Earth, Wind & Fire - 4 Corners

There was a great story on the ABC program "Four Corners" on Monday night
about power generation in Australia and around the world.
I reckon that it was something that everyone in the country should watch,
especially as it contradicts some of the stuff that has been quoted by our
politicians
regarding alternative energy sources.

You can also download it from the ABC website
(see the link below)

Video on Demand
http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/content/2007/20070416_energy/video.htm


Earth, Wind & Fire
Reporter: Jonathan Holmes
Broadcast: 16/04/2007
Picture a windswept hillside lined with slender white skyscrapers, each
crowned by a giant whirring rotor longer than a jumbo jet. Or a swathe of
desert covered by a sea of mirrors drawing power from the sun.
Wind and solar projects are already in place, or planned, on a much
grander scale overseas than here. For decades coal-rich Australia has
regarded renewable energy as virtuous, but incapable of meeting the needs
of a modern economy. It?s been too costly, not yet proven, intermittent,
at best a help at the margins.
But as urgency creeps into the hunt for climate-friendly alternatives can
Australia afford to go on downplaying the potential of renewable energy?
How much power could we extract from sun, wind and geothermal sources, and
at what cost compared with the government?s preferred solutions ? nuclear
power and "clean" coal?
Jonathan Holmes looks to the future ? California ? to gauge the challenge
that faces Australia. Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has joined
hands with Democrat legislators to set some of the world?s most ambitious
targets for cutting greenhouse emissions and boosting renewable energy. In
just three years 20 per cent of California?s power will have to come from
renewable energy. There?s serious consideration to making that target 33
per cent by 2020.
Australian entrepreneurs are flocking to the Californian action. A Sydney
based company is financing a wind farm there that will produce twice as
much power as all Australia?s wind farms put together. An Australian solar
thermal technologist has scored the backing of futurist Vinod Khosla,
founder of Sun Microsystems. ?It?s cheap,? explains Khosla to Four
Corners, when asked what he likes about the technology. Khosla expects to
make money and help the climate too.
Can Australia, whose coal-fired power stations currently produce power at
half the price of Californian electricity, provide enough incentive to
attract investment to ambitious solar and geothermal schemes that are
still in their infancy? Is Australia in danger of getting left behind?
Khosla says "most industrial advantage in the world comes through
innovation. And if you stick with coal, you won?t have that."
http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/content/2007/s1895335.htm