Newswire

Could Australia Go Carbon Neutral By 2020?

Posted on 26 Aug 2010
in

I have just been sent a remarkable document entitled “Zero Carbon Australia Stationary Energy Plan.” As the title implies, within its pages is a proposal for how Australia might be run without the use of fossil fuels, including for transportation, by 2020. The ambitious plan, from a nonprofit called Beyond Zero Emissions and researchers at Melbourne University, hinges on developing enough concentrating solar thermal power (CST) capacity, using molten salt storage to provide a constant supply of energy, to provide 60% of the country’s power. The remaining 40% would come from wind farms, along with a smaller element of biomass and hydropower as a back-up. Some 20% of the solar installations would be built by 2014 under the plan and the rest by 2020 to a final generating capacity of 42 GWe.

Reuters: Plan Seeks 100 Pct Renewable Energy in Australia in Ten Years

Posted on 24 Aug 2010

The tipping point for climate change, after which many of its most destructive effects will become irreversible, strongly suggests that atmospheric CO2 must be reduced from its current level of 390 ppm to "well below 350 ppm‚ significantly closer to pre-industrial concentrations of 285 ppm," according to a recent report by Beyond Zero Emissions, an Australian nonprofit organization.

To achieve such reductions, however, it will be necessary for the US to reduce its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to zero within ten years. Because "Australia has about the same per-capita emissions as the USA," according to the report, it too would have to pursue the same goal.

NYTimes: Australia Steps Up Renewable Energy Efforts

Posted on 22 Aug 2010
in

SYDNEY — Australia has plans to build the biggest wind farm in the southern hemisphere by 2013, part of its scramble to fight climate change and harness its abundance of clean energy sources — wind, solar, waves, geothermal energy and bioenergy.

Renewable energy now supplies just 6 percent of power in Australia because the country has historically lacked the political and commercial will to pursue big renewable energy projects. And the very sources of Australia’s clean energy — its vast outback and nearly 60,000 kilometers, or 37,000 miles, of coast — are major obstacles to linking new, remote power sources into the grid.

ABC1 Midday News - Zero Carbon Australia Sydney Launch

Posted on 13 Aug 2010

ABC1 repeated on ABC24 hour bulletins Friday 13th of August 2010

Matthew Wright BZE ABC24 News 13aug2010 from Dan Cass on Vimeo.

SMH: How to be fully renewable in 10 years

Posted on 13 Aug 2010
in

AUSTRALIA could switch completely to renewable energy within a decade by building a dozen vast, new solar power stations and about 6500 wind turbines, according to a major new study.

The Zero Carbon Australia Stationary Energy Plan - a collaboration between Melbourne University's Energy Research Institute, the environment group Beyond Zero Emissions and engineers Sinclair Knight Merz, puts the cost at $37 billion in private funding and public investment every year for the next decade.

The price tag may make it sound like a pipedream but the scheme earned the endorsement of the federal Liberal MP Malcolm Turnbull who added his support at a forum at Sydney Town Hall last night.

TripleJ Hack: The Straw Poll show - Climate Change and the Environment

Posted on 10 Aug 2010

This is the show you asked for.

After almost 3,500 votes on the Straw Poll in just two weeks.

You nominated Climate Change and the Environment as your most important issue for Election 2010.

Now we'll give you the info you need to inform your vote.

Hack website 10 Aug 2010 edition

Listen Here

Zero carbon plan better than two zero credibility choices

Posted on 24 Jul 2010
in

As Crocodile Dundee might say if he took to the stump: "That's not a policy, this is a policy."

The Prime Minister's exercise in small-target politics in Brisbane yesterday confirmed both major parties are missing in action on climate this election.

Julia Gillard's announcement should be measured against the Zero Carbon Australia Stationary Energy Plan released last week by the green group Beyond Zero Emissions and the University of Melbourne's Energy Research Institute.

Its plan tries to answer the question: what would we do if Australia and the world were genuine about cutting emissions quickly enough to give the planet a better-than-even chance of avoiding more than 2 degrees of global warming by 2050?

Herald Sun: Scientists push new energy era

Posted on 15 Jul 2010
in

A PLAN to convert the nation's entire energy sector to renewables has been endorsed by a group of influential engineers and scientists, including miner Rio Tinto's former head scientist Robin Batterham.

The 200-page Zero Carbon Australia (ZCA) 2020 report launched last night at Melbourne University was described by Professor Batterham as "much needed" to shift the climate debate "to focus on energy, security, affordability, export and of course opportunity".

A collaboration between the university's Melbourne Energy Institute and the Beyond Zero Emissions group, the plan details how fossil fuelled power plants could be replaced in a decade at a cost of less than 4 per cent of GDP.

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