IMAGINE - a 21st Century world, where our heating, light, electricity came with free fuel - from the roofs of our houses, shops, schools, hospitals - where our water came from our own rainwater tanks, as well as from community water systems.

IMAGINE - a convivial 21st Century - where our houses were moderate in size, where there was plenty of community spaces, where we walked more, rode bikes more - ate our meals in sociability - "slow" food, locally grown. Where our cars didn''t go so fast, but were powered by sun or hydro power. where a lot of our entertainment was firsthand - real people, live music.

IMAGINE - where we still had centralised power, also, from solar, wind, and geothermal sources. We still had centralised systems of transport, such as rail. We still had some large centralised systems.

BUT - we had given up our pretentious McMansions, our gas-guzzling Toorak tanks. Where we no longer were impressed with BIG - Big corporations, big power, big-deal people - Christina Macpherson

Wind turbines to power NSW desal plant Sydney Morning Herald May 13, 2008 - "The NSW government has agreed to a 20-year energy supply deal to ensure wind turbines will power Sydney's desalination plant.

Premier Morris Iemma said the deal would link Sydney Water to the Babcock and Brown-backed Capital Wind Farm being built at Bungendore, near Queanbeyan in southern NSW........

..........'This will be Australia's biggest accredited renewable energy contract.'

The contract requires Sydney Water to purchase a minimum 180,000 Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) every year for 20 years.
Each REC represents one megawatt hour of green electricity, which will be used to power the desalination plant.
In times when the state's dams are full and the desalination plant is not in use, Sydney Water can on-sell its RECs for a possible profit.

Solar expert wants same support as coal Sydney Morning Herald Marian Wilkinson and Ben Cubby April 5, 2008 - "ONE of Australia's leading solar engineers has criticised governments for a lack of support for the industry, contrasting it with the strong backing given to clean coal in the race to cut greenhouse gas emissions from electricity generation.
"If we have a level playing field we will win," said Richard Corkish, the head of renewable energy engineering at the University of NSW..........................

………………Renewable energy costs more than traditional power. But California has deemed that by 2010, 20 per cent of power must be from renewable sources. Australia's mandatory renewable energy target is 20 per cent by 2020.
This target is driving Southern California Edison to pay a tariff to commercial building owners to install the solar panels.

………………………..Dr Corkish said Australian governments needed to examine the idea of paying commercial buildings and home owners to install photovoltaic panels that can feed into power grids - a policy that has led to an explosion of solar power in Germany and Spain. So far South Australia is the only state to agree to the tariffs.

'We're very good at commercialising [solar] technologies but they're tending not to be implemented in Australia because coal is too cheap here,' Dr Corkish said. 'If we had the sort of support we have seen in Spain and Germany we can do it here. We would have a big market and a big industry'..............................................."

Green Victorians get ready to fade to black The Age Orietta Guerrera March 24, 2008 "VICTORIANS have backed the global call for urgent action on climate change, with more than 700 businesses and 6600 people having signed up to Earth Hour.....

........All capital cities in Australia have taken up the challenge, with Darwin and Hobart joining in. The organiser of the event, WWF Australia, said Victoria was on track to have 1000 businesses on board by the day. It hopes a million people in Melbourne will switch off.
Thousands have signed up on social networking sites such as Facebook..............

................HIGH above the city at sunrise on Easter Sunday was a giant hot air balloon, in the shape of a light bulb.

The 32m high balloon carried the message 'We're up for Earth Hour' , to remind the people of Adelaide to switch off the lights at 8pm on Saturday March 29 for one hour.

Earth Hour executive director Andy Ridley said the symbolic event was about making a stand in the fight against climate change.

'Earth Hour is the highlight of a major campaign to encourage businesses, communities and individuals to take the simple steps needed to cut their emissions on an ongoing basis,' he said.
'It is about simple changes that will collectively make a difference - from businesses turning off their lights when their offices are empty, to households turning off appliances rather than leaving them on standby'......................."

'Analyzing the Renewable Energy Industry in Australia' reports that the Australian Government support for renewable energy assists industry development, reduces barriers to the national electricity market, and provides community access to renewable energy.

The report shows that renewable energy effectively uses natural resources such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides and geothermal heat, which are naturally replenished. Renewable energy technologies range from solar power, wind power, hydroelectricity/micro hydro, biomass and biofuels for transportation....................

The study shows that renewable energy technologies are sometimes criticised for being unreliable or unsightly, yet the market is growing for many forms of renewable energy.........".

Here comes the sun: Stanhope plans solar city The Canberra Times By Cathy Alexander 19 March 2008 - "The ACT could have one of the country's largest solar power plants operating next year, pumping out enough electricity for 10,000 homes.
But it might take higher power bills to make it happen.
First, the ACT Government needs to find an area the size of 20 football fields for the solar panels, or dishes.
The Government and ActewAGL announced yesterday a feasibility study into building a large-scale solar plant, touting the need to tackle climate change.

The plant could involve one hundred or more large solar dishes, or rows of solar panels on the ground, or it could be made up of trough-like mirrors.
Whatever it looks like, it will be big.
It has been welcomed by the Conservation Council, which said Canberra was on the way to becoming "a solar capital".

Solar first for Whyalla Adelaide Now CARA JENKIN, March 17, 2008 - "THE world's first renewable energy power station capable of producing electricity 24 hours a day will be lighting up homes in Whyalla by the end of next year.

Renewable energy company Wizard Power will start construction of a solar thermal power station in October and will begin providing electricity from next July. Six giant dishes will be built on vacant land opposite the OneSteel steelworks in Whyalla, which receives an average of 301 days of sunshine each year.

Initially the power plant will demonstrate that renewable energy can be used to provide base-load power but all power generated will be diverted into the electricity grid.

Australians want to save energy Science Alert 13 March 2008 - "A survey of more than 2000 households in Queensland, Victoria, NSW and South Australia has revealed that more than 75 per cent of Australians want to reduce energy consumption in the home and implement a rapid response to climate change.

CSIRO's Energy Transformed Flagship has released a report looking at attitudes to household electricity consumption. The report considers people's willingness to accept alternative approaches to reducing domestic energy.
CSIRO social scientist Dr John Gardner says the survey showed most Australians would like to find ways to curb electricity use in the home.

'The majority of people surveyed - women in particular - indicated a strong desire to try to reduce the amount of electricity they are currently using in their home' he says.
'People want to reduce their household emissions as well as save on the cost of their energy bills.'

The report showed that younger, more educated, higher income householders were willing to integrate technology into their home to manage their own household energy requirements...............

...........The report also found that Australians interested in generating their own household electricity prefer renewable energy sources, particularly favouring solar and wind....."..

provide more than 10 per cent of the city's electricity needs.
Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett said today the $7.1 million project would feature 26 solar dishes, each one 14 metres high, to produce 1860 megawatt hours of power each year.

Coober Pedy was chosen because it is not connected to the electricity grid and gets all of its power from diesel generators..........................The new Coober Pedy power station is expected to begin generating electricity by the end of 2009.

Scientists welcomed the project with Richard Corkish, head of the School of Photovoltaic and Renewable Energy Engineering at the University of NSW, describing it as a hopeful move.'Australia is a leader in the science and technology of solar but is lagging behind in its implementation,' Dr Corkish said........................................".

My cute new electric car? It's a little ray of sunshine The Age Alan Gray 21 Feb 08 - "………….The solar panels on my office roof can recharge my car - a four-door, five-seater hatchback with lithium ion batteries where the petrol tank sat. The genius of Harcourt designer Ross Blade is in producing a little car that is just as user-friendly and has all the acceleration, performance and accessories of its petrol equivalent, but can be recharged from the sun or wind.

Australians have embraced grid-connected solar power systems in droves since the Federal Government doubled the rebate last year to $8000. Since then there has been a 500% increase in installation of systems that generate solar power during the day and draw power from the mains grid at night or when it's cloudy. This two-way flow of electricity is automatic, and free of any maintenance or batteries. You're buying mains power when you need to, and "selling" solar power when you have an excess. Such systems should be mandatory for all new homes and major renovations, given that hot summers threaten power cuts just when these solar power systems are pumping their peak watts into the grid.......................The solar panels will last for 30 years and, according to the US Government's Renewable Energy Laboratory, will generate the energy required to make them in 18 months or less.
…………………..There's no reason there can't be green power recharging stations at supermarkets, car parks or schools. Victorians clearly want their governments to "clean up" transport: 81% of Age readers supported the purchase of hybrid cars for the government fleet in last Saturday's daily poll. And what about powering Melbourne's tram network by green power? Surely the world's first solar-powered tram network is a great tourism marketing tool....................".
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Wind power can substitute for base-load coal ON LINE opinion Mark Diesendorf - 6 February 2008-

".................................According to our computer modelling, subsequently confirmed and extended by overseas researchers, a 20 per cent wind energy contribution to electricity generation needs a relatively small amount of peak-load back-up,

which is operated infrequently, in order to restore the reliability of the supply system to that of the pre-wind system. (References are given in The Base-Load Fallacy.)

In general, the amount of back-up declines with increasing geographic dispersion of the wind farms. ………………………..A ...detailed study by Graham Sinden from Oxford University, published in Energy Policy, vol. 35, pp.112-127, draws on 30 years of wind data from 66 sites in the UK and shows that a high degree of reliability results from genuine geographic dispersion.

To conclude, wind power, with a small amount of peak-load back-up, which is operated infrequently, could substitute for several of Australia's coal-fired power stations.

Several additional base-load coal-fired power stations could be retired by implementing efficient energy use and solar hot water, while banning electric resistance hot water systems.

A little further down the time track, bioelectricity, generated from combusting the residues of existing crops, and hot rock geothermal power could replace the remaining coal-fired power stations.

The barriers to this transition are not primarily technological or even, with a significant carbon price, economic. They are the political power of the big greenhouse gas emitting industries.

Tasmanian expertise used for wind farms in Asia Pacific including China And India eGov monitor Austrade, Govt. of Australia 17 January, 2008

Tasmanian renewable energy company, Roaring 40s, is building huge wind farms in China and around Asia and the Pacific.

Last year, Roaring 40s signed a joint development agreement with one of China's largest energy generators, the China Datang Corporation, to construct one of the world's biggest on-shore wind farms in Jilin Province, north-eastern China..................

............When the agreement was announced, Roaring 40s Managing Director, Mark Kelleher, said that the Xiangyang project firmly establishes Roaring 40s as the leading foreign renewable wind energy developer in China................

..............Mr Kelleher said that the wind energy development programme in China shows that the government is serious about its commitment to offset the impacts of climate change through the adoption of large-scale wind energy projects...................

.........In India, the company has built a 50.4 MW capacity wind farm at Khandke in Maharashta state on the west coast of India...................

...........In New Zealand, Roaring 40s is planning to build a 114 MW capacity wind farm at Titiokora in Hawkes Bay near Napier on the North Island, with approvals already through for the first stage. ................................" .

Red-hot Australia just the spot for solar energy projects The Age Alister Doyle and Chee Chee Leung with REUTERS November 29, 2007

AUSTRALIA gleams a bright red in a map that paints a vibrant picture of how solar energy reaches different parts of the world.
America's space agency, NASA, has pinpointed the world's sunniest spots by studying maps compiled by US and European satellites……

University of NSW renewable energy expert Dr Mark Diesendorf said maps such as this not only helped companies interested in building solar power stations but illustrated the energy possibilities of the sun. "Australia has got lots of solar energy potential, and it's not doing enough to tap into that."

Dr Wes Stein, manager of the CSIRO's National Solar Energy Centre, said a 2001 study showed Australia had the highest average solar radiation of any continent. "We are a very good country to do solar energy projects."

Enough already - The Age Anne Manne - August 4, 2007

We've supersized our meals, our waistlines and our houses. Anne Manne looks out on a landscape groaning under the weight of our collective gluttony. "………………………..We have worshipped at the altar of economic growth and consumption as if they are sacred things, defining what is of ultimate value. All this has become so deeply part of our thinking as usual, as natural as the air we breathe, that to suggest we might live differently seems shocking. Material desire - for ever-bigger houses, super-sized diets, the bewildering array of gadgetry filling our houses - is treated by all our major political parties as if it cannot be questioned. Suggestions that we might cut our expectations down to size are treated as scandalous.

……………………………………Houses contribute 20 per cent to national greenhouse emissions. Rather than think about new and dangerous ways to meet ever-growing demand - like nuclear power - we must design houses to work within, rather than against, our environment. New houses, even with the five-star energy rating system, are 6 per cent less efficient than older homes. Overseas, in places such as Britain and Canada, new houses achieve a seven or even nine-star rating. California averages seven stars. While Australian household electricity consumption per capita has more than doubled in the past 30 years, California's has grown by just 20 per cent. ………………………

..One aspect of a renewable city is surely living in smaller houses. They cost less to buy, less to furnish, have less space to cool and heat, and are less work to clean. Architect Sarah Susanka struck a chord with people by celebrating the small-is-beautiful theme with her successful The Not So Big House series. ………………

……….Our booming economy has another hidden trade-off. Higher productivity is not translated into more time with families. Rather, families work more hours a year to service growing consumption …………………