[LINK] Still FUD - Was - Fears meltdown has begun as radiationspreads

[Tom Koltai]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: link-bounces at mailman.anu.edu.au 
> [mailto:link-bounces at mailman.anu.edu.au] On Behalf Of Gordon Keith
> Sent: Friday, 1 April 2011 8:52 AM
> To: link at mailman.anu.edu.au
> Subject: Re: [LINK] Still FUD - Was - Fears meltdown has 
> begun as radiationspreads
> 
> 
> On Thu, 31 Mar 2011 12:23:28 PM Tom Koltai wrote:
> > At this time, our only economically [short term - next 20 years]] 
> > viable option for power generation with renewable energy 
> constituting 
> > less than 7% of all power generated, [1 - refs below] is either 
> > Nuclear or Coal.
> 
>http://beyondzeroemissions.org/zero-carbon-australia-2020
>lays out a fully costed plan to convert Australia to 100% renewables by
2020 
>without the use of nuclear.

>Seems reasonable to me, but I'm not an expert.

>Regards
>Gordon


Ditto, seems reasonable but Im no expert either. 
In fact Gordon, after a quick scan, I would suggest it is a great plan,
almost grandiose.

Yet I learned in 2005 that vested interests (coal) block almost every
proposal to government for alternative energy plans.
Which of course is why I am so pleased that Clover Moore has adopted the
concept of Gas Turbines fed by alternative fuel sources.

It would seem that to get things done in this country for the benefit of
the country, one needs to find independent politicians with an ethical
conscience.

I believe the authors missed some leading research from UNSW, i.e.:
using Solar to Crack H20 at super critical temperatures on a distributed
basis to feed those Gas Turbines.

The report also claim that the lead times for Nuclear is 19-20 years.
There are small compact 5/10 MW nuclear plants delivered in a shipping
container that are self sufficient for 30 years. [1]

Unfortunately because our politicians only see as far as the next
election, very few long term infrastructure projects are gambled on.

The NBN is an excellent example of the political problem and it will
doubtless bring down Labor. Just as the introduction of additional
Nuclear plants will doubtless bring down the Libs...

This leaves us in a very dark strategic place. 

Everyone knows that Coal is killing us, yet no-one is prepared to take a
long term stand because of the potential political fallout.

Sometime ago, Stephen was telling us about hot rocks and we had a lively
discussion about transmission loss. (2 Kw per kilometre)

Unfortunately, the same problem applies to acres of PV,  wind turbines
or molten salt towers in the middle of the outback... Somehow we have to
get the electricity back to the consumers.

The document appears to be an excellent manifesto and discussion of
possibilities and appears to be written so that any politician that
picks it up will be able to understand it.

I hope the project gets a green light. Because we need to start making
something in this country.
We need to start making something soon.
Anything really.

But large scale PV systems would seem like a worthwhile, ethical and a
most excellent export product.
We would appear to have all the components required to build high
quality solar (and wind) systems in Australia.

Additional commentary:
To lower the CO2, we need to start building smarter buildings. [2] 
i.e.: No more heat absorbing concrete roof tiles...

The report suggests that :

Quote/
"Wave, tidal and enhanced geothermal power are
technologies that are on the horizon, but as yet have
not overcome all technical hurdles nor have they been
demonstrated at scale."
/Quote

In response I would say that the authors have not been to NZ [3] or
Steamboat, Nevada [4]. 
Nor is there any mention of Kalina Cycles (waste heat recovery) which is
surprising because when you have that much heat...

A final comment on vested interests...
Who will buy the power when the Chinese stop buying iron ore ?[5]

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toshiba_4S
[2] http://blog.rmi.org/UniverseDataFingertips
[3] http://www.industcards.com/geo-new-zealand.htm
[4] http://www.industcards.com/geo-usa.htm
[5] Koltai FUD but with some basis...
http://www.sbs.com.au/dateline/story/transcript/id/601007/n/China-s-Ghos
t-Cities

/body