Renewable Energy

Cooma Monaro Express
Thursday 11/10/2007 Page: 9

A study published by the American Solar Energy Society (Jan 2007) shows that a combination of efficiency measures and existing renewable technologies can reduce greenhouse gases by up to 80% by 2050. The reassuring findings are that "clean coal" and nuclear power are not necessary and that efficiency gains account for 57% of the final emissions savings. Efficiency involves making new and existing buildings more energy efficient, using insulation, efficient lighting and electrical appliances and a range of other measures such as solar hot water that will allow us to maintain our standard of living but at a much lower cost to the environment.

This report is very encouraging as the renewable technologies - wind, solar, concentrated solar, biomass and geothermal - have already been developed and are ready to be brought up to scale, whereas nuclear power is dangerous and inherently unsustainable, and "clean coal" has not been proven, is decades away and will not be ready in time to solve the problem of global warming.

The good news for renewable energy is that the costs are falling while the costs of fossil fuel energy are rising. In Australia the wholesale price for power from coal plants has doubled in price due to water shortages, and will increase further when there are realistic charges for CO2 emissions and for the huge volumes of cooling water they use. Renewable technologies, on the other hand, are becoming cheaper due to economies of scale and because of technological improvements.

Solar power is growing at more than 30% annually and the price is falling by 18% for every doubling of global installations. Renewables will be cost competitive by 2020 or sooner but until then they will require subsidies. Wind and solar power do not produce power if the wind is not blowing or the sun is not shining. There is a lot of research effort going into finding ways to store power. Meanwhile most baseload power will come from existing coal plants until solar and wind energy can be stored and geothermal and biomass energy come on line. Wind can supply baseload power if wind farms are dispersed as the wind is always blowing somewhere.

Unlike energy from fossil fuels - oil, coal or gas - renewable energy is a never-ending and abundant resource that doesn't produce greenhouse gases. Generating power from renewables will not deplete the energy resources that will be needed by future generations. There are now other independent studies that have produced findings that show that renewables can solve the global warming threat without nuclear or new "clean coal" technologies. It is time to get on with our new renewable energy future.

Link www.ases.org/climatechange/