Isn't it amazing how all the knockers come out of the woodwoek, any time an article such as this appears. Taswegian for instance. They are not going to build these power stations in areas where there is likely to be a week of cloudy weather. Hasbeen, if you read the article in its entirety you will see a price of 13 cents per Kilowatt-hour mentioned. One-under-god, one of these days our resources of coal will run out.

The carbon sequestering programs that successive Australian governments seem to be wedded to won't be worth a hill of beans when that happens. It is a pity that our great treasurer didn't give a bit more attention to infrastructure which addresses the alternative energy problems.

David

I thought this was On Line Opinion, David, not On Line Agreement, with no questioning or contradictory comments and a dash of censorship - my bad. (sorry to be sarcastic, but complaining that there are "knockers" just seems trite)

"They are not going to build these power stations in areas where there is likely to be a week of cloudy weather." what, so this is a special class of power generation for rare places on the planet, that should sell well. Can I set up a company, government funded of course, to find places where there is never a week of cloud cover.

I think we should continue to look for solutions to power generation, for future Australians, but at the moment we have lots of time, and coal to burn so to speak - and we will of course. If no reasonable solution presents itself, we will not shut down our society or our children's futures to go with some half working system.

Some say we should ramp up the pollution so that we deflect more of the sun's energy with micro particles and thus cool the earth, others say differently.

A follow-up from an earlier comment on costs.

This type of power is in the ballpark for electricity prices.

The government funding is for new solar plants that produce coal plant scale power - say 500 to 2000MW. Abengoa Solar, a leading solar power company currently constructing solar plants worldwide, put the cost of a 300MW plant at 1.2 billion euros in 2007. In 2009, the Arizona state government announced a 200MW plant for 1 billion US dollars.

References and background on actual electricity costs <a href="http://greenmodesustainabilitydevelopments.blogspot.com/2009/05/big-solar-for-oz.html">here</a>.

"Researchers at the German Aerospace Center have estimated that 16,000 square kilometres of solar thermal power plants in North Africa - paired with a new infrastructure of high-voltage, direct-current transmission lines - could provide enough electricity for all of Europe"

Wow! only 16,000 square km! Pity that such an enormous structure has never been built in the history of humankind. How much metal would this require? What are the embodied energy costs? How are you going to keep all those mirrors clean?

Engineers do these calculations and then open their mouths without thinking. This is the mentality of people born into an energy-abundant world who do not really comprehend the scale of what they are proposing. Since we are now in an age of energy decline this sort of project is simply impossible.

Gazing into my crystal ball, I predict the following headlines...

"Green protests after endangered eagle flies into solar oven. 'Tragic, but delicious', says Chief Engineer."

"Dozens maimed by exploding superheated salts. Nuclear Energy Association sends condolences."

"Use of fertilisers for solar heating causes massive food shortages. 'Stop the death rays!', says NASA head."

The Euro dreamers who think an underwater cable to a massive solar plant in North Africa is a good idea should take a reality check. First they should ask why the 2008 Dakar car rally was cancelled
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Dakar_Rally
Second they should ask why things went back to front in the Basslink cable joining Tasmania to the mainland. Bulk hydro power was supposed to be exported for just a smidgin of coal fired electricity imported. Well it seemed like a good idea at the time.

If they build the Europe to North Africa project the Moroccans will end up just occasionally warming their toes on electricity made from British coal. That's because the cable will be sabotaged on a regular basis and the coal will still be cheaper than solar.