Is it time for an Energy Health Check?

Travelling 15,000 kilometres over 140 days and crossing Canada twice, Canadian Marcelo Da Luz broke the world record for distance travelled in a solar powered vehicle late last week. 

Australia’s Low Pollution Future: The Economics of Climate Change Mitigation was released by the Australian government yesterday and based on the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme, the bottom line for households is an expectation of an increase of an average of $4 – $5 extra per week on electricity and $2 extra per week on gas and other household fuels. 

Have you ever stopped and thought about how much of this planet’s surface is dedicated to roads and open air car parks? This transport infrastructure takes up so much land and does nothing else except to service our vehicles. But what if we started converting roads and car parks to solar power farms? It’s already happening, albeit it on a small scale

A group of scientist and researchers claim to be able to generate the same amount of electricity as traditional flat solar panel systems while using up to 300 to 400 times less solar cell material; through the use of balloons as a concentrator.

Rumours have been floating around the Australian solar industry recently that the $8,000 solar power rebate may end soon. These rumours were given a little more credibility recently when the Climate Change Minister, Penny Wong, refused to guarantee that the rebate has a solid future.

Late last week, Ausra, Inc. and California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger unveiled California’s first solar thermal plant in 2 decades. The technology was developed in Australia, by Australian Dr. David Mills. Professor Mills left Australia in February last year after failing to attract support from the Howard government for his solar thermal technology.

Buying green power directly from a utility has been the popular choice for some people as over the short term it’s a good deal cheaper than having a solar power system installed on a home; even with generous renewable energy rebates available; but there are many traps and pitfalls to watch for.

In many households, the most energy intensive applications are those dealing with the heating of water, refrigeration and air conditioning. These three activities can add considerable expense to the overall cost of a solar power system.

The recent go ahead from the British government on a new offshore wind farm willfurther widen the lead the UK recently achieved in offshore wind powergeneration.

Once the stuff of science fiction, the idea of placing large arrays of solar panels in Earth’s orbit and using microwave transmissions to beam the electricity generated to receptor antenna stations here on Terra Firma may become reality in the not too distant future.