Editorials

SOLAR IS THE ANSWER

19/03/05 14:41 Filed in: My Ideas
Australia has the ability to be the world centre of excellence for energy in the future.

Australia has the largest uranium deposits in the world. But we must find solutions to all the problems of the nuclear waste and the management of the power plants before we develop the natural resource.

There’s no reason why Aussies can’t make the break through in technology. It will be done by someone … we must ensure that it’s an Aussie research team that does it. Which means we need to fund a centre of excellence to solve all the problems.

But I reckon solar is where Australia can shine.

It won’t be easy.

The Federal Australian Government has to do what the US Government did when transistors were developed after WW2.

The cost of a transistor was prohibitive. Remember valves? In your Boom Box, in the TV?

The US Government bought so many of them for the Military that the unit price came down so much that they could put them in a new form of wireless radio. It became the Transistor Radio and within ten years a kid could buy one for eight dollars.

This is what needs to be done, right now.

The highest priority has to be given to the new photo-voltaic cell being developed at Canberra Uni in conjunction with the CSIRO. The per-watt price of cell will drop dramatically.

The Federal Government has to agree to replace EVERY street light in Australia at its own expense. Such an order will lead to an acceleration of the world-class development of battery technology.

The Federal Government has to subsidise the replacing of roofing tiles with solar-powered tiles to ensure that every new house and as many existing houses as possible can be powered with a secondary low voltage system.

All the kitchen downlights are already twelve volts. In your kitchen roof is a transformer reducing the power, (by-product: useless heat), so you can have sexy downlights.

You can run TVs, all internal lights, sound-systems and computers with low power. (No? how bright are your car’s headlights?),

The heavy stuff is still needed for white goods and cooking.

The Federal Government has to subsidise the replacing of hot water systems with solar-powered systems to ensure that every new house and as many existing houses as possible can switch over.

Only with such a dramatic change can Australia lead the world and make solar power truly viable. It’s just sitting there to be grabbed.*

* (2009) It wasn’t grabbed. The two solar experts at the CSIRO have left Australia after having received little support for their work. One has gone to China to work on Solar, the other to the USA to work on Solar film.

March 19th 2005

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