$5 million over three years for renewable fuel research? Far more gets spent maintaining Australia's public dunnies on an annual basis. The priority given to developing technologies crucial for a prosperous future is all too clear. Thank goodness that great nations like India and China publicly value the crucial role of knowledge in creating prosperity.

Interesting :)

sry, fester, the joke is on you. you vote for pollies, and take what they are willing to give you.

the people in california tell their pollies what they want done with referenda.

they are citizens, ozzies are mug sheep. but hey, as long as yer laffing, right?

$700 million as a 50% subsidy for Solar Systems would provide for 100,000 houses to have such.

A typical system costs around $15,000.... 10 Solar Panels, Grid Interactive Inverter and a medium battery bank.

Couple this with:

-Gas cooking and heating only. (No electic cooking or heating)
-High Efficiency lighting.
-Limited size and power of refrigeration.

This could not only provide enough electricity for the household, (100%) it would also provide overflow into the grid during the day.....for the next 20 yrs at least.

I don't know what 100,000 homes not using electicity from the grid would translate into in terms of carbon output, and grid use refief, but I venture to guess it would be substantial.

Perhaps we can punish the large utility companies for not maintaining their equipment in the interests of 'shareholder value' and 'CEO bonuses' ?

Ahhh Boaz were it so simple;
>$700 million as a 50% subsidy for Solar Systems would provide for
>100,000 houses to have such.

>A typical system costs around $15,000.... 10 Solar Panels, Grid
>Interactive Inverter and a medium battery bank.

There is a significant logistics problem in your suggestion.
Where do you get the thousands of trained technical people to install
and maintain this equipment in each house and business ?
There are material problems with the supply of the solar cells & batteries.

This is why we have the grid at present instead of us all having our own petrol or diesel generators.

The best solutions on the horizon at present are the solar thermal
experiment at Liddel power station and the hot rocks system.
There should be a lot more money and effort put into the Liddel experiment.
The proposal to store the heat in molten salt for night
generation should go ahead as quickly as possible, there might not
be enough time to play around with the trial, because if it is
successful it will have to be fitted to the whole fleet of power stations.

Hi Bazz...well I didn't suggest that the 'transformation' would happen over night.

It is quite feasable.. I've worked in that industry for 9 yrs in a past life :) there are plenty of all those things around, but not all at once...thats all.

Regarding the installation and maintainance.. there are qualified people already, and the creation of such a scheme would undoubtedly attract more, and provide more employment.

Having said all that, I'm not in the slightest against ANYthing which will give us cleaner and hopefully cheaper energy. So..your hot rocks and molten salt.. if it works.. great.

Demos

If I lived in California I should be screaming for renewables also. With nearly 40 million people crammed in, California faces serious challenges. Yet have these more fortunate citizens ever had a say on a population policy? That is a question they dont get asked.

Boaz

I would rather the funding go to research than subsidising technologies which could rapidly become second rate. There are enormous quantities of organic material which are currently wasted. Utilising this waste is essential for our civilisation.

Like all good technological innovations (discovered by Australians) - solar energy will be sold overseas first - (to countries that have less sunshine than we do). And once its proven a success, then we'll pay to import it here. Why do you suppose there is a 'brain-drain' in this country ? Why don't we trust and respect our own?
Why the attitude - 'But, it's always been done that way...'

What are we frightened of? So what if we may fail? It's through our
attempts and perserverance - that just maybe something will actually get achieved. We should encourage innovation - not chop it down.

Fester.....

you are talking about 'research' I'm talking about an outcome which can be of immediate benefit. The Solar alternative is already proven, viable and lasts for decades. You can have your research grant NEXT year :) lets have 100,000 houses on renewable first.

I should have added that hot water should always come from Solar systems with an instantaneous gas booster. That saves gas as well.

I like the geothermal hot rocks idea.. and I think it is the closest of the innovative methods which could reduce the grid impact, but the treatment of waste is also imporant.

Still.. would it not create as many problems as it solves ? are you suggesting turbines powered by heat from methane or something ?

David

Solar hot water is the most cost effective short term goal for developed technologies. Otherwise, developing cellulose to biofuel technologies that are cost competitive with oil is a priority. Sewage treatment plants producing biofuel and clean water, and recycling nutrients would be a long term goal. Fast pyrolysis with agrichar production also seems to hold promise, as does csp desalinating seawater with the waste heat.

The ideal role of government is to give the technologies a kick start, then let them sort themselves out based on economic merit. Propping up second rate technologies can be damaging.