Wind farms? During the Summer just gone, several thousand houses in South Australia were blacked out for days. Not because of the usual chaos a few hot days causes for the Chinese owned conventional power supply, but because of a cluster of windmills which were supposed to be supplementing the foreign owned power generator.

It was too hot for the windmills; they stopped working. They couldn't deliver the goods when they were most needed!

The only thing to be said about wind power is that its apparatus is an ugly blot on the skyline.

Anthony Albanese might be a zealot for opposing Uranium, but his election results show the real reason for his passion.

In his seat of Grayndler, the Greens polled 21%, just behind the Liberals at 24%. If Labor was to take a softer line on uranium, Albanese could expect a big swing to the Greens, putting them ahead of the Liberals. The seat would then be decided on Liberal preferences. There would be a good chance of Albanese losing his seat to the Greens.

Is Albanese a zealot or just desperate to stay in parliament? Grayndler has long been considered one of Labor’s safest seats. Losing Grayndler would be a massive blow to the Labor Party.

Dammed if you do - Dammed if you don't.

Just a quick note on solar panals. They require huge "farms" of arrayed panels to make them viable. They collect all of the sunlight leaving only shadows in their wake. Absolutely devistating for the ecosystems on which they are built.

How is wind power going to fly a jumbo from Sydney to Los Angeles?

Re solar panels. The beauty of solar panels is that you can install a small array on your own roof. A ten panel array produces about 1.5 Kw/hour. Ten hours of sunshine would produce 15 KwH of electricity (more than our house currently uses on average). Of course efficiency drops off dramatically on cloudy days. Demand peaks for electricity are now on summer days, when solar is at its best. If only you could get the spot price (up to $5/KwH) for electricity produced on peak days, rather than about 15 cents. Very little transmission losses in such a system as well.

The cost for such an array is about $15,000, which would pay itself off in about 20 years, when it would be due for replacement. For a private individual the economics don't stack up, but there are number of social benefits (reduction of greenhouse emissions etc). Government subsidies or no-interest loans could certainly kick this along. If more people were installing arrays prices would drop.

Re jet transport: obviously solar is not the answer, but wind power is no problem. We once had a wind-powered international transport system, it was called a sailing fleet. You could go overseas this way, you'd just have to be VERY VERY patient. Anyone know if you can run jet engines on methanol?

I find it curious that nuclear power is gaining traction given all the current paranoia about terrorism. Surely a nuclear power plant would be a prime candidate for a terrorist strike?

Johnj

Actually, if I were a terrorist a nuclear reactor would be the last place I'd attack. It's too predictable, probably too well guarded, and generally expected.

I would target things like schools, hospitals, water supplies, electicity. The objective being to cause as much "disruption, fear and terror" as possible with the least amount of risk of failure or capture.

A typical politicians statement, says nothing except promotion of self. Its very simple, nuclear power is old technology, if you haven't noticed the huge advance is solar and other alternative technologies, then you live somewhere in the dark past.

As a country, we could completely remove ourselves of the need for petro products, coal and nuclear within 5 years, reduce everyones power bill including industry. Communities can become energy autonomous and the economy would rapidly expand. Problem is, you voted for parties and idiots, not those that have a solutions and aren't controlled by vested interests.

Theres many people in this country that are virtually self sufficient in energy and probable just about everything else. What needs to happen is for the people to become self informed of whats really on offer instead of listening to these brain-dead morons they vote for. Their so incompetent, they have to sell all our assets to pay of the debts they created. Would you invest in a company whose executive sold of the assets to your competitors, so they could charge you more for less. Then you politicians demand (via taxes and charges) you give them more funds so they can live in luxury and do less and less, as we work longer and longer for less and less

Pretty rational way of going about your life isn't it. City dwellers can be almost as self-sufficient energy wise as those in the country. Check out the new solar cubes, and solar furnaces, biodiesel and methane, ethanol. No matter what the pollies tell you, its not hard to reduce you costs and help the planet. You can even grow seed oil crops in your back yard and reduce your reliance on petro diesel.

It may be of interest to know, that using biodiesel, or straight veggie oil means you aren't producing the micro particles that come from petro fuels and infiltrate the lungs and intestines. Politicians aren't interested, as it doesn't suit their vested interests agenda, anyone with half a brain can see that.