We live in an interesting time right now.
From a technology point of view our primary options are wind, gas and nuclear.
Secondary options are hydro and solar.
Future options include geosequestration, hydrogen, wave, geothermal and other technologies which need work to make them cost effective.
We need to remember a few big picture points here
- The global population will increase to 9 billion or so by 2050
- The developing world demands the same rights to lifestyle and energy usage as the developed world.
- The developing world will have a limited capacity to provide all the carbon credits that the developed world is planning to buy.
Speaking for Australia I would say to the Government that actions speak louder than words.
For the $20 billion or so spent on the building the education revolution we could have installed about 5000 megawatts (MW) of wind power.
For the $43 billion planned for the National Broadband Network we could have much more.
Add in the $110 billion for a high speed rail network and we could be considerably lower carbon than we currently are.
All I can say by looking at their actions is that the Government is not serious about transforming energy.
Note: I work as a project and energy economist with companies and governments on geosequestration,wind, geothermal, hydro, wave, transmission networks, coal seam gas, coal,and more. The views expressed in this blog are solely my own and do not represent the views of any organisation that I do work for.
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