Actually this may not be such a bad thing! Given it would force us to take a good long hard look at energy, and just digging holes in the ground and exporting our once only rocks!

We need to get smarter!
Take all our bulk exports as a case in point.
All of which are transported by foreign freight forwarders!
And bulk freight forwarding remains one of the most profitable business models; briefly made even more so by recent oil price falls!

As sure as chickens lay eggs, when the Saudis have achieved their coal of sending unprotected US oil companies to the wall, the price will rise again and even more sharply!

Meaning the only freight forwarders that are able to protect and grow their handsome margins, will be those totally reliant on nuclear power. And we own 40% of the world's supplies!

Nuclear power will also allow ships to travel at twice the speed of oil fired traffic, and given recent improvements, arguably safer than oil?

Huge bulk freight forwarding ships can encompass enough technology as to allow a crew of a dozen or less, to man them.

Particularly given video conferencing would allow any foreseeable emergency, to be dealt with, with the assistance of land based expertise.

So we can also avoid high labor cost as well, given we just use the brains we were born with and a modicum of vision; neither of which is assisted by moronically muttering monosyllabic mantras like, the government has no business in business.

Arguably almost the dumbest thing one could say, and the likely reason a patent pragmatist like a very successful Lee Kwan Yu, would have predicted, we would become the poor white trash of Asia.

There is a vital role for government investment, but particularly where it can be demonstrated, that investment helps private enterprise and entrepreneurs to prosper! [The only grounds for its necessity!]

Which then grows the tax base and repays all government outlays, even were such services to be run as cost only operations; as a strategy to maximize private profit/affordable competition?
Rhrosty.

Continued; if we instead of mining our once only coal, we leave it in the ground and extract the gas to power industry. wherever it is possible to use a combination of CSG, and ceramic fuel cells, which in combination, produce the highest energy coefficient in the world/the lowest possible costing energy.

Particularly as a publicly provided energy supply service.

If we happen to intersect with the water table, and that turns out to be salt water, that water can nonetheless be used to drought proof the land/churn out many fat and happy farmers, knowing that crop failures are a thing of the past!
[Hardly possible with large open cut methane emitting coal mines]

Something I and others have described in some detail elsewhere!

I mean, the choice may be as simple as exporting trillions of tons of coal to India to help get its competing industries off the ground?

All while further harming the environment; even as the proceeds allow us to import fuel, in common use, produces in total, four times more carbon than traditional Australian sweet light crude!

A better choice would be to rethink our forward plans, then decide to ship manufactured items to India.

And given enough very cheap energy, and vastly saner micro grids, energy dependent highly competitive high tech manufacture is very doable for us!

Particularly, if we include a national shipping line, tasked with just keeping the freight forwarding cost component way down!

The only problem with public ownership were the virtual monopolies it created; and easily solved by just rolling them out as competing trilogies!

Minus being tasked with producing certain profit levels or margins.

Commercial success is and always has been volume!

Thereby guaranteeing the more efficient operations, as completely independent unsubsidized operations!

Essential if we would have our nation prosper, and take such opportunities as the emerging middle classes in India and china would allow.

We have everything we need save the political will and future vision!
Rhrosty.

The populous vs the profligate. If India aspires to Australia's per capita energy consumption we won't have enough planets to go round. Solar power in rural India may charge mobile phones and LED night lights but it won't be enough for air conditioning and electric cars. In Australia we get over 80% of our electricity from burning coal and gas so we are an appalling example to aspire to. We mostly drive big cars. Perhaps both Australia and India should aim at an intermediate level of energy consumption from low carbon sources. Meet in the middle as it were. At the moment it seems we won't change while India lacks the resources.

Those such as this article's author who advocate PV as the source of a major fraction of any country's energy future should read the Australian Energy Statistics published by BREE.

It is only 24 pages and can be downloaded here: http://www.bree.gov.au/files/files//publications/aes/2014-australian-energy-statistics.pdf

Of particular note is that despite the amazing growth of PV in Australia in recent years, as a percentage of Australian electricity consumption it accounts for far less than is commonly assumed. The correct figure is only 1.5% of approximately 250,000 GWh per annum. (Ref: Table 8)

This includes the PV output which is used by the owners of the rooftop PV.

Remember also that electrical power is only one quarter of all energy consumed in Australia (Table 4), so PV currently supplies about 0.4%, 1/250th, of Australian energy consumed.

Get real, folks. PV is useful but is not the panacea that some claim. It can't and won't do the job. Ever. Not in Australia and not in India or any other country. The job is about 100 times too big for it.

@ Taswegian:

You are too optimistic.

Meeting in the middle will not suffice, when 87% of Australia's energy requirements are currently fossil fuelled. All renewables, from hydro through solar and wind to biomass make up the rest.

Any plan to decarbonise our energy systems has to plan to replace the 87%. By all means, try to "meet in the middle" with demand management and renewables, but that still leaves the other half. I do not see any alternative but nuclear to do the lion's share of the job.

Remember, electrical energy is only a quarter of current Australian energy usage. The remainder of the national energy budget is currently provided almost entirely by fossil fuels.

Domestic consumption of electricity, gas and liquid fuels such as for cars, air conditioners, lights, cooking and hot water systems is dwarfed by the total of commercial, transport and industrial consumption.

What's your plan?

Australia is already moving to do the best thing it can to address the Indian energy poverty and climate action issues highlighted by this article - export uranium there.