Last week I did a talk at Sydney University for some students during their Environment week. The topic was Future Energy Options and Opportunities, and it was about Australia, what we have done to date in changing to a future of renewable and clean energy, and what we can do in the future. And I must say, that in terms of innovation, we are among the global leaders in areas such as Solar PV and Solar Concentrating Thermal, Wave power and Geothermal. But despite our wealth as a nation, we do not support this innovation and choose to spend more on assuring our global place as a sporting nation.Projects such as the Solar Concentrating Thermal system now being made commercial in California by Ausra, were developed in Australia - this one was, and still is the passion of Dr David Mills, originally from Sydney University. Other major solar innovation in PV has also gone overseas. In wave power, it happens again. Oceanlinx, previously called Energetech Australia P/L, developed and tested their wave power system in Australia, but now are focusing on building a Wave Hub at Cornwall, UK.
Despite being endowed with a full deck of renewable energy options, we as a nation have chosen to follow the path of coal. We are the world's largest coal exporter and this means dollars for us. But I ask this question - who will buy our coal once the world has changed away from coal to renewable energy using the very considerable Aussie ingenuity?
Pic ex Wikipedia (Ausra media department, with GFDL license) shows Ausra Fresnel reflectors
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