Life on this planet has run from solar energy for eons

Even though we live in the ‘sunshine state’ and those of us in south-east Queensland have recently witnessed the impacts of leaking oil tankers, there are some that still doubt the ability of the big ball in the sky to supply clean, efficient and cheap energy. Even though those doubts make as much sense as the tightly spun marketing term, ‘clean coal’.

Below is an excerpt from Ken Hickson’s popular ABC Carbon Express (Issue 62:13 – 19 June 2009).

He interviews Ausra’s founder and chief scientific officer David Mills. Ausra designs, manufactures, installs, and operates solar thermal energy systems for customers around the world.

When people ask David Mills why he got into the solar field, he puts it this way:

“Energy is a huge problem for humankind, with an obvious solution that beams down on us every day.

The obviousness is so complete that it can be shared by many different personalities:

1. For the fastidious, solar is perfectly clean. No radiation waste dumps, oil tankers to pollute our coastlines, smog, or buried carbon dioxide ready to bubble up in an earthquake.
2. For the economists, if they can be persuaded to add total benefits properly, solar is cheaper.
3. For geeks, solar is high tech. The sun is an advanced fusion power system with the reactor at a safe distance. Think 10 square kilometre steam boilers, super sophisticated thin film PV, advanced computer control, high temperature materials science, and solar sailing space ships.
4. For power engineers, solar power with 15 hours of storage is a much better match to human activity than their beloved ‘base load’. A square less than 100 km on a side would power the US electricity sector and a future electrified vehicle sector with greater than a 95 per cent correlation between supply and demand. Ditto China and India, and of course Australia.
5. For ‘big number’ fetishists, solar is really huge. Caltech estimates that humans will only pull up a total — including all past mining — of 662 billion tons of coal out of the Earth. The thermal value of solar energy reaching the earth’s surface each year is 230 times larger than that. The sun also generates a smaller but still very large wind power resource.
6. For the insecure, solar makes us safer. No nuclear technology to divert to bombs. No energy wars over oil. No struggles for water rights (via access to solar desalination). No additions to climate change. Just make sure you wear a hat at the beach.
7. For the historians, life on this planet has run from solar energy for eons, and for futurists, solar is the key to ensuring that we and our biosphere have a satisfactory future relationship.”

Read more at the ABC Carbon website.

By Guest Writer, Lindsay Holt

When it comes to government spending, coal continues to eclipse solar and other renewables

Federal Environment and Climate Change Ministers jointly announced that there was less than 8 hours to submit solar rebate applications before they were stopped 3 weeks before schedule. Environment Minister, Peter Garrett is now clearly in the running as the most disappointing and underachieving environment minister in recent years.

The rationale for suddenly stopping the $8000 rebate was that it was so popular that the budget blew out to $700 million, which according to Garrett was four times its original commitment.

Contrast this with the government allocation of $2.4 billion of your taxes for so called “clean coal”.  So what do you get for this outlay?  By 2018 not even one commercial scale “clean coal” plant!  The reality is that “clean coal” is a big lie and an expensive excuse for keeping us stuck in the old dirty economy.

If $2.4 billion had gone into renewables instead, it would kick start a true green revolution creating new jobs and diversifying our economy.

Guest writer for Eco watch, Lindsay Holt

The Climate Change mafia that former Liberal Party advisor Guy Pearse exposed under Howard is obviously alive and well and prospering under the Rudd Government.

The Queensland Government is also keen on keeping the love affair with coal going.  In Professor Weller’s independent review of Queensland Statutory Bodies it recommended that the Queensland Government clean coal project, Zero Gen Pty Ltd “be wound up or handed over to the private sector.” Weller described the project as “highly technical if not speculative”.  The Queensland Government has refused to implement the recommendation. So what do Queensland taxpayers get for their $100 million investment – a goal to have a small scale clean coal demonstration plant operating by 2012.

Contrast this with the Western Australian State Liberal Government’s implementation of a 60 cents a kilowatt hour gross feed in tariff for renewable energy sent into the grid. Under the scheme all the solar electricity your panels generate gets paid at the higher rate of 60 cents and you purchase the balance you need at 16 cents a kilowatt hour.  The pay back is over 10 per cent and will drive WA’s green renewable industry.

It is about time we collectively told the Queensland and Federal Labor Governments to stop subsidising fossil fuels and invest in our future not our past.

From the makers of “Fargo”, “O Brother Where Art Thou” and “The Big Lebowski”.  Academy Award-winning filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen have directed a short video for The Reality Campaign dispelling the myth of clean coal with their advertisement “clean coal air freshener”. The Coen Brothers get the point across as only they can.

Australia's green future. Image: greghardwick.com.au

How many times do green groups need to shout if from the roof tops? Roof tops that could easily be covered in green, clean energy.

Clean energy and energy efficiency industries will create more than 28,000* new jobs by 2020, according to ground breaking economic modelling released today by the Clean Energy Council (CEC).

CEC Chief Executive, Matthew Warren, said the report demonstrates that renewable energy jobs are the key to Australia’s defence against ongoing global recession and the front line response to climate change.

“We have a burgeoning renewable energy industry in Australia that is ready to become an economic powerhouse when the parliament passes critical Renewable Energy Target legislation,” he said. ? ?“We now need politicians from all sides in Canberra to set aside cheap political point scoring and pass the RET bill now.”

Mr Warren said that immediate deployment of renewable energy projects has the clear support of most stakeholders and the community.

“Any political tricky manoeuvre to hold the legislation up now will simply end up being a remarkable own goal,” he said.
The report concludes that at least 50 percent of Australia’s energy will be derived from renewable sources by 2050 and this will require the creation of a new renewable energy workforce.

“This is a tremendous opportunity for employers, investors, education providers and jobseekers to reap the benefits of a green jobs revolution,” Mr Warren said.

The CEC is working with all levels of government, industry and educational institutions to make sure we get the RET legislation right and pave the way for the creation of this exciting new industry.

The report is now available for download at the clean energy council website.

*jobs – modelling does not account for jobs created under the $1.6bn Solar Flagships program nor does it include jobs created under the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS).

“WorleyParsons is planning to build the world’s largest solar thermal power plant in Australia by 2011 and is undertaking a study to find potential sites for its first 250-megawatt station, which, in theory, is sufficient to power 100,000 houses. Locations under consideration include the Pilbara in Western Australia, South Australia, Queensland and New South Wales.” Read more

Klaus Langner of Latronics

In this section we explore the stories behind the people. Whether they are running a successful sustainable business, have an esteemed academic background, or simply approach life in a way that considers the planet and the community around them; we want to share their story. In Up Close we promote the positive stories of the people that make a difference.

This month we look at Klaus Langner and his successful Caloundra business, Latronics.

In an era when we are witnessing Australia’s electronic and renewable energy manufacturing base rapidly retreating to China, here on the Sunshine Coast a local business is showing the way forward.

When considering the questions I wanted to ask, at first I was thinking about his past and where in Germany, Klaus Langner was from. After all, having lived in the German speaking part of Switzerland in the early 90′s I thought I might be able to relate to his homeland in some small way.

But, it quickly becomes obvious once we meet that Klaus is a man of the future. His blond shoulder-length hair, angular features and warm smile seems matched to the industry and coastal location he works in. His manner of speaking portrays an open-minded person who is certain of his direction in life, as well as the direction of his business.

He takes me behind the front reception area and right away I notice how open and light the place is.

“Every desk faces a window so everyone can look outside,” he points out.

No cubicles to be seen, which all too often give that familiar rabbit-warren appearance, typical of most offices. Klaus feels it is vital that everyone gets the opportunity to gaze outside towards native plants and have reflected sunlight instead of uninspiring blank walls and fluorescent lighting.

Just metres away is the electronics assembly area where a small team puts together the circuitry necessary for the range of inverters Latronics have become famous for around the country over the past 22 years. For most of us an inverter is a ‘black box’ that changes the steady currents of a battery, or photovoltaic panel, into the alternating currents we rely on for our electricity.

At Latronics it is more than just a box. Their inverters are a complex arrangement of circuit boards, put together meticulously by human hands. No machines, no automation. Klaus explains how machines are prone to errors as they simply don’t know when they are doing something wrong. The money he saves on avoiding automated mistakes goes into paying people instead.

And it’s people he truly cares about. When thinking of assembly lines and electronics, I think of impersonal factories, noise, heat in summer and cold, dark areas in winter. But this is no ordinary workplace. The work areas are quiet and clean, and in my short visit it appears Latronics is more like one big family.

Sixteen people find employment here — mainly local youth who live in the Caloundra area. It becomes obvious that Klaus’s philosophy and calmness is rubbing off on his workers as they quietly go about their business.

Family and community come first and work and money come a distant second, he explains while stretching his arms apart to emphasise the point.

“It is important we have local people, so we don’t place stress from travel on the families of our workers,” he adds.

On the way to another large assembly shed we pass ponds, built to take the over-flow from water tanks, neatly grassed lawns, compost bins, outside decked areas for workers to relax and even chickens in a small coop under a tree. As we enter the building he points to the Styrofoam collected from packing boxes, lining and insulating the tin walls.

He also proudly displays the new solar-cooker. Looking more like a satellite dish than a barbeque, it uses the sun’s heat to quickly cook your preferred plat du jour. It appears that those who dedicate a life to the renewable energy industry are always looking for ways to use the abundant free energy from our nearest star.

At Latronics they not only use the sun passively for outside cooking and inside lighting, they use it for electricity generation as well. Klaus takes me up some stairs and points to a large bank of photovoltaic panels on the shed we’ve just walked from.

Workers are on the roof of the main building installing more panels and, by the time they’re finished, there will be 21 kW of electrical energy generated courtesy of the sun. This is impressive when considering the average solar-powered house can get by with as little as 1 kW. Some of the rows of panels ingeniously slide on tracks so that whilst they pump out power in the hot midday sun, they also shield sky-lights and the people below.

As I leave I’m impressed with the entire site, the way everything is integrated and how it reflects a man who cares for the local environment, the people he employs and their combined futures.

It may at first appear like something that belongs in an ABC documentary about a futuristic European or American eco-industrial site. But it doesn’t, and the Sunshine Coast is better for it.