Real solutions to high gas prices

[Simon]

This is silly. Once again, we're being held hostage by the big energy companies, and we're paying for it at the pump. Some people think more drilling is going to help, but that sort of flawed thinking is what got us into this mess to begin with. Instead of prolonging our addiction to oil, we need to look beyond fossil fuels and invest in new solutions. It's time to get real about our energy options.

Why remain captive to skyrocketing fuel prices when we can develop an economy based on efficient transportation and clean, free sources of energy (like the sun and wind)?

The We Campaign is about coming together to demand the smart, dependable and reasonably priced energy that we deserve. Energy that will strengthen the economy and stop global warming. Click here to help break our addiction to fossil fuels.

We are a great country -- with fantastic resources -- and we will not be held hostage by dirty energy companies.

Be a voice for real solutions today.

Sincerely,

Cathy Zoi

CEO

[mountainhiker]

This is silly. Once again, we're being held hostage by the big energy companies, and we're paying for it at the pump. Some people think more drilling is going to help, but that sort of flawed thinking is what got us into this mess to begin with. Instead of prolonging our addiction to oil, we need to look beyond fossil fuels and invest in new solutions. It's time to get real about our energy options.

Why remain captive to skyrocketing fuel prices when we can develop an economy based on efficient transportation and clean, free sources of energy (like the sun and wind)?

The We Campaign is about coming together to demand the smart, dependable and reasonably priced energy that we deserve. Energy that will strengthen the economy and stop global warming. Click here to help break our addiction to fossil fuels.

We are a great country -- with fantastic resources -- and we will not be held hostage by dirty energy companies.

Be a voice for real solutions today.

Sincerely,

Cathy Zoi

CEO

The issue is we are not going to make the jump overnight. We have to develop an economy based on efficient transportation and clean, free sources of energy but in the mean time we still have to have access to cheaper oil and there is only one way to do that. Countries like China are never going to break from Coal until the price of energy from Sun and Wind can be brought down.

[Simon]

Countries like China are never going to break from Coal until the price of energy from Sun and Wind can be brought down.

Interesting you say that. That reminds me about this article from Gideon: Rudd Australia Report Card #2. Climate Criminal Australia and Climate Genocide

According to that article coal is much more expensive than renewable energy like wind and sun power.

Renewables are the way – keep fossil fuels in the ground

Here are some estimates of the cost in Australian cents per kilowatt-hour (Ac/kWh) of various sources of electricity (for a detailed discussion see “Renewables: how the numbers stack up” in New Matilda: http://www.newmatilda.com/home/…/ ):

3-4 — coal, Australia;

18 — the real cost of coal, taking into account the environmental and health impact; according to a conservative Canadian Ontario Ministry of Energy Report (CAN$0.164);

15 — nuclear via the UK’s newest Sizewell B plant;

7.5-8.5 — wind power, Australia;

15 — concentrated solar power or CSP;

25-45 — standard silicon-based photovoltaics (PVs).

However recent advances means we must add the following to the list:

4 – the price of solar PV is set to fall dramatically to compete directly with the current “market price” of coal due to balloon, sliver and non-silicon PV technology advances. The non-silicon organic thin film technology developed by US Nobel Laureate Alan Heeger and his South Korean colleagues will reduce the cost of installing photovoltaic (PV) capacity by a factor of 20; the Swiss ETH CIGS non-silicon thin film system may be competitive with coal within 5 years; Australian sliver silicon PV technology will drop silicon solar panel costs threefold. In particular, the Californian balloon solar capture technology is predicted to make PV solar competitive with “market price” coal by 2010 (see “Solar energy & the end of war. US balloon technology to slash solar energy cost 90% by 2010”: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/18667/42/ ).

4 – Australian geothermal. According to Professor John Veevers (“The Innamincka hot fractured rock project” in “Lies, Deep Fries & Statistics”, editor Robyn Williams, ABC Books, Sydney, 2007; also see energy cost-related related chapters by Dr Gideon Polya “Australian complicity in Iraq mass mortality”, Dr Mark Diesendorf “A sustainable energy future for Australia”, and Martin Mahy “Hydrogen Minibuses”): “Modelled costs are 4 cents per kilowatt hour, plus half to 1 cent for transmission to grid. This compares with 3.5 cents for black coal, 4 cents for brown coal, 4.2 cents for gas, but all with uncosted emissions. Clean coal, the futuristic technology of coal gasification combined with CO2 sequestration or burial, yet to be demonstrated, comes in at 6.5 cents, and solar and wind power at 8 cents.”

Further, wave, tidal, biomass and biofuel energy technologies are renewable technologies competitive with the “true cost” of fossil fuels. Australia’s huge reserves of economic geothermal power are expertly assessed to have the capacity to provide most of Australia’s energy needs for the best part of a millennium and Australia is blessed with huge solar, tidal, wave and wind resources.