Wednesday night I attended an Engineers Australia eminent speaker tour, where Dr Mark Diesendorf explained his recipe for switching off our coal power stations and achieving 100% reliable base load electricity from renewables.
Not only is it possible with current technology BUT, the real cost would be LESS than our current fossil fueled electricity.
The basic ingredients to achieving this are...
- The political will of voters and Governments to do this
- Pricing in the real costs (economic, environmental and health) of fossil fuel - ie a pollution tax on carbon
- The right mix of renewable sources including Solar, Wind and Hydro
- spread across diverse locations
- connected by the grid
- with smart controls to distribute the power
It surprised me that we don't need riskier solutions like CSG or batteries in peoples houses.
As Dr Diesendorf says...
"The principal barrier is resistance from vested interests and their supporters in the big greenhouse gas polluting industries and from an unsafe, expensive, polluting, would-be competitor to a renewable energy future, nuclear power. These powerful interests are running a campaign of renewable energy denial that is almost as fierce as the long-running campaign of climate change denial"
Read Mark's Paper & Presentation
