Dirty weather to become the new normal weather?

We are edging ever nearer to the goal of total renewable power in Australia. The ACT is installing Australia’s largest solar farm (ironically supplied by a Spanish firm!) which will move it closer to their 2020 target. South Australia made 26% of its power from wind last year, and all the rooftop solar panels across the country now account for half of the peak output of the Snowy hydro power stations. Thus we are getting a broadly distributed mix of renewable power inputs into the national grid – every one, big or small, makes an important contribution.

This is great progress compared top where we were 10 years ago, even 5 years ago. And it is accelerating. Investment in renewable energy is the fastest growing in the whole energy sector. Any serious consideration of nuclear power is being left in the shade of the solar farms, wind turbines and other emerging technologies.

Envirotecture clients have been installing rooftop solar power at rates well above the national average, which is not surprising, given their typical enthusiasm for sustainable solutions! And interestingly, the politicians’ on-again/off-again tomfoolery with rebates and gross feed in tariffs has not dampened that enthusiasm. In fact, when you do the numbers, it makes more sense to actually borrow the money at bank rates to fund a generous PV system, then reap greater savings over a 10 year period. Modelling typically shows it to be at least $500p.a. cash flow positive. That cash can then repay the loan faster, or get spent on something useful.

Of course, as we have said many times, energy efficiency is the first step towards any future power solutions, and in that regard we also have some runs on the board. Our total power demand has reduced since 2004, not just per capita, but in toto. We are getting smarter – because we have to. Yet as a community we still have further to go – there is much more we can do to be efficient, especially in regard to building design: daylighting, thermal performance, operational energy.

It’s all possible – we can do this!