.....This article is wrong right from the second word of the headline they are not fatal flaws. What is fatal is Abbotts short sighted pandering to the big polluters.

Viv Forbes obviously couldn't care less about the future for his/her children and grandchildren and just wants to stick his/her head in sand and pass the problem on.

Helga, just like the likes of you want to pass our problems on to the generators, because after all, if we didn't use the stuff, they wouldn't have to generate it, would they!

It's like charging the retailer a tax so they can serve us, so we, the consumer can have our tax free purchases.

Any form of carbon tax should be a user pays system, then you would see some serious emissions reductions, because the user can't simply pass the costs on.

Hasbeen:
You can run your diesel with biogas.
All you need do is shove some steel wool into the intake manifold, to permanently reduce the airflow, fuel air mix.
You can make continuous biogas, by passing all your family's biological waste through, a simple two tank digestor.
For household use, something around the size of two (part buried) five thousand gallon tanks, should be large enough?
You need to aerate the first tank to introduce maximum oxygen, to the first stage process, which heats up to around 32C.
A small (man high) windmill, pushing a small diaphragm pump, would be my first choice.
Once thoroughly aerated, the material is augured, via another similar windmill, into tank two, which is completely sealed with a simple U bend water trap, sealing everything except the escaping gas, which can then be stored in a simple bladder and used on demand; adding food scraps (other biological) increases the gas output.
Again a very slow turning auger, removes the final waste product from the very bottom of the sealed tank. Which is thoroughly sanitized and a very useful, organic, high carbon fertilizer, high in both nitrates and phosphates.
A conveniently positioned plastic lined trailer, is enough to remove the waste, and put it where it can be useful?
Water is bled off, about three quarters of the way up tank two, (self heating to around 55C) and is siphoned off via a simple u bend, to reduce the risk of any gas escaping.
If you build a glass house around the tanks, (or visa versa) the naturally produced heat would be very useful, during the cooler winter months!
Another windmill and diaphragm pump, should be enough to move the waste water to storage?
Cheers, Rhrosty.

If the only thing we worried about, was long term hip pocket pain!
Then climate change real, man made or imagined, would take care of itself, as would our energy dependent economy!
Rhrosty.

Jardine,

For a closer to home source of steam plant see:
http://www.strathsteam.com/

A useful steam engine can be made by converting a petrol or diesel engine to run on steam and if you can do the conversion yourself then the cost of the engine could virtually nil as old IC engines can be got for nought.

Raycom Jardine rehctub your grandchildren are going to say one day, faced with all the evidence how stupid and selfish our grandparents were, they might let you off and say perhaps they were senile.

Rhosty, from the sounds of your off it all system, the cost to build
it would be very substantial.
I think a large bank of ground mounted solar cells and a bank of Nickel
Iron cells which will last for 30 to 50 years and will suffer all
sorts of mistreatment such as overcharging or standing for years fully
discharged without any damage or problem would be the no fuss way to go.
I think it would be a lot cheaper also as there are no replacement costs.

I have a vague memory of seeing nickel iron batteries in glass jars in
a signal box that had been there since the signal box was built in the
1920s when the suburban network was electrified.
They are available for high reliability usage.
They are only 1.2 volts a cell but they sell them by individual cells so you buy as many as you need.

http://ironcorebatteries.com.au/