Solar radiation striking the earth each year is equal to about 178,000 terrawatts or about 15,000 times current global energy consumption. There is little doubt that renewable systems, in particular solar energy, offer the best hope of providing the world with a safe, clean and sustainable energy supply.
Most renewable technologies are now well proven. Renewable energy - solar, wind, micro-hydro, tidal and biomass (if sustainably harvested) - already meets about 5-7% of the world's commercial energy needs.
The Expert Group on Renewable Energy Technologies (EGRET) recently identified a number of barriers to the uptake of renewable energy in Australia and elsewhere. None of these barriers are technical. They are financial, institutional and information barriers. EGRET concludes that wide-scale application of solar technologies will be capable of producing electricity for around 5 cents/kWh within a few years. This would put solar power close to the costs of coal-fired electricity in Australia and 40-60% below the cost of nuclear power in industrialised countries.
Current obstacles to investment in energy efficiency and renewable technologies, combined with continued protection of fossil fuel industries make government policy changes imperative. Binding CO2 targets
Nuclear power has recently been promoted as a possible solution to the greenhouse problem. Such a view however is based on the premise that nuclear power represents a safe, clean, sustainable and economic alternative. Ignoring the history of nuclear issues and fundamental realities of the nuclear fuel cycle, the nuclear option remains an ineffective solution to an incompletely phrased problem.The IPCC has stated that CO2 emissions require immediate reductions of over 60% to stabilize atmospheric concentrations at 1990 levels; methane would require a 15-20% reduction. Environmental Taxation- Such taxation should be used as one of a number of mechanisms to encourage a switch to less polluting energy supplies and greater efficiency in energy use. Transportation, mining and agricultural practices need to be addressed. Initiatives need to be created to allow mutual benefit between producer, end user and the environment.
