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A year on from the abolition of the carbon price, greenhouse pollution from electricity generation has rebounded as Australia burns more brown coal to meet its power needs.
Carbon dioxide emissions from the national electricity grid jumped by 6.4 million tonnes in the financial year after the Abbott government repealed the scheme that required big industry to buy pollution permits, according to analysis by consultants Pitt & Sherry. The 4.3 per cent increase unwound part of an 11 per cent fall in emissions across the grid in the two years the carbon price was in place.
It can mainly be attributed to Victoria's four large brown coal generators running at greater capacity more often as the electricity they generate became cheaper. Output from the ageing Latrobe Valley quartet was up about nine per cent.
With the exception of burning oil for power – a practice favoured in Saudi Arabia – burning brown coal is the most greenhouse-intensive way to create electricity. Cutting emissions from the electricity supply is widely considered the central battle in tackling climate change in coming decades. It pumps out about a third of Australia's carbon pollution.
The new data comes as the federal cabinet is set to this month consider Australia's climate change targets beyond 2020 amid international pressure over Prime Minister Tony Abbott's contrarian stance on the issue.
Original Submission
(Score: 2) by frojack on Monday July 06 2015, @05:30PM
Well we do know what Musk is selling, and I'm not sure this is his area of expertise.
However, I too believe that local generation, (with grid inter-tie), has a lot of resiliency and flexibility.
Micro Nuclear [wikipedia.org] might make more sense to satisfy the grid stabilization needs where there is a bunch of solar or wind power with the resultant fluctuation in supply, plus the need for night supply. There are a lot of these designs, but the security issue is going to be an issue.
Basically it comes down to three main issues: Storage, Storage, and Storage.
The only storage that scales is Hydro dams, and everybody suddenly cares very deeply about drowned acreage on lands they would never otherwise ever even visit.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by coolgopher on Tuesday July 07 2015, @12:57AM
I wish you luck convincing the general public that Micro Nuclear is a good idea. If ever there was a NIMBY-generator, it was that...
Your three issues are right on the money though, and it really is an interesting time to live in.