i think any news is good news on this fornt. I'm currently taking an alternative energy course at college here which should result in a goood paying job and hopefully helping out to make things better for everyone.

Australia to build world's largest solar power plant

The Australian government pledged $95 million in funding Wednesday for two projects as part of its new strategy to combat global warming, including the construction of the world's largest solar power plant.

The projects are the first to be funded under a $379 million package announced earlier this week to prevent global warming. Australia has been criticized over its refusal to sign the Kyoto Protocol on reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

The government will contribute $57 million to the $319 million project to build a 154 megawatt solar power plant in Victoria state, which will use mirrored panels to concentrate the sun's rays, Treasurer Peter Costello said.

The plant, which is to be built by Melbourne-based Solar Systems Pty Ltd., would begin operations in 2008 and reach full capacity by 2013.

"The project aims to build the biggest photovoltaic project in the world," Costello told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio.

The government also announced $38 million in funding toward a $274 million project to reduce carbon emissions from an existing coal-fired power house in Victoria. The project aims to reduce pollution in part by capturing and storing emissions from the burning coal.

"This will make a major contribution to emission reduction in Australia and it just shows practical, considered, financially viable, workable technologies which will help us on our way to reduce global warming," Costello said.

Environmental groups and opposition lawmakers have urged the government to do more to address Australia's reputation as the world's worst greenhouse gas polluter per capita. Greenpeace spokesman Danny Kennedy suspected the announcements could be a strategy to neutralize concerns about climate change ahead of elections next year.

"If the federal government's strategy is to lay out a series of ... announcements from now to the election, it is a thinly disguised attempt to avoid the real action that is needed — moving Australia away from polluting coal," he said.

The Australian Conservation Foundation said the solar power plant would be a small step toward reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

"If we really want to get serious about cutting our greenhouse emissions in Australia, the most effective way is to ensure that we're setting national targets that require greenhouse pollution to be cut and that we put a price on that greenhouse pollution, that is, make the polluters pay," the group's executive director, Don Henry, told The Sydney Morning Herald.

Australia and the United States are the only major industrialized nations to refuse to sign the Kyoto Protocol, which legally binds countries to targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 2012. Australia argues it would unfairly hamper its economy, which is heavily dependent on exporting coal, a major source of carbon emissions.

Instead, both countries have pledged money to an Asia-Pacific plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by promoting renewable energy sources and cleaner ways to use coal. Environmentalists have said the pledges are far too little and the plan focuses on untried technologies to prop up the fossil fuel industry.

i think any news is good news on this fornt. I'm currently taking an alternative energy course at college here which should result in a goood paying job and hopefully helping out to make things better for everyone.

Those wind farms are awful.

Other related news:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061025/ap_ ... ate_change

Care to expand?

i mean, it screws the view of tha place, its expensive as hell, it doesnt generate a lot of energy, but of course i like the eco-friendly factor and they have plenty of room there...so its ok.

the view thing is only a matter of opinion. a lot of people like how they look.

the energy thing depends on what you call "a lot". one onshore turbine typically has a capacity of 2MW, which probably means little to someone outside the electricity industry. i'll post some stats tomorrow when i'm at work and have the information available to me about the equivalent in houses powered/cars taken off the road etc.

also, it's not that expensive when you stack it up against other forms of energy such as photovoltaic cells or nuclear. the main reason why coal is cheaper is because the externalities such as the cost to the environment have not yet been internalised in many places in the form of a carbon tax or an emissions trading scheme. this will change, hopefully sooner rather than later.

I would venture to guess that the footprint of windfarms is significantly larger than traditional power plants, no? The cost of the real estate should be a factor as well.

The Aboriginal reserves aside, considering all the wide open land we've got, we really should be doing more with wind and solar power. No one goes out to these places anyway, and it's not like there's any rain for the farmers to grow stuff with.

the only problem is, the farther away from the grid you get, the more it costs to connect and it can make it uneconomical. plus you need areas where it is windy/sunny enough, and the windier areas tend to be nearer the coast. in principle, of course i agree

as for what i was saying earlier, for a rough guide, one typical onshore turbine will power over 1000 homes.

People have a misconception about solar, in that they think it has to be really sunny in order for it to work. With proper design, even a little bit of sun can go a long way. I think the best examples are Germany and japan, the world leaders in using solar systems - Most of Canada, even Newfoundland gets more annual sunshine than either of these places!! So it just goes to show you that you don't need for it to be always sunny. Daylighting design is actually better for cloudy days than clear days, which can significantly cut down on eletricity for artificial lighting.

Has anybody seen the Palm Springs windfarms? 4000 windmills. Supposedly they power the entire Coachella valley. It's kind of an awesome sight, in a sort of very ugly way.