With the world facing climatic and environmental crises, the time is ripe for a new industrial revolution which would progressively replace our dependency on polluting non-renewable energy capital by endlessly renewable clean energy currency, for both base load and variable power needs (''The energy debate'', July 25, p12).
With improved efficiency in building, manufacturing and transport design at the forefront, Canberra could be at the helm of this revolution, with its world-class expertise in solar technology and its electric car plan fuelled by renewable energy (July 25, p1).
From a recent Academy of Science public lecture series on renewable energy it became apparent that, given economies of scale, Australia could become a low-carbon society competitive with fossil fuels by mid-century, with great employment and export opportunities, through combined applications in concentrated solar power and storage, solar hot water systems and photovoltaics, wind, ocean and geothermal energy, with the potential for clean hydrogen manufacture for fuel cells. Methane from coalmines and organic residues would be part of the transition process, but nuclear fission, with its huge water needs and unsolved problems of radioactive waste disposal, and the untried oxymoron of ''clean coal'' cannot be part of the long-term solution, since both cause environmental pollution and use non-renewable resources.
Globally, fossil fuel and nuclear power industries attract 95 per cent of government energy subsidies. Instead of lining the pockets of big polluters through carbon trading, the Government should invest in Australia's uniquely bountiful resources of energy.
Bryan Furnass, Hughes
Taiwan lessons
Your report, ''Canberra doubles carbon use'' (July 23, p2) noted there has been a 2.6 per cent increase in the city's carbon emissions from electricity since 2005.
Electricity providers for Canberra should take a leaf out of Taiwan's book. There, significant discounts are offered to households who reduce their consumption. The scheme has been extremely successful in reducing electricity usage, so much so that the discounts for households are being expanded this month from 5-20 per cent to 10-30 per cent. The result is that within 11 months in a country with a population size close to Australia's, Taiwan has achieved a saving of $US571 million and 4.2billion kilowatt hours in power consumed with a saving in carbon dioxide emissions of 2.7million tonnes. This is clearly a successful strategy and one that our Government and electricity providers would do well to emulate.
David Turbayne, Watson
Lazy steering
Sharpe's cartoon (July 26, p18) repeats a lazy misconception. Well-to-wheel analyses generally show that electric vehicles produce no more pollution, and often less, than equivalent petrol vehicles even where the grid has a high proportion of coal.
Now, to the best of my knowledge, every electric vehicle owner in Canberra avoids charging at times of peak demand on the grid and purchases accredited GreenPower.
Soon, sustainable transport company Better Place will buy renewable energy sufficient to match what it supplies to its plug in points. Later still, vehicle-to-grid feed-in will use some of the battery capacity of plugged-in cars to smooth out the peaks and troughs of supply and demand for power, thereby increasing the efficiency of all forms of power generation.
Peter Campbell, member of the Australian Electric Vehicle Association, Cook
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