Climate Change and Alternative Energy Urgently Needed

Climate Change is happening all around us and it's time we got our heads out from the dust now blowing over the Sydney Harbour bridge out to the Pacific Ocean and actually starting taking this problem of climate change very seriously!

Alternative energy sources are urgently needed along with some political will and legislation to keep lobbyist away from our elected representatives!

Alternative Energy Sources: Solar, Wind, Wave, Hot Rocks or Thermal?

Alternative energy supplies have been hampered largely because of one major fact about electricity: It dissipates as it travels long distances. This means which ever form of energy is generated it has to be stored close by and it loses too much energy if transferred long distances without being stored and passed on. This will mean 'booster' farms will need to be built but this is already happening if you look around your town and see the discreetly placed sub-stations. We will simply have more of them and in more places.

Let's look at the different possibilities of alternative energy sources. I believe each geographical location will harness and develop the one that is most suitable to their region. Australia is blessed because we have the choice of all of the five above.

Solar is suitable for all regions of Australia; Wind power is well suited to western Australia in particular and Wave generated electricity could be generated from between Bathurst and Melville Islands in the Northern Territory but there is only the people who live on those remote Islands who could benefit. The Islands are located too far off the mainland for the electricity to benefit Darwin residents. Solar power is suitable for both Islands and all other Northern Territory residents.

Hot Rock technology is probably better known as geothermal dynamics and is available and viable in the south-west of Queensland/South Australia border area but once again the generated electricity can't be transferred any great distances. But these hot rocks power one of the biggest mining ventures in Australia at Roxby Downs. This is a very good symbiotic arrangement for both the Mining Company and the geothermal power industry as a proving ground for the technology.

Solar Power Provides Water in the Australian Outback

Solar power is a gift from God and Australia is blessed with a lot of sunshine. In some very remote parts of Australia they have learnt how to harness solar power to provide water both for domestic consumption and for stock.

The Australian Government had a scheme going until recently that encouraged solar power to be installed on many outback properties and remote Aboriginal communities.

The installation of these solar powered generators provided power to some very remote areas in outback Australia but because the programme was so quickly snapped up by eligible recipients the funds delegated for the project has now been expended so the programme has been closed off early and no more applications are being accepted.

One of the more popular uses applied for in the programmes applications were for solar panels to power up the bore pumps. The Station featured on the TV programme last week was a 2000sq kilometre (yes, that’s two thousand square kilometres) and it showed how the solar panels are fitted to the bore pumps. These pumps pump the bore water from bores sunk deep into the artesian water supply deep in the ground into troughs for the stock to access. Without these pumps to pump the water to the surface, people and stock would die of dehydration.

As you can see, solar panels are life giving.

Now as you can imagine, driving around a 2000sq km property every week is both time and fuel intensive. The outcome if you didn't do it is considerably worse. Sure, there are some bigger stations out there that do it by helicopter but its still fuel intensive.

What if these outback stations were offered a means of making their own solar panels on the property, taking any necessary parts for any possible breakages in the panels on their trucks with them so they could repair any problems on site immediately? Well, the technology is now available and if there is any trade construction business out there looking for a value add to their business I can't think of one offhand that has more potential, can you?