Evidence has spurred doubts about the Government reaching its 2030 renewable energy target, but Dermot Daley says there is still a way.
THE GOVERNMENT has set 2030 as the end date for fossil fuels in energy production, with some of the older coal generators planned to be phased out in advance as their operation ceases to be economically viable.
The guarantee of alternate energy sources to meet 24-hour demand requires urgent attention.
The Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) has determined that batteries are a useful way of storing energy, and they want more homeowners to install solar and a battery.
Australia is an ideal environment for photovoltaic (PV) energy production, with most roofs able to generate more electricity than is consumed within the building.
However, besides reducing coal-generated electricity, there are few initiatives to install solar and harness the energy. Renters would require permission and assistance from the property owner to meet the capital outlay to install solar.
Another disincentive is the low feed-in tariff (FIT), averaging from three to seven cents for each kilowatt hour (kWh) of energy fed into the grid (in Victoria, for example), compared with potentially more than 40 cents per kWh to buy back power when the sun is not shining. Along with existing subsidies from the Federal Government to fossil fuel generators, this represents an unearned and unreasonable transfer of wealth into corporate hands.
Many domestic buildings don't have roofs shaped to accommodate solar and many are overshadowed by trees or adjacent buildings. However, there are acres of industrial and commercial buildings with large expanses of flat roofs, making them most suitable for solar collection.
As has been demonstrated, instead of having each property purchase and manage its own battery, cooperative neighbourhood schemes can be implemented where privately owned buildings producing solar can feed their surplus energy into strings of batteries. These batteries can be located within ground enclosures such as with existing sub-stations; or on poles similar to existing transformers. Consumers within the "catchment" can then sell and buy electricity at predetermined rates using the existing power distribution infrastructure.
If the right balance of rooftop cells and battery storage along with regional wind, tide and wave generation is achieved, the stored energy will adequately meet demand through the night when commercial and industrial use is reduced; as well as during winter and on cloudy days.
What's worth stressing is that if the uptake of electric vehicles grows as projected, there will need to be a matching supply of energy for when these vehicles are garaged and recharged overnight.
A side issue and word of caution — batteries have positive and negative sides.
Many people will remember the transition from cathode ray tubes in domestic computer monitors and televisions to LED flat screens, where the e-waste was junked on suburban nature strips and ended up in landfills. Governments were blindsided and had no strategy in place to manage the technological change. Their specialist advisers had let them down.
We are currently on a similar path with end-of-life for batteries and this does not bode well.
When a lithium-ion battery catches fire, the gases released are highly toxic and the resulting thermal load cannot be controlled by conventional extinguishing practices.
Small button batteries have been known to be ingested by infants.
Smoke detectors contain radio-active elements as well as batteries, and the batteries in computers, small appliances and vapes are often discarded in general waste, creating hazards of fire, radiation and explosion for waste collection workers.
Governments must act to manage this risk to society.
A measure to consider may be to apply a consumer charge for disposal and recycling at the point of sale, somewhat akin to the container deposit scheme now operating in most States and territories.
Our Federal Government, hypnotised by the three-year election cycle, has been indecisive, and allowed the dissemination of unattainable promises on hydrogen and nuclear energy solutions, despite clear evidence that neither of these could be operational in time and that neither of these can be achieved without consequential risk throughout their life-cycle.
As the saying goes, “follow the money” where it becomes evident that those hoping for excessive profits from their speculative investments are closely allied with political and media interests who are complicit in their quest.
The role of government in a democratic society is always to seek the best long-term outcome for the whole population; it is not there as a tool for get-rich-quick entrepreneurs to hijack.
The global transition from fossil fuels to renewables represents a technological tsunami that will wash over us irrespective of our race, colour or creed.
Naysayers and others profiting from over-heating the planet will cry poor and claim that their Earth-destroying industries are supporting "jobs, jobs, jobs".
The outcry is the sound of greed.
A precedent for rapid industrial change occurred when the farriers, wheelwrights, saddlers, stable hands, and feed suppliers of the horse and buggy era were made redundant by the automobile at the start of the 20th Century, and were readily employed in new mechanical technologies.
One definitive and progressive step for the Australian Government could be to let market forces establish which sources of energy are economically and environmentally viable.
This could be easily achieved through a bill decreeing that (from, say 30 June 2026) subsidies would cease and all energy produced be paid at the same rate and that energy consumed be charged a rate (of maximum 15 per cent higher), to meet overheads. Thus, all energy generated (domestic solar, commercial solar, hydro, wind, wave, nuclear, coal, gas or hydrogen) would be paid the same rate per kWh for distribution.
This would allow the industry four years to adapt to meet the 2030 emissions deadline.
Let us hope that the public at large will cease believing the lies of overpaid toadies and cease trusting them to make the best decisions on their behalf.
Right now we are sleepwalking into oblivion.
Dermot Daley is a fourth-generation Australian, living in Victoria, now retired from construction project management.
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