Tag Archives: australia

Tesla Roadster breaks world record at the Global Green Challenge in Australia

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Simon Hackett rode the Tesla pure electric roadster across Darwin to Australia, more than 3000 kms. Here are his results.

Internode Tesla Roadster at a petrol station in Adelaide on the last event dayHow would you like your car to achieve the equivalent of 1.6 Litres per 100 km (US 150 MPG)?

Would you like to do that while paying between AUS$69 and AUS$126 for your energy costs (including a surcharge to buy 100% GreenPower), to take you 3147 kilometres from the top of Australia to the bottom?

(or to put it another way: between 2.2 and 4 cents per km over that entire distance using GreenPower)?

We’ve just demonstrated that its possible – if the car is a pure electric vehicle.

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Australia should go nuclear if it is serious about carbon reduction

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Robert Gottliebsen in Business Spectator:

21st century nuclear plant

While much of the rest of the world embraces nuclear technology as part of a mix of measures to reduce carbon emissions, Australia stands virtually alone among the majors in turning its back on the nuclear options while at the same time supplying most of the other nations with uranium.

But I don’t think Penny Wong will need to be reminded by the Chinese of Australia’s odd position because, as I will explain below, there is a dramatic community change taking place.

I am indebted to The Australians contributing editor Peter Van Onselen for explaining what actually happened at the Bali carbon conference and reminding me that 19 of the G20 countries have nuclear power in their energy mix or are planning the construction of reactors. There is only one G20 country that turns its back on the nuclear option – Australia.

I have been saying this for more than 18 months now that if Australia is serious about carbon than nuclear is the way to go. With Australian’s only ready to pay about $10 a month more on energy and no other base load solution comes near nuclear right now this is the way to go.

I think the Australian public will change their mind in the next couple of years.

Cleantech Networks in Australia

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Australia, Perth: Solar ambition
Image by kool_skatkat via Flickr

Cleantech is the biggest potential for Australia to take part of the low-carbon future and enable production in the country rather than consumption.

My friend, John O’brien is doing is bit to popularise clean tech.  He is the MD of Australian Cleantech and has been running a very successful networking event in Adelaide. Now he has taken it to the big boys in Sydney by recently launching the Sydney Cleantech Network where he reports that about 150 people attended.

John provides examples of the companies which gave a 2 minute presentation.

Five companies then did ‘two minute pitches’ explaining their products and services and detailing their upcoming funding requirements. The companies were:

- CMA Corporporation – A leading integrated Australian-based recycling group that provides products and services to customers across three continents.

- Acoustica – Commercialising the world’s best “Green” Noise Barrier – Quietwave® Captive Membrane Technology.

- T3Energy – Developer of both a solar space heating and super-insulated building technologies will reduce energy consumption in homes by up to 80% while offering a competitive and compelling alternative to conventional homes.

- Azure Energy – The Azure Energy ALI system produces seven forms of energy from Solar Energy, in all weather conditions

- Universal Power Storage – Universal Power Storage (UPS) has the only invention in the Massive Electrical Storage (MES) space that can potentially deliver the largest scale electrical storage system in the world: rectifying the largest market failure in the electricity market – base load storage.

Companies need money and expertise to develop in Australia and then conquer the world; if not Australia will lose valuable people and future jobs to other countries.

Australia’s new concessions on energy

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Reuters reports: 

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd would ask state leaders to sign off on further concessions for big electricity users including pulp and paper, steel, cement and silicon industries at a meeting on Thursday in Hobart, the Australian newspaper said in an unsourced report.

The centre-left government has already foreshadowed an exemption for aluminium, which consumes about 15 percent of electricity nationally.

Major industries had complained about the “double whammy” from a planned carbon emissions trading system, set to begin next year, and the new renewable energy target, which requires electricity retailers and large users to source 20 percent of their energy needs from renewable sources by 2020.

 

By removing the target for the major energy produces, the govt. is really cutting down strength of its renewble energy policy.

However, if the carbon trading should do what its suppossed to do then there is no need for a second target for energy?

New energy for Geothermal

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"There's no smoke. Very little noise," said Paul Thomsen, director of policy and business management for Ormat Technologies Inc., which owns the operation. "People don't even know it's here."

Geothermal energy may be the most prolific renewable fuel source that most people have never heard of. Although the supply is virtually limitless, the massive upfront costs required to extract it have long rendered geothermal a novelty. But that's changing fast as this old-line industry buzzes with activity after decades of stagnation.

Billionaire Warren E. Buffett has invested big. Internet giant Google Inc. is bankrolling advanced research. Entrepreneurs are paying record prices for drilling leases in places such as Nevada, where they're prospecting for heat instead of metals.

via Utilities putting new energy into geothermal sources – Los Angeles Times

Emissions trade price tag: 2 latte’s a week

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reasury modelling released by the Federal Government today shows there would be a minimal reduction of growth under an emissions trading scheme.

But it also shows that households will spend around $5 a week extra on electricity and $2 a week on gas, and lower-income households will be more affected.

The modelling says annual growth would slow by 0.1 per cent and early action is key to keeping costs low.

It also says the introduction of a scheme would be likely to produce a one-off spike in inflation of around 1 to 1.5 per cent, but there would be minimal impacts on future levels of inflation.

via Emissions trade price tag: $7 a week – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)