GreenPower

GreenPower enables householders to buy government accredited renewable energy from the electricity grid. It’s bought by your energy provider on your behalf, however it doesn’t actually come into your home!

Accredited GreenPower meets high environmental standards and the government program organises publicly available independent auditing of energy retailers’ sales and purchases, making sure retailers are actually investing in renewable energy sources. Occasionally, however, there are unscrupulous businesses who try to cash in on the good name of GreenPower. Check out this SMH article. It’s a rare occurrence, but it does happen.

The fuel mix adopted in a country depends on a range of factors, including local availability of fuels, technological costs, energy market structures, political and regulatory frameworks and other environmental considerations. Diversifying this mix by increasing the share of non-fossil fuels, and making fossil generation more efficient and less polluting (such as with carbon capture and storage) are must-dos.

Wind, biomass, geo-thermal (hot rocks) and solar power are renewable power sources with very low or no GHG emissions. The current Federal government is pushing to increase Australia’s capacity to produce environmentally friendly renewable electricity by driving demand for alternative energy generation. The goal is a renewable energy target of 20% by 2020. Check out the Office of the Renewable Energy Regulator  which was established to oversee this objective.

Nuclear in Australia is a very controversial issue. We have so much uranium in reserve and nuclear power is claimed to be a proven, safe, efficient and cost-effective technology that can generate electricity on a large scale with virtually no GHG emissions. However, there remains considerable public concerns and political debate around this option, especially in relation to finding acceptable solutions for long-term waste disposal and the perceived threat of terrorism. Also, there’s no history of nuclear energy production in Australia, so we’d have to import skills and knowledge to construct and maintain a nuclear option. It’s also a water intensive operation, however new designs are expected to address this production issue.

The renewable energy target shows energy policy in Australia is attempting to encourage fuel diversity, lessening our reliance on GHG intensive coal. Coal, however, is going to be around for quite a while, hence the need to make its continued use more productive and less polluting. Carbon capture and storage is a potential solution being pursued. Check out Zero Emission Energy Plants

Other technological advances will help, such as improved electricity generation, storage and transmission (to reduce losses) and improving photovoltaic performance (eg. designs with improved lifetimes and increased efficiency of converting light).

Each energy resource has its own set of specific characteristics, costs and impacts. Choosing among them, or rather, choosing the right mix, requires making tough choices. No energy resource is problem-free. Reducing one impact, risk or constraint inevitably leads to trade-offs.

While GreenPower and technological advances are important considerations in reducing GHG emissions, the most essential ingredient is for us as individuals and householders to be more efficient with what we use, especially with the reality of an increasing population.