AUSTRALIA ZERO EMISSIONS BY 2020

Australia Group Rolls Out Plan for 100% Renewable Energy by 2020
February 22, 2010 (SolveClimate)

"A report to be released in the first half of this year finds that Australia can use solar and wind power to produce 100 percent of its electricity in 10 years using technologies that are available now.

"…[Zero Carbon Australia 2020 by Beyond Zero Emissions] is based on the research of engineers and scientists…Australia now gets nearly 80 percent of its power from coal plants. Only 1 percent comes from wind power; less than half of 1 percent comes from solar energy…"

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"The report calls for 40 percent of power to come from wind turbines. Concentrating solar power (CSP) plants, with molten salt to store energy, would form the backbone of the scheme, providing 60 percent of total electricity…CSP uses mirrors instead of solar cells to collect sunlight to produce steam and drive turbines to produce power…[A] 50-square-kilometer area covered in solar mirrors could theoretically meet all of Australia's electricity demand.

"The report claims that 20 percent of the proposed CSP systems could be installed in four years, from 2011 to 2015…12 sites with a capacity of 3,500 megawatts each have already been selected for the solar installations…[B]iomass co-firing would be needed to back up solar plants in the throes of winter. The plan would also require new transmission lines between the solar- and wind-intensive areas and population centers…[It] calls for the total elimination of natural gas, not just coal…[and] envisions 100 percent electric vehicles by 2020…"

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"…[T]he plan is ambitious…[yet] feasible…despite the price tag…The cost of quitting carbon entirely is estimated at around $36 billion per year, or up to 3.5 percent of Australia's annual GDP…Chances for any kind of clean power transformation appear slim in Australia. The Senate in December failed to pass climate legislation that would cut greenhouse gas emissions by 5 percent by 2020 through a cap-and-trade program. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's Labor government says it will reintroduce the legislation in late February.

"The Beyond Zero Emissions plan…has been publicly endorsed by the Australian Greens…So far, the group has not received any real backlash from opponents…Wind and solar power could completely displace conventional fossil fuels, with no new nuclear power needed…Stanford University and University of California-Davis researchers] published a plan for 100% renewable energy for the entire world by 2030, fueled by a mix of solar, wind and hydroelectric power…with construction costs for [such] a global electricity shift…[around] $100 trillion worldwide over 20 years…"