Warmair; many poor rural Indian communities have reportedly found they can actually afford very local power; when it is provided utilizing homemade biogas produced in digestors utilizing human waste?

The averaged 40% energy coefficient produced by the old noisy diesels; can be literally doubled when this same endlessly available virtually costless bladder stored gas,is scrubbed and then piped through ceramic fuel cells!

Which after supplying the world's cheapest power; thanks to the then vastly improved 80% energy coefficient, also add forever free domestic hot water!

The exhaust product being mostly pristine water vapor!

Australia has produced a vastly superior smell fre variant that could power all the impoverished places in the world; and something that would pay handsomely in the future, if we donated a few exported projects with currently largely wasted aid dollars?

Which would be better spent as a direct donations supplying water pumping windmills; and the aforementioned cheap as chips power projects!

Which by the way, solve several otherwise intractable problems, associated with untreated human waste, all too common in impoverished communities

However, her at home, we're just not smart enough to emulate that ultra-thrifty example; because it doesn't suit our gold plated national grid; or the captive market used like herded cattle; to make it very profitable for our "essential" command and control, foreign investors?

And only possible as an outcome, because all the visionary self actuated leaders died out with Ben chifley and P.M. Curtain, who just weren't terrified of borrowing for income earning infrastructure!

Something visionary Leaders would emulate, if we had ANY!?
Rhrosty.

Rhrosty Aidan

again you ability to ignore reality and make up the most bizarre stories is entertaining were it not so alarming. All the projects you mention require big subsidies to compete. This statement "These solar power projects are built and producing cost competitive power, thanks to essential economies of scale, and forever free fuel in the most competitive free market in the world!" is quite wrong. I have no idea where you got it from but go back and look. You'll find its from an activist web site, and even they would have qualified it.

Aidan was at least a little closer with his statement about capital intensive, but again, sorry no. All the energy projects are capital intensive, not just solar thermal - those plants have capital requirements per MW far in excess of conventional plants and don't last as long. So again, I don't know where the 4 per cent figure came from but its wrong. There are various cost-output comparisons (search on levelised costs).. but they are not the full story, and solar thermal loses out even on those..

I'm sorry, but any new coal mine opening anywhere actually *does* increase emissions. We should be mass producing passive-safety LFTR's that can eat nuclear waste and convert today's nuclear waste storage 'problem' into 500 years of clean energy for the entire planet!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid_fluoride_thorium_reactor

LFTR's can be mass produced like an airline, with one 300MW reactor coming off the line every day for about the price of coal, but *without* coal's 'externalised' health costs! Given that coal's health legacy practically DOUBLES the cost of coal, LFTR's would therefore pretty much HALVE the true cost of coal to society. Or think of it this way: we'd pay the same for electricity, but have about 10% less on the public health bill. (Forbes).

Once again the usual suspects have gone off topic. The article is, and responses should be, about Australian coal and who exploits it; its benefit to Australia; the Australian environment, or whether the first two have anything to do with the poor of India.

Bilge about different kinds of energy resources is irrelevant.

INDIAN PUNKAWALLA POWER nongs

It is my belief that all youse miss the point, are scum, and I am right, as per usual.

None ya wind, solar, coal or nucleeya.

What India really, really needs is the return of Punkawalla Power.

Note Exhibit A http://englishmaninitaly.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/punka_wallah.jpg

Exhibit B http://www.lib.lsu.edu/special/exhibits/e-exhibits/india/pc3d18b.jpg

As you can see a Punkawalla is a renewable resource with minimal emissions and learns a trade.

Bloke just stands there and waves a fan or pulls a chain. Any nong can do that!

As any cretin knows:

In India and Pakistan, a punkhawallah or punkha wala is a manual fan operator. A punkah is a type of ceiling fan used in the Indian subcontinent. The punkhawallah is the illiterate untouchable who works it, often using a pulley system, for a rupee a month. The word pankha originates from pankh, the wings of a bird which produce a draft when flapped.

Poyda

Pete,

I think all the punkah wallahs are now IT workers in Australia enjoying air con.