'On again, off again' solar policy

I always ask, and now ever more pointedly, why mine coal to burn it? Why not use it for its chemical complexity as we used to? We are running out of oil: much crude oil is used to feed the chemical industry and, indeed, agriculture is oil converted to food. It’s a no brainer for me. Start to make the switch to renewables - with a big caveat which I will talk about later.

There is also another probable element to this lukewarm solar “non-policy”: the unions who protect the jobs of coal miners. And who needs to ask about the connection to the Labor party? Overt or covert, it is there. I have no argument about that and I have no wish to deprive people of their living, but now is not the time for business as usual or thinking as usual. We have a very serious and potentially disastrous climate issue looming.

I understand that solar is not the only answer. It should be part of a suite of technologies that complement each other, including wind, wave, hydro and geothermal (especially shallow bored hot water projects to provide heating and cooling).

And the first cab off the rank? Here’s the caveat: reduce demand; and get energy efficiency firmly up and functional. For the homeowner there is limited value in spending significant dollars on roof top PV systems when the demand of the home maybe as high as four times the output of the solar system. We need much more carefully framed policy and legislation to include renewables. It looks like we’ll have to wait for both.