Hi Tombee,
I favour a level playing field approach being implemented sooner rather than later.

Solar thermal is still considerably dearer than most other forms of generation, but it does have the advantage of providing some storage to meet AM and PM residential peaks, so it's a useful adjunct to PV in some situations.

I'm not by any means a renewables fanboi, I just think that the business case is becoming increasingly compelling. There are a few very promising technologies that will come on stream commercially over the next decade and they are likely to change a lot of the calculations. For the medium term future there is no doubt that fossil sources will be needed, but beyond a 30 year horizon it's very difficult to see how they will be justified.

Time will tell.

Alan B...

Thorium reactors are too sophisticated for the Greens and the Labor party to understand.
But since thorium reactors can actually consume nuclear weapons stockpiles for fuel, one would think they would be excited with the prospect: it seems not if the technology stands in the way of totally unreliable windmills.

Environmental concerns of ordinary folk, have been usurped by environmentalism ideologues, dressed as caring environmentalists, when actually they are dinosaurs standing in the way of "positive" technical processes, towards environmental solutions.

Justin Campbell is displaying his ignorance: SA has NOT lost its baseload energy capacity, nor lost the capacity to meet peak demand. SA has for decades been more reliant on gas than coal, and some of SA's gas fired power stations are well suited to providing baseload supply. And pursuing reductions by other means would've been difficult (closure of the coal fired power stations was due to the coal mine closing when they ran out of coal) and would not have enhanced reliability.

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curmudgeonathome,

SA does not presently have any problems with renewables. The huge problem that occurred about three weeks ago was a one off, due to freak events, and will never happen again. With hindsight it should never have happened in the first place, of course. The unforeseen events should have been anticipated, and there should have been technical and procedural means to prevent it.

SA does have a problem with expensive electricity. It's been that way since privatisation, with generation companies using Enron tactics to rip us off. SA's enthusiasm for renewable energy is partly because it reduced the energy companies' ability to do this.

However, use of feedin tariffs is an expensive way to encourage renewables. It would be far better to use concessional loans to reduce the impact of the high capital cost.

As for King Island, the sensible approach would be to link it to Tasmania and mainland Australia.
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Alan B,

As yet there are no commercial scale thorium reactors, so it is too early to say what their operating cost will be. But it makes sense to develop them first in places where renewables can't easily meet the requirements and where there's experience of nuclear power.

Alpha radiation is generally less dangerous than beta and gamma radiation, but that doesn't make it beneficial. Yes it can be used to kill cancer (by attracting alpha emitters into cancer cells) but it also kills healthy cells. People have contracted lung cancer from inhaling radon, and if you swallowed a strong alpha emitter it would probably kill you.