Four Corners Report Monday 16th April 2007 (will be repeated Wednesday 18th around 11.35 pm and also on ABC2 digital channel at 9.30 pm Wednesday and 8 am Thursday) Earth, Wind & Fire
Picture a windswept hillside lined with slender white skyscrapers, each crowned by a giant whirring rotor longer than a jumbo jet. Or a swathe of desert covered by a sea of mirrors drawing power from the sun.
Wind and solar projects are already in place, or planned, on a much grander scale overseas than here. For decades coal-rich Australia has regarded renewable energy as virtuous, but incapable of meeting the needs of a modern economy. It’s been too costly, not yet proven, intermittent, at best a help at the margins.
But as urgency creeps into the hunt for climate-friendly alternatives can Australia afford to go on downplaying the potential of renewable energy? How much power could we extract from sun, wind and geothermal sources, and at what cost compared with the government’s preferred solutions – nuclear power and "clean" coal?
Wind and solar projects are already in place, or planned, on a much grander scale overseas than here. For decades coal-rich Australia has regarded renewable energy as virtuous, but incapable of meeting the needs of a modern economy. It’s been too costly, not yet proven, intermittent, at best a help at the margins.
But as urgency creeps into the hunt for climate-friendly alternatives can Australia afford to go on downplaying the potential of renewable energy? How much power could we extract from sun, wind and geothermal sources, and at what cost compared with the government’s preferred solutions – nuclear power and "clean" coal?
for full transcript go to ABC website.
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