Australia Could Be Carbon Neutral By 2020 ... Theoretically

Mother Nature Network:

You have to give it to the advocacy organization Beyond Zero Emissions. They are not being set back by the failure of the Australian government to pass even a 5 percent reduction in CO2 emissions by 2020. A new report they commissioned in conjunction with two universities, Melbourne University and Australian National University, claims the country, which is blessed with both abundant solar and wind resources, could go entirely carbon-neutral in just 10 years.

Read the whole story: Mother Nature Network

Comments

[Stefan Zeiss]

02:46 AM on 02/24/2010

Let the Australians eat cake.

[SteveEbenedicT]

02:04 AM on 02/24/2010

Go Australia Go! Drive your economy into the ground the way AlGore and BubbaClinton hope for. You'll be making the USA look like an economic miracle. America Fück Yea #1.

[quillsinister]

05:42 PM on 02/24/2010

So much better to continue the constant economic bloodletting that is the oil trade. It makes perfect fiscal sense to keep borrowing unholy scads of money from China to buy oil from Middle Eastern reactionaries who turn around and funnel it to terrorist groups, justifying an enormous military presence in the region to safeguard the flow. That sounds like a great way to keep an economy thriving!

[sethdayal]

01:31 AM on 02/24/2010

Y'd all do well to read the following studies regarding the current nuclear debate in Australia

http://bravenewclimate.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/lang_solar_realities_v2.pdf

http://bravenewclimate.com/2009/09/10/solar-realities-and-transmission-costs-addendum/

Summary:

Solar PV with Pumped Hydro storage: $2,800 billion
Solar PV with NaS battery storage: $4,600 billion
Solar Thermal with storage: $4,400 billion
Nuclear Power: $120 billion

"Just the cost of the Power Transmission TRUNK lines (500kv AC - not superexpensive superconducting ) to supply Australia with Wind & Solar Energy is $180 billion -- 50% MORE THAN THE ENTIRE NUCLEAR OPTION!!

CO2 emissions for all of Australia for 30 days:

Solar PV: 71 million tonnes
Coal: 219 million tonnes
Coal with CCS: 33 million tonnes
Nuclear: 3.3 million tonnes"

[quillsinister]

05:38 PM on 02/24/2010

Nuclear energy is not a long term solution. Unless you have an asteroid made of solid uranium tucked away in orbit somewhere, we're going to run out of the stuff pretty quickly.

Could it buy us the time to get on renewables and ease the effects of peak oil? Absolutely. Can we count on it for more than a few decades? No.

[sethdayal]

06:04 PM on 02/24/2010

You need to inform yourself before commenting.

With modern efficient generation 3.5 reactors able to use reprocessed and thorium fuels, a huge current supply of natural uranium and orders of magnitude more efficient fast breeder reactors like Sandia and Toshiba's new designs there is sufficient nuclear fission fuel to last hundreds of years. Thorium is five times as abundant as uranium.

Gen IV reactors like the LFR and thorium LFTR's would supply all the worlds energy needs for the next several centuries burning old nuclear waste. They cannot meltdown, are safe from terrorists and have almost a zero GHG footprint. Gen IV reactors have worked for many years in the past before Big Coal/Oil got you to shut them down in the west, but many are working now in China, India and Russia, and several more are under construction for service within two years. These reactors powered the Soviet Alfa class sub for decades.

India's new nuke waste burning 500 Mw GenIV power plant is coming into service next year at a cost of $1.5B/Gw after a six years in a first of a kind construction process.

[urchinsadrift]

09:52 PM on 02/24/2010

Heck. Oil shale and coal will last us a couple decades

[realpolitic]

11:00 PM on 02/23/2010

Go Aussies and throw one on the barbie for me!

[quillsinister]

07:53 PM on 02/23/2010

Go Aussies. I hope they make it.

[Jpwill]

01:16 PM on 02/23/2010

Good luck to them. Australia has more to lose than many countries when it comes to global warming...

http://www.greenexplorer.ovi.com/getinspired/oceania/take-the-plunge-before-its-too-late/

Which makes it all the more rubbish that they're doing so little

[Please-Play-Fair]

01:03 PM on 02/23/2010

Where does Australia get most of the energy (source) from?

[tenderlung]

07:42 PM on 02/23/2010

Coal, at the moment.

[Please-Play-Fair]

10:07 PM on 02/23/2010

And they can still be carbon neutral in 10 years?? Wow.