new dawn for solar power
The Age PADDY MANNING September 19, 2009
WHEN Lindsay Tanner says greenies are ”obsessed” with solar energy, he’s right. And it’s obvious why.Clean coal is a myth. Nuclear has radioactive waste and security issues and (read Helen Caldicott) it’s not as efficient as they say. Continue reading
Australian protest against coal
Aussie Activists Target World’s Most-Polluting Coal Plant
solve climate by Leigh Ewbank – Sep 11th, 2009Hundreds of climate activists are descending on Australia’s Latrobe Valley this weekend with a message for the owner of the most-polluting coal-fired power plant in the industrialized world: Continue reading
Staggering size of environmental problems for BHPB’s uranium mine expansion
Mega-everything: the world’s biggest open cut mine
OnLine opinion By Sandra Kanck – 24 August 2009
The expansion of the Olympic Dam mine at Roxby Downs will see environment as the biggest loser. The draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), for which public comment closed early in August 2009, has serious deficiencies. Continue reading
Renewable energy stocks rise, and Australia to pass renewables legislation
Green companies get wind in their sails
August 17, 2009
CLEAN chip stocks outperformed the S&P/ASX 200 by 7.6 per cent in the first half of this year, showing companies focused on climate change solutions are capable of earning superior returns, according to analysis from The Climate Institute.
Over three years, clean indices recorded returns 47 per cent greater than the benchmark index, according to findings from The Climate Institute study.
The analysis combined three clean technology indices; the RepuTex Carbon Leaders Index Series, the RepuTex Climate Change Index Series and Bakers Investment Groups ALTEX Australia Index and compared them with the Standard and Poors ASX 200 index.
The findings came as Climate Change Minister Penny Wong yesterday announced the Federal Government had bowed to pressure and would decouple the Renewable Energy Target Bill from the emissions trading legislation rejected in the Senate on Thursday.
The RET Bill is now widely expected to be passed this week, paving the way for more than $28 billion of investment in a clean energy sector, expected to help the economy draw 20 per cent of its electricity from renewable sources, such as wind and solar, by 2020.
Exposing nuclear hype about global warming
Nuclear instability
ON LINE opinion By Helen Caldicott, 14 August 2009
Australia seems determined to lead the way to an unstable world which could result in two very different outcomes – global warming or nuclear winter. We burn and export coal in massive amounts producing more CO2 per capita than any other country and we are about to become one of the world’s major uranium exporters. Continue reading
Australia’s carbon scheme to boost markets
Carbon scheme to boost markets
Giles Parkinson | August 10, 2009Article from: The Australian“……………..Lagging behind in renewables
WITH the federal government’s Renewable Energy Target also facing a standstill in the Senate, there are growing concerns in the local renewable energy industry that the country is being left behind.There are billions of dollars of projects currently on hold, and while the government says it wants to be a leader in renewable technologies, other countries are marching ahead.China has recently upgraded its renewable energy target from 15 per cent to 20 per cent by 2020, which will translate to around 150 gigawatts of wind power, 20GW of solar power and 30GW of biomass power.India joined the push towards solar last week, announcing plans to install 20GW of solar capacity by 2020 — its reliance on an equivalent amount of diesel-sourced power means solar will be cost-competitive — with a grand plan to lift that to 200GW of solar by 2050.
“Everyone wants to be world leader,” says Ray Wills, head of the WA Sustainable Energy Association. “Other developed and developing nations are moving aggressively to develop their lesser renewable energy resources while Australia — with the world’s best resources — is lagging behind.”
In the US, the amount produced by renewable energy sources (11.1 per cent) has overtaken that of nuclear power (10.4 per cent), according to the latest data from the US Energy Information Administration.Professor Wills notes that $US155 billion was invested directly into clean-energy companies and projects worldwide in 2008, and total transactions in the sector, including acquisitions and buyouts, were $US223 billion. Precious little of that occurred in Australia.
Australian govt’s pretense on renewable energy
Green cars and jobs are about tokenism
THE AUSTRALIAN 31 July 09 “…………………..If the government wanted real green jobs created, as opposed to make-work and training schemes, it would uncouple its proposed 20 per cent renewable energy target from the emissions trading scheme and get it passed as soon as possible.
Access Economics has calculated that measures other than the ETS, including the renewable energy target, will create 28,000 new jobs over the next decade. The only reason to link the renewable energy target with the ETS is a cynical attempt to wedge the opposition. If a greener economy is to emerge, it must be economically viable.
BHP Billiton’s Olympic Dam will cause greenhouse emissions to soar
Mining growth a greenhouse gas threat
– Adelaide Now 29 July 09July 29, 2009
SOUTH Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions will skyrocket with the expansion of the Olympic Dam copper and uranium mine if the power comes from non-renewable sources.
The Australian Conservation Foundation says the State Government must make the expansion conditional on the use of renewable energy.
“This BHP mining plan is equivalent to putting more than one million inefficient polluting cars on to the roads and keeping them there for decades to come,” said ACF climate change program manager Tony Mohr.
A spokesman for Premier Mike Rann said the greenhouse gas emissions were “a key issue for consideration” and that the Government would ask BHP Billiton to demonstrate how it would comply with relevant legislation.
Chinese energy is greener than ours
THE AUSTRALIAN 27 July 09
“………Ferguson’s government and others in the developed world are being asked to comprehend ……………They have been repeatedly warned by the International Energy Agency that, even if the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries collectively reduce their greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2030, they cannot put the world on track to achieve stablisation of carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere at 450 parts per million………….Martin Ferguson could have also cited a set of startling Chinese green power statistics in his mid-July speech to the Queensland Resources Council
By 2020 China aims to have installed 300,000MW of hydro power (equal to 80 Snowy Mountains schemes), 30,000MW of plants fuelled by agricultural waste, 1800MW of solar power and more than 50,000MW of wind farms (about four times what will be needed here to meet the Rudd renewable energy target).This will involve spending $US33billion ($40.3bn) a year on renewable energy.Everything about the Chinese effort is mindboggling. For example, it now employs 600,000 people (twice the population of Canberra) installing solar hot-water heaters in a $US2bn a year business. Its electric bicycle business is worth more than $US6bn a year.Nor are its efforts to reduce the environmental impact of its coal-burning generators to be underestimated.
Since 2005 China has required all new large power plants to use at least high-efficiency, super-critical technology and since 2007 it has shut down smaller, inefficient plants with a capacity of 14,380MW (more generation capacity than in NSW).This is allowing China to leapfrog the less efficient coal technology that is dominant in the developed world, including Australia.
Drowning island pins hopes on clean energy – CNN.com
(for more internatiomal news, go to http://www.nuclear-news.net)
(CNN) 21 July 09 — Tuvalu, the fourth smallest nation on the planet, has announced it aims to be totally powered by renewable energy sources by 2020.Located between Hawaii and Australia, the tiny Pacific nation is one of the world’s climate change hotspots and many believe it is already seeing the negative affects of rising sea levels.
The highest elevation on the island is just 4.5 meters (14.8 feet), and king tides have become increasingly damaging over the past 10 years, threatening the homes and livelihoods of its 12,000 inhabitants.
The government of Tuvalu is working with the e8, a consortium of 10 energy firms from the G8 nations that was set up after the 1992 Rio Earth Summit as a non-profit organization. The Tuvalu government estimates that it will take around $20 million in investment to reach the goal of 100 percent clean energy by 2020.
The first stage of the project has seen the roof of the country’s largest football stadium covered in solar panels, which supplies 5 percent of the electricity needed by the nation’s capital, Funafuti…………………………
“We thank those who are helping Tuvalu reduce its carbon footprint as it will strengthen our voice in upcoming international negotiations. And we look forward to the day when our nation offers an example to all — powered entirely by natural resources such as the sun and the wind,” said Kausea Natano, Tuvalu’s minister for public utilities and industries.
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