Sun and wind power to save the planet
BY JOEL TOZER
Thousands of protesters walked the streets of Sydney last Sunday in a plea to politicians to take action on climate change.
The annual Walk Against Warming event was brought forward this year to coincide with the Federal Election.
Activists walked from Belmore Park at 12 noon, moving along Elizabeth, Bathurst and Castlereagh Street before returning to the Park.
The protest was one of a number of events held across the nation’s capital cities and regional centres. And while Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott were both missing from the event, Greens Senator, Bob Brown was pictured walking in the Canberra event on Sunday.
Activists across the country were calling on both the major parties to stand up to the “big polluters” and outline a credible climate change policy in the lead up to election day on August 21.
Two days earlier, more than 1000 people crammed into Sydney’s Town Hall for the launch of a plan to switch Australia to 100 per cent renewable energy within a decade.
The Zero Carbon Australia Stationary Energy Plan – a research collaboration between Beyond Zero Emissions and the University of Melbourne’s Energy Research Institute – details the possibility of re-powering the nation with at least 12 new solar power stations and at least 6500 wind turbines.
The report puts the cost of the project at $370 billion over ten years or at $8 per week for each household.
Matthew Wright, CEO of Beyond Zero Emissions said the plan would use existing Australian technology to dispatch a renewable energy source 24 hours a day.
“If you’ve got science that tells us there is problems, then you need to find a solution,” he said. “Our choice is to choose one mirror or 20 tonnes of coal.”
Mr Wright said that under the plan 60 per cent of the electricity would be generated from solar thermal power plants, storing the sunlight’s heat in molten salt for power generation at night. The remaining 40 per cent would come from wind power.
The report lays down an action plan to create a streamlined electricity grid across the nation, where the estimated 325 terawatt hours of electricity generated per year could meet Australia’s power demands.
Liberal MP Malcolm Turnbull said the report was “the most comprehensive technical blueprint yet for what our engineers, our scientists, can begin to do tomorrow.”
Mr Turnbull emphasised that putting a price on carbon is a necessary step in developing new technologies to address climate change.
“Government support for innovation and investment in clean, stationary energy is important, particularly in the early stages of planning,” he said.
Greens Senator Scott Ludlum said a lack of political will is missing from the debate of climate change.
“This proposal changes the debate … what it has done has shown that [renewable energy] is something that Australia can lead in,” he said. “The people that say it can’t be done need to get out of the way of the people that are doing it.”
