The twentieth century way of life has been made available, largely due to the miracle of cheap energy. The price of energy has been at record lows for the past century and a half.As oil becomes increasingly scarce, it is becoming obvious to everyone, that the rapid economic and industrial growth we have enjoyed for that time is not sustainable.Now, the hunt is on. For renewable sources of energy, for alternative sources of energy, for a way of life that is less dependent on cheap energy.Â
March 9, 2010 Solar Industry To Hit US $77B in 2015 Boston, United States [RenewableEnergyWorld.com] As the books close on what was a turbulent 2009 for the solar industry, Lux Research said that the solar market will soon see the lopsided supply and demand that characterized much of the last year return to equilibrium. According Continue Reading →
Fewer homes will now be insulated Australia-wide because the government has to pay to fix the bungled home insulation program, Treasurer Wayne Swan says.
The $2.45 billion program was axed following the deaths of four installers and nearly 90 house fires.
It’s to be replaced with a new and better-regulated scheme from June.
But Mr Swan has admitted the money needed to fix the axed program will come from the new scheme’s budget.
Emissions figures don’t stack up: professor
THE Rudd government ramped up the environmental benefits of its botched $2.45 billion home insulation scheme by grossly overstating the cuts in greenhouse gas emissions that could be achieved by households, expert independent analysis says.
The independent analysis undermines claims by Kevin Rudd and Environment Minister Peter Garrett that the retrofitting of insulation into 2.7 million homes would produce reductions of 49.4 million tonnes of carbon by 2020.
The Department of Climate Change – which did much of the modelling for the Rudd government – has told The Australian the claim of 49.4 million tonnes came from working out that new insulation would result in each household cutting its emissions by 1.65 tonnes a year on average.
But the benefits claimed by the government were twice the size of the benefits claimed by the two biggest beneficiaries of the insulation scheme, manufacturers CSR and Fletcher, when they were vigorously lobbying the government to fund a national rollout of insulation. Further, the benefits claimed by the government were four to five times higher than the number derived from conservative calculations by associate professor Terry Williamson, a thermal performance expert at the University of Adelaide.
Train project goes off the rails
March 11, 2010
THE NSW Government faces another transport project running into financial difficulty after a ratings agency warned of a possible funding shortfall in a contract to deliver 626 train cars to Sydney’s rail network.
Less than three weeks after the Premier, Kristina Keneally, canned the $5 billion CBD Metro, Moody’s cut the credit rating of the largest privately funded transport project in NSW history, from investment grade to junk status, due to fears of ”higher risks in its financing structure”.
The $3.6 billion contract for the next generation of Chinese-made trains was running five months late and has been further undermined by a lack of confidence in debt markets.
Moody’s said the consortium’s financing vehicle, Reliance Rail Finance, could be exposed to a potential funding gap of $357 million from early 2012 or ”higher funding costs or both” if its two guarantors went bust.
car culture Nothing will drive the suburbs away 5 by Lisa Selin Davis 4 Mar 2010 12:00 PM The news that GM will cease production of Hummers revived the brewing argument that suburbia is in fatal decline. Hummers are the perfect corollary to McMansions, symbols of excess, leftovers from the roaring aughts that now seem Continue Reading →
More reasons why NSW is failing
Unwilling to invest … Premier Kristina Keneally. Source: The Daily Telegraph
Reason #1: by Andrew Carswell and Nathan Klein BOEING, Boeing, gone. The Keneally Government’s reluctance to invest in vital industry has been blamed for the loss of another 350 specialist jobs – this time to Victoria.
Aviation giant Boeing yesterday announced it would close its Bankstown manufacturing plant and move its extensive operation to its Melbourne factory.
That state-of-the-art plant recently received $25 million in funding from the Victorian and Federal Governments.
While the majority of the Sydney workers will have ongoing employment if they relocate south, many Boeing veterans are reluctant to upset their family’s lives and move to Victoria.
Slated for 2012, the closure will bring the curtain down on 70 years of groundbreaking aerospace engineering in NSW by Boeing, with its production line generating components for Boeing 777, 737 and 747-800 aircraft.