Clean energy jobs

By Matthew Wright

Coal’s days are numbered.

The transition to renewable energy is now well underway. It will put an end to the adverse health impacts coal mining and combustion now has on the health of Australian families such as those in the Hunter Valley. The increased rates of asthma, respiratory and cardiovascular illness that affect thousands will be a thing of the past.

In terms on climate change, the shift to renewables will do more for reducing Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions than the carbon price championed by Climate Change Minister Greg Combet and the Labor government.

For a city like Newcastle, whose development is historically linked to the coal industry, the beneficiaries of business-as-usual will no doubt present the decline of coal as a threat.

The truth of the matter is that the rise of renewable energy is an economic opportunity the likes of which we’d be foolish to miss. The Pew Charitable Trust values the economic opportunity at up to $2.3 trillion over the next decade.

New investment, new jobs, and new export industries are all there for the taking. But securing these benefits for Newcastle and Australia will require political leadership today.  

SUNSHINE COAST DAILY reports: THE Caloundra Greens are calling for Sunshine Coast residents to get behind a project to switch Australia to 100% renewable energy sources over the next 10 years.

But secretary Allan McKay has ruled out the placement of wind or solar thermal power farms on the Coast under the Zero Carbon Australia 2020 Stationary Energy Plan.

The proposal, put together by volunteer group Beyond Zero Emissions, was discussed yesterday at a Greens-sponsored public meeting at Lake Kawana Community Centre.

It detailed a rollout of large solar thermal plants at 12 proposed sites across the country to supply 60% of Australia's power, with the other 40% being supplied by wind.

Atherton, Georgetown, Collinsville and Stanthorpe in Queensland and Walcha, Orange, Cooma and Crookwell in New South Wales have been earmarked for wind plants.

Solar thermal energy is the focus for areas of Prairie, Roma, Charleville and Longreach in Queensland and Bourke and Dubbo in NSW.

Beyond Zero Emissions Strategic Director Mark Ogge at a potential Concentrating Solar Themal power site near Port Augusta, South Australia.

THE TRANSCONTINENTAL reports: An organisation that wants to convert Port Augusta’s power stations to solar thermal plants visited the city again last week to further promote its bold vision for future power generation.

Beyond Zero Emissions first proposed the idea to Port Augusta City Council in December last year but have since ramped up their campaign with conjecture that the city’s Playford B power station could close under a carbon tax scheme.

Ambitious blueprint to cut out carbon emissions is presented at the Agency’s Paris-based headquarters

Australia could shred all reliance on oil, coal and gas and become entirely dependent on renewable energy sources by the end of the decade, experts at a think-tank and an Australian university claim in a report presented at the IEA’s headquarters.

By combining wind, solar, hydro and biomass resources with a range of efficiency measures, they argue that the country’s future energy demand could be fully met. The authors of the report, in which the IEA did not participate, add that this bold target of zero carbon emissions by 2020 is achievable using technology that is already ‘on the shelf’ and currently available.

Carsten Koernig told Reuters the late surge would take the forecast past last month's increase to 2.5 GW from 2 GW.

"We're all surprised by how strongly demand is picking up now," the BSW managing director said, adding the fourth quarter was especially robust due to pent-up demand from the easing of the financial crisis and fear of looming changes in German laws.

Lower prices have also attracted investors, he said.