When it comes to lowering Australia's Carbon footprint both Government and the Media appear reluctant to report upon any other form of of land based power generation other than Carbon recapture with its high cost should it ever become available,Wind power which can't deliver base load power, Solar energy which can't deliver base load power, and Geothermal which can deliver base load power but is so isolated it can't be connected.

This appears to be intentional in Government reports and shows a laziness in Media reporting.

It not that base load power can't be produced, for a lower cost and zero water consumption, than any other form of base load power generation.

Its just for some reason its been kept from the public eye.

There may be reasons behind what's happening ...

It may be because Geothermal is not readily accessible in the Australian Continent due to it not being a volcanic region. (Whereas there's plenty of sunshine and wind - which is under utilised and has scope for greater development - depending on the design parameters?).

For example - changing the design of unsightly wind turbines, and
compacting solar energy production assemblies.

There are developments in domestic energy production of wind and solar power taking individual properties off the electrical grid.

So what is the alternative that the government and media should be reporting on? Other than Hot Rocks, to my mind there's only nuclear, which given that we've just elected a Labor government, is off the table.

Sylvia.

No, you are forgetting about solar thermal as the experimental plant
at Liddel power station in the Hunter Valley.
It uses solar to melt salt which is fed into a heat exchanger to
produce steam. The idea is to store the molten salt in tanks for night time use.
There is a state government web site on it.
Google solar thermal and Liddel.

Re storing CO2 or anything else underground it has already been done.
They are pumping it underground to pressurise oil wells to increase the flow.
They have been doing that for at least thirty years.
So whats new ?

Bazz

The problem with solar thermal approaches that attempt to store the thermal energy is that if the sun doesn't shine on a given day, then there is no energy to be stored. Unless the thermal reservoir has a capacity running into weeks, the system cannot function as a primary generator, and really just reduces the amount of fuel used, at considerable cost.

Sylvia.

Hello Sylvia,
I wouldn't know about that.
It is reported that there is an operational system in Spain.
Also one is being built in California.