It has long been an irony that Germany instals more solar panels than any other country, yet it receives only a fraction of the solar irradiation of a country like Australia or Spain. “At the moment, Germany dominates the solar market in Europe with a 90 percent share. But strong growth in other European countries, especially in southern Europe, will see Germany’s share fall to about 50 percent in the next few years,” Christoph Wolfsegger of EPIA told RenewableEnergyAccess.com.

Looking for news of info on renewable energy but don’t know where to look? Try searching AEoogle, the alternative energy search engine put together by Alternative Energy News and powered by Google. However there is no Australian search option, unlike Google.

Many oil industry analysts, such as Matthew Simmons, claim that the world has reached peak oil. For a visual but non-technical display of what that means click here.

Australians have an enormous appettite for fossil fuels. In 2006 Australia consumed 28 billion litres of petrol and deisel.  And Australian cars average 12 Litres per 100 kilometres. That’s very thirsty when you consider a conventional petrol car such as a Fiat Punto will use only 4.4L/ 100km.  We continue to buy large 4 wheel drives and our governments insist on spending billions on highway upgrades. Meanwhile the Parramatta to Chatswood rail line is delayed and shortened to stop at Epping. When it is built this line will include a station at Macquarie University. This will be Sydney’s first university to have its own train station! On your bike.

The September winds are still blowing, but it’s already October! Cosequently I have been asked the same question by people from Bullaburra to Brunswick and from Fitzroy to Wentworth Falls. And I have some answers, some very funky answers!

The question: How can I use all that wind energy by putting a turbine on my roof? 

The Viability of Domestic Wind Turbines for Urban Melbourne is a report just released by the Alternative Technology Association with Sustainability Victoria which addresses this question describing the  technology, physics, planning, grid connection and economics of small scale wind turbines, and it is applicable to most urban centres in Australia.

The turbine technology looks great and keeps getting better. Take the QuietRevolution vertical axis turbine, shown above. Designed for urban parks it looks like modern sculpture. Or the Hush turbine made in Melbourne.  It’s quiet, robust and operates in low wind speeds. The WindWall is designed to be mounted on the edge of buildings to capture the updraft. And the Motorwave looks like a wall of Pacmen, with dozens of small platic rotors like toy helicopter blades.

The wind industry is growing at the rate of 25% per year and has done so for the past 20 years.

The Howard Government’s announcement of a Clean Energy Target of 30,000 Gigawatt hours is welcome news. Clean Energy Council CEO Dominique La Fontaine responded on Lateline Business. As former CEO of the Australian Wind Energy Association Ms La Fontaine is well placed to comment on the effect this target will have on the wind industry. Matthew Warren business journalist at the Australian wrote recently:

The Government’s new clean energy target of about 15per cent of low-emissions electricity by 2020 effectively underwrites the existing array of state renewable targets and foreshadows an even bigger national scheme from Labor in the coming days.

Wind is expected to be the big winner from these expansions. As with the Mandatory Renewable Energy Target (MRET), electricity retailers will be required to subsidise the gap between the wholesale electricity price and low-emissions technologies. The final bill will depend on changes in these prices as well as the impact of a price on greenhouse emissions set by emissions trading from about 2011, but by 2020 is likely to be somewhere north of $6 billion.

The grassroots political group GetUp have a brilliant new ad sending up the Government’s Climate Change message.

Gippsland Austalia is home to large reserves of brown coal, a fuel of such poor quality that the world will not buy it. Instead it is burnt in Victorian power stations such as Hazelwood, shown above,  and Loy Yang. Each megawatt of electricity produces 1.55 tonnes of carbon dioxide. To put this into perspective, black coal power stations produce 1 tonne of CO2 and gas turbine power stations produce about half a tonne.

Hazelwood is the developed world’s most polluting power station, making China’s new coal fired power stations look clean by comparison. Hazelwood was due to be shut down this year. On a recent visit to the power station I was shocked to see how antiquated and decrepid it was, reminiscent of Eastern Europe factories during the communist era. The Victorian and Australian governments have just granted Hazelwood a new licence which will allow it to keep belching out CO2, NOx and heavy metals until 2031, and to contribute an extra 348 million tonnes (Mt) of climate change pollution.

 But there are many groups working to reduce our climate impacts. Be sure that the future is in good hands with the Australian Youth Climate Coalition (AYCC), who celebrated their first birthday and launched their website in Melbourne’s Chinatown this week. The Australian Climate Change Education Network (ASCENT) website was launched with the help of Dr David Karoly, climate scientist and IPCC member. Dr Karoly’s sober warning was that the earth is already locked into 450 ppm of atmospheric greenhouse gases, the level the IPCC regards as the tipping point for dangerous climate change and above 2 degrees Celsius average increase in global temperatures. Dr Karoly said that all political parties in Australia, including the Greens, have policies which fall short of preventing dangerous climate change.

Meanwhile EcoHouse In Melbourne’s St Kilda is showing how to retrofit existing housing for sustainable living. They took a 1 star rated 1960s brick veneer house and gave it a makeover to create a 5 star rated building. On the other side of the city, CERES community environmental project in Brunswick is celbrating its 25th year of operation. This 9 acre site in the city is home to community gardens, bicycle repair workshop, renewable enrgy displays, markets, cafes, an African village, an Indonesisn village, sweat lodge and many more community facilities and activities. It is a focus for community building, education, outreach and appropriate technologies.

During World War II the motivation to build weaponry was immense. Factories were retrofitted within months to make ammunition, guns and uniforms. “We can do the same thing with renewable energy”, says Derek Povel of Clean Energy for Eternity . “It’s ambitious but achievable”.

And to meet the 50/50 by 2020  goals it is necessary to be ambitious. To reduce energy use in the Bega Valley by 50% will require a radical rethink of energy efficiency. And to source 50% of electricity used in the Valley from renewable sources will require massive investment in wind, solar and biomass facilities. The timeframe is tight to achieve all this by 2020. But already nine shires in SE NSW have committed to these goals. The region has been identified as a place that supports renewable energy. People are excited by it. 

A local dairy farmer has just returned from Austria and is telling neighbours about how some Austrian dairy farmers are making more money from selling methane than from milk. The methane is generated from the decomposition of cow manure in special digesters. This bioenergy is a potential source of fuel for conversion to heat, electricity or transport fuel.

And now Clean Energy for Eternity is looking further afield to see how other communities have used renewable energy to improve their sustainability. The town of Daylesford will soon become the sight of Australia’s first community wind farm thanks to the work of local group Hepburn Renewable Energy Association. And Power4Community is using the same model to develop a wind farm in Central West NSW.

Today the sun is shining and it feels like spring has arrived. The first apricot blossom has burst and I planted zucchinis. Is this really spring or will the zucchs be killed by frost?

When we moved into our 1950s fibro and tile house we were charmed by the original bathroom. With its matching pink bath, basin and toilet, sky blue fibro walls and old fashioned taps it was both practical and durable. However the toilet used 15 Litres per flush and leaked constantly as new parts were not available. It had to go.

But what do you do with a cracked pink toilet pan? I stuck it in the front garden and got on with planting my fruit salad trees. There are two varieties of apple grafted onto one tree, while another has a yellow fleshed peach and a white fleshed nectarine. Then I bought some strawberry runners and wondered where to plant them out of the way of snails and chooks. The pan beckoned. I’m looking forward to picking plump pink berries from the pink tiolet.

Resigning from my job three weeks ago has proved to be a liberating experience. I returned the company car, a huge four-wheel drive, and rode home on my pushbike. Immediately I felt that I had done something positive to help our ailing planet. My wife said she is happy we don’t have a car because now she has to ride to work. Walking or riding pushbikes is our main form of transport. Sometimes it takes longer, but it is more fun. For longer trips we take the train or ride the motorbike. Occassionally I borrow or rent a car.

All this bike riding is great training for the Bicycle Victoria’s 2008 Great Escapade which starts in Katoomba and ends 13 days later in Newcastle. It is not until April next year so you’ve got plenty of time to dust of the Malvern Star and get training.

I’ve just checked the weather forecast. Winter will return in a few days so I’ll cover up those zucchinis