There is good news and bad news about the Australian elec-
tricity system. The bad news is that total electricity demand,
which had been stable for a few years, has increased signii-
cantly in the past year. The environmental impact of this growth
has been compounded by a larger share of the power coming
from coal-ired generators. Down to 72% in 2013–14 when
we had a price on carbon dioxide emitted, coal accounted for
76% of the generation last year.
The other worrying factor is that the growth in electricity
use is almost entirely due to the coal seam gas industry in
Queensland, a combination of the power being used to develop
the gas ields and the need to liquefy the gas for export. It’s
been projected that the coal seam gas industry will add about
8 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year to Australia’s emis-
sions when it becomes fully operational.
The good news is that the harnessing of solar energy continues
to expand. Curtin University’s sustainability professor Peter
Newman recently commented on the number of solar panels
now being used in the south-west of Western Australia, covering
the greater Perth region. About 20% of homes there now have
solar cells on the roof, generating about 500 MW of peak power.
This makes the combined power production “the largest power
station in WA,” Newman said. The output of solar panels is
equivalent to about 15% of the greatest peak demand last year.
The expansion of air conditioning in buildings means that elec-
tricity demand now peaks on summer afternoons, roughly coin-
ciding with the time when solar cells are most productive.
Newman expects that as many as half of the households in the
region will have solar energy installed by 2020.
What we are seeing locally is a relection of the global revolu-
tion. Last year the number of new installations of wind (63 GW)
and solar (47 GW) worldwide was comparable withAustralia’s
total installed capacity of wind and solar (about 50 GW). The
growth rates are startling. The new solar generation added 37%
to the 2014 capacity, while wind power grew by 17%. Together
with hydroelectricity, bio energy, geo thermal and marine power
systems, more than 150 GW of renewable generating capacity
was commissioned last year.
That sort of revolution is needed in Australia if the promise
of electric vehicles is to be realised. With more than 75% of
our electricity still coming from coal, electric cars would actu-
ally increase greenhouse gas emissions.The controversy over CSIRO’s proposed cuts to
public-good science continues to rumble around.
A Senate hearing provoked one senior manager,
Alex Wonhas, to deny the impression that CSIRO
will abandon public-good research. That view was
fuelled by 700 pages of internal documents that
were brought into the open by the Senate inquiry.
The e-mail exchanges between CSIRO managers
contained statements about not doing “science
for science sake” (sic) and “public good is not
enough, needs to be linked to jobs and growth”.
One message speciically advocated a “clean cut”
to get rid of “public good / government-funded
climate research” on the grounds that anything
less radical would keep some scientists who would
“no longer be aligned with the new CSIRO strategy”.
As I write, there is still no clear picture of the speciic job
losses. The Senate inquiry was told that the director of the divi-
sion concerned had proposed cutting 35 scientiic posts in the
climate area, but was told by the chief executive Larry Marshall
that 100 should go. A meeting between Marshall and scien-
tists in the Land and Water division ended with staff walking
out.
Senators questioned Marshall for 2 hours at an early April
Senate hearing, but Senator Janet Rice described the CEO as
“completely evasive”. It came out that senior managers had
decided at a November 2015 meeting to use private e-mail
addresses “to avoid undue stress to other staff”.
While Marshall’s stated goal is to position CSIRO as an
“innovation catalyst”, Wonhas assured the Senators that the
organisation remains committed to public-good research. I
hope it is: studies suggest that every dollar spent returns about
$10 to the community.MAY 2016| | 49LOWE TECH Ian Lowe
The Electric Vehicle Challenge
Installations of solar and wind energy will need to maintain their pace to ensure that the coming
demand for electric vehicles won’t be powered by fossil fuels.
Ian Lowe is Emeritus Professor of science, technology and society at Griffith University.CC BY-SA 2.0