Just back from the country and this Greens plan for 90% renewables by 2030 is excellent news. A great beginning and shows the Greens once again as the choice for those who want to stop Labor’s backsliding and as well as the reactionary policies of Abbott and co. Of course I’d pump for a much larger investment from public funds and for publicly owned utilities to be doing the actual investing rather than relying mainly on the private sector. We live in a time of timid private capital so there are practical reasons for this emphasis, as well as a belief on my part in the efficacy of public investment in projects like this. But we should not only be thinking of big solar plants providing base power for a region but smaller community operated and devised plants serving small towns and even suburbs. Not to mention encouraging the continuing uptake of domestic solar panels (which is lagging in Grayndler). The other point I’d make is that alongside the shift to renewables must be a major effort to reduce energy use dramatically. This reduction is tending to happen already but nowhere near fast enough. This must be an aim in itself but also because all that new renewables plant will soak up enormous amounts of energy and materials in its manufacture and make a big contribution to emissions in the set-up stage. We need to be offsetting that now.
Posted on: Mon, 01 Jul 2013 08:27:44 +0000
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