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  • Roadmap for Australia’s energy future

    By 2015, concentrating solar power will be cheaper than carbon capture and storage coal-fired power. This is very important. Power plants take a long to time to plan and build. A new power plant proposed today would be lucky to get on line by 2011. Given that few new coal-fired power plants are expected in Australia until about 2015-2020, the earliest time in which still untested carbon capture and storage might be available, so called ‘clean coal’ will be priced out of the market by cheaper solar.

    This is demonstrated in the graph at right below. At present, concentrating solar power costs somewhere beween A12-16c per kilowatthour. But this is falling by seven percent per year, making its downward price course quite rapid. Solar photovoltaics is also falling in price quite rapidly, but from a higher base. Given the slow-to-fall prices of carbon capture and storage as estimated by experts, solar will ‘cross over’ so-called ‘clean coal’ before ‘clean coal’ is even ready.
    By 2015, CSP will be cheaper than clean coal. By 2020 it will be cheaper than nuclear
    Source: ABARE, NREL

    Concentrating solar power is the conservative, low cost option for Australia’s future power supplies. The coal industry acknowledges CSP is proven (unlike carbon capture and storage — see quote at left) and the costs of concentrating solar power are low. The sooner Australia invests in concentrating solar power, the sooner it can reap the benefits of low and stable energy costs and lower greenhouse gas emissions.

    It all adds up to a very positive value equation, particularly given that concentrating solar power is proven and carbon capture and nuclear (ie the next generation of nuclear plants) are not. Better yet, investment is now pouring into renewable energy overseas, and overseas research has shown that solar power power investments have a much larger beneficial impact on the regional economies where they are located than fossil fuel plants (right). This means that renewable energy projects such as wind and other renewables like concentrating solar power have a positive multiplier effect on their host regions.

  • Golbourn farmers get zero water

    Allocation Data

    The seasonal allocations for Goulburn-Murray Water customers on 1 Jul 2008 are

      High Availability Water Share Change to High Availability Water Share Comments
    Murray 0% % –
    Broken 0% % –
    Goulburn 0% % –
    Campaspe 0% % –
    Loddon 0% % –
    Bullarook Creek 0% % –

    Further Information

     

    Goulburn-Murray Water today announced a 0% opening allocation for the 2008/09 season across all water systems in northern Victoria.

    According to G-MW Managing Director David Stewart record low inflows mean the region is entering the 2008/09 season with extremely low water reserves and future allocations will depend on inflows over coming months.

    “Our region faces a serious water shortage. There is enough water to supply essential human needs in our systems, but we need good winter and spring inflows to cover system operating requirements. If these operating requirements are met, we can make allocations to customers and we can begin running the channel systems to deliver supplies including carryover,” said Mr Stewart.

    G-MW is closely monitoring inflows and providing regular updates through the media, customer newsletters and via its website. G-MW is also liaising with customers and industry groups in developing strategies for the coming season.

    “July, August and September are usually the peak inflow months so there is potential for this situation to improve if we see substantial inflows, but the region is extremely dry so the catchments need to get wet before we will see sustained inflows,” said Mr Stewart

    Qualification of Rights

    Supplying water for essential human needs is the highest priority for water resource management this season. The Minister for Water has qualified rights to water to allow supplies for essential needs under the extreme conditions currently affecting northern Victorian water systems. Further details of the qualifications are available from G-MW’s website (http://www.g-mwater.com.au/), and G-MW will run advertisements in local media detailing the qualifications in place.

    Access to Carryover

    “Customers can take delivery of 2007/08 allocation carryover once the delivery system is running in their area. This will happen when their Water Corporation has covered its system operating requirements. At this stage there is not enough water to guarantee that the channel networks and some river systems will be available for operation for the whole season,” said Mr Stewart.

    Where carryover of allocated water is available, entitlement holders who did not use their full allocation last season will have their carryover automatically calculated and credited to their allocation bank accounts in accordance with the carryover rules.

    Irrigation Season

    “We have a way to go before system operating requirements are covered, so G-MW cannot give assurances that the gravity channel network will operate for the whole season. The opening date for each of the channel systems will depend entirely on available resources and the demand from customers,” said Mr Stewart.

    G-MW is developing operating plans to supply essential human needs and provide access to the channel network for as long as possible.

  • History reveals an affordable housing solution

    Saturday’s report on the housing crisis shows battlers joining the homeless, caravan park residents and welfare recipients in the struggle to find shelter. Speculation in real estate has pushed house prices beyond the reach of everyone except the permanently employed.

    Two features in Saturday’s report deserve special mention.

    People now commute further to work because houses in town are more expensive. As petrol prices continue to rise, these dormitory suburbs will become ghettos of unemployed.

    The proposed subdivision in McClean’s Ridges highlights the problem. We carve up precious agricultural land and create dormitory suburbs that depend on cheap fuel to survive. Then we wonder why the nuclear families with two working parents struggle to maintain the mortgage, motor car and consumer lifestyle that goes with the territory.

    Over ten millennium a sustainable form of settlement emerged independently on every continent, in every civilisation. The traditional village consists of ten to thirty families clustered together for protection, surrounded by the fields that feed them. These villages are within walking distance of each other, and a day’s ride of a market town that offers medical, educational and cultural services.

    The industrial revolution began the destruction of these communities, clearing land for large scale agriculture and herding workers into dormitory suburbs. The motor car completed the process, allowing us to live like kings, burning oil to get around, to grow food and produce cheap goods.

    Within five years, petrol prices will render the private motor car practically obsolete and we will be forced to tear down our fences and work together to grow food we can afford.

    If we start building small houses, integrated into communities that share resources we can solve the immediate housing crisis and future proof ourselves against the end of cheap energy and the food crisis that will follow.

  • Lack of interest has ruined the party

    The absence of candidates from major parties in the forthcoming Tweed Council elections underlines the trouble with Australian politics.

    It’s no surprise that Labor supporters will not fly the ALP banner.

    The state government is hell-bent on destroying local councils; elected Labor representatives are prominent among the 320 councillors signed up for the Keep It Local campaign against Frank Sartor.

    Local conservative politicians have problems closer to home. Being sacked for corruption is never a good look, but the scale of scullduggery on the Tweed beggars belief. Developers donated $340,00 in campaign funds during 2004, prompting a comparison with the total campaign budget of $63,000 for the Sydney Lord Mayor in the same election.

    Half those funds were raised by Tweed Directions, run by prominent Liberals Jeff Egan and Bob Bordino. Political balance was assured by Labor apparatchik, Graham Staerk.

    This disgusting history may explain the reluctance of this year’s candidates to don Labor, Liberal or National party t-shirts but is a symptom not the cause.

    Our disgust with corruption reinforces the fear that politicians do not govern in our interests. They protect the commercial interests of the companies that fund their election campaigns, but they also have one eye on their own retirement packages and another on the larger interests of a globalised economy, our military allies and major trading partners.

    This self interest is shocking but it is their weakness that marks our leaders as failures. Politicians naturally form alliances with the rich and powerful to get things done. Machievelli accurately defined self-interest as the one reliable motivator. It is weakness, though, that confuses alliance with obsequiousness.

    Historically successful leaders have displayed the strength to balance the interests of the people, the nation (or empire) and the many and various interest groups demanding their attention.

    The strength of the Labor Party last century was the connection with its rank and file. As a grass-roots party, beholden to its members, it was always guaranteed the support of almost half the population and almost half the time, the majority required to win government.

    The membership of the three older parties has been declining for two decades. In that time, only the Greens membership has grown. The Greens’ consensus decision-making may be cumbersome and its insistence on refusing corporate donations might limit rapid growth, but it has paid off. It is now the only party fielding a ticket on many local councils.

    The anecdotal evidence is sweet. Prominent political operators in the region are embarrassed by their families’ support of The Greens. The branch secretary of one major party complains that he has to remove Greens literature from his fridge every time he hosts a Party meeting. “Your policies are too damned attractive,” he said. The eldest offspring of one prominent Federal candidate is now a member of Australia’s only expanding political party.

    As Julius Caesar once observed, “Lose control of your family, and you lose the nation.”

    I take a more benign view. The young face an uncertain future and are leaving the dinosaurs of the twentieth century behind. They are naturally attracted to a party that has a sensible plan for the future that, after all, is theirs.

  • Otway sequestration buries first carbon dioxide

    The CO2CRC Otway Project has reached the first major milestone with the storage of 10,000
    tonnes of carbon dioxide two kilometres underground in a depleted natural gas reservoir.

    “We are closely monitoring the carbon dioxide through one of the world’s most comprehensive
    geosequestration monitoring programs and every indication is that the carbon dioxide is behaving
    just as researchers have predicted. The injection process is proceeding very well and we are now
    starting on our next 10,000 tonnes” the CO2CRC Chief Executive, Dr Peter Cook said.

    Through our monitoring program, researchers track the behaviour of the carbon dioxide in the
    storage reservoir using very sophisticated geophysical and geochemical techniques.
    “Soil, groundwater and atmospheric monitoring complement the subsurface activities. The use of
    such a wide variety of monitoring techniques gives us a high level of confidence that the
    compressed liquid carbon dioxide is stored safely and securely,” Dr Cook said.

    The CO2CRC Otway Project, Australia’s first demonstration of geosequestration, which is taking
    place in south-western Victoria, was officially opened by the Federal Minister for Resources and
    Energy, Martin Ferguson and the Victorian Minister for Energy, Peter Batchelor on 2 April 2008
    During the project, carbon dioxide, the world’s most common greenhouse gas after water vapour, is
    compressed to a fluid-like state, piped, injected and stored two kilometres underground in a
    depleted natural gas field, where the rocks had previously held natural gas for possibly millions of
    years. One of the most important features of the project is the demonstration of new
    geosequestration subsurface monitoring techniques.

    The CO2CRC Otway Project was recently recognised for its innovative science in a national awards
    program. It has attracted interest as a world-leading demonstration project from some of the world’s
    leading environment protection agencies.

  • Farmers sink carbon and improve soil

    Dr Jones told the inquiry agricultural soils have the capacity to sequester large volumes of atmospheric carbon by “rebuilding” robust agricultural soils, which would also “enhance the resilience of the Australian landscape to withstand changes to climate” she said.

    An added benefit would be that expenditure on fuel, fertiliser and chemical inputs would be significantly reduced, she said.

    “As a bonus, sequestering carbon in soils represents a practical, permanent and productive solution to removing excess CO2 from the atmosphere,” Dr Jones said.

    “It would require only a 0.5pc increase in soil carbon on 2pc of Australia’s agricultural land to sequester all greenhouse gas emissions.

    “That is, the annual emissions from all industrial, urban and transport sources could be sequestered in farmland soils if incentive was provided to landholders for this to happen.”

    While some farmers are fearful of having soil carbon included in an emissions trading scheme because there may be times when agriculture would have to pay for emissions in years when soil quality is poor, Dr Jones told the inquiry there was “no valid reason for the Australian agricultural sector to be a net emitter of CO2”.

    “By adopting regenerative soil-building practices, it is practical, possible and profitable for broadacre cropping and grazing enterprises to record net sequestration of carbon in the order of 25 tonnes of CO2 per tonne of product sold (after emissions accounted for),” she said.

    “Discussions on adapting to climate change are irrelevant unless they focus on rebuilding healthy topsoil.

    “There is an urgent need for a national strategy to assist Australian agricultural industries to adapt to climate change. To be effective, this strategy will require a radical departure from ‘business as usual’.”

    But Dr Jones said in the last decade the key people working to develop soil building strategies have been declined funding from research and development corporations due to ‘expert scientific advice’ that it is not possible to build stable soil carbon.

    She said while farmers have data of the effectiveness of the work they’re doing, it is not considered data by scientists because it does not fit into the scientific model.

    “The scientific establishment had been talking among themselves while farmers across Australia were doing amazing innovative stuff,” she said.

    “We need a large investment to get the soil carbon accounting models right.”

    She said improved resilience from building better soils would reduce the need for drought assistance.

    “Improved agricultural productivity and profitability would translate to reduced requirements for government assistance.

    “Furthermore, farming in a perennial base would enhance the resilience of the agricultural landscape to a wide range of climatic extremes, some of which may not even have been encountered to date.”