How Australia Perfected Solar Power and Then Went Back to Coal

[nationalize the fed]

Julian Morgans Vice.com Aug 27 2014

Photo: Clean Energy Council

There was a time in the 1980s when Australia led the world in solar technology. To begin with, Australia receives more solar radiation per square foot than anywhere on the planet, and that presents an obvious advantage. But the true catalyst was geography: two thirds of the country consists of uninhabited desert. This posed problems for engineers tasked with constructing a national telephone network in the early 1970s. The solution was to build remote relay stations powered with solar energy, which at the time was a fledgling, expensive technology. Yet by 1978 the national provider, Telecom, had developed reliable solar cells that could be installed affordably across the country and be infrequently maintained. International recognition came in 1983 when Perth was tapped with hosting the Solar World Congress.

Fast-forward to 2014 and Australian solar power is in a very different place. This week a proposed solar farm with 2,000 dishes—capable of powering 30,000 homes—was canceled amid uncertainty about the future of renewable energy. This comes at a time when every one of the country’s proposed solar farms are on hold and coal operators push legislation to strangle solar proliferation. So what happened?

“Power generators and NSPs (network service providers) are scared,” says Giles Parkinson, who is the editor of the green news site Renew Economy. “There will always be a grid, but it’s just a question of where that power comes from. Now we’re at the point where rooftop solar, subsidized by solar farms, is becoming a cheaper option. You see this with the internet affecting telcos, with digital cameras and film—it’s inevitable with new technology. But in Australia it's catastrophic because we used to be leaders, but we're now going backwards.”

Like most of the world, Australia swings between climate disavowal and action. In the 1980s Australian solar power was federally funded. Then, in the mid 90s, the incoming government scrapped the Energy Research and Development Corporation. Broadly speaking coal became the energy source of choice, until July 2012, when Australia introduced a fixed-price tax on carbon emissions. This carbon tax was part of a slate of climate initiatives called the Clean Energy Plan, which also legislated that 20 percent of electricity would come from renewables by 2020...
MORE: http://www.vice.com/en_au/read/how-australia-perfected-solar-power-then-went-back-to-coal

[Demeter]

1. Well, they had a conservative/fascist coup, didn't they?

No doubt with assistance from the NSA and PNAC and Rupert Murdock and the Big Miners. It's not in the interests of the 1% Elitists to support cheap, decentralized, profit-free power to the People, after all.

[kenfrequed]

2. Yeah

I will be just as happy when Murdock ends up in a prison cell for Newscorps hacking or when he shuffles off and croaks. The amount of damage he has done by being the global Goebbels for far right wing bullshit is intense. Some day someone has to add up all the misery Murdock has caused.