Wind Power on Radio National

ABC's Radio National Background Briefing program aired "An Ill Wind", an interesting expose on Wind Farms last weekend (Sunday 26 May 13). Key points included a discussion on the so called 'health effects" and the various claims and counter claims by those concerned. Most authorities who have investigated the effects of wind farms on health of those exposed show no ill effects. Anecdotal 'evidence' suggests otherwise.
An Auckland PhD student, Fiona Crichton,  investigated this in the controlled environment in her laboratory.
Most telling was the statement "Because infrasound is below the threshold of human hearing and you actually can't detect it, you can tell people they're being exposed to infrasound and they're not." Its called a Sham Paradigm.

Wind Turbines 2007

So that is what she did, exposed two groups of people to infrasound and no infrasound, after priming them differently (high expectancy of suggestion of ill health, and low expectancy"
The results: "In the high expectancy group they experienced an elevation of symptoms both during sham and during infrasound. The low expectancy group didn't experience any symptomatic change at all. There was no physiological impact of the infrasound, but it was all about expectancy"

As a librarian I see many of our pop psychology books discuss the power of  positive thinking. "The Secret" by Rhonda Byrne, was particularly popular the last few years.
So this study demonstrates the negative aspect of the human mind, the belief that things will make you ill leading to ill health. Its all about expectancy!

But of course, those affected, would never change their mind!

Programs such as these on the ABC are often not aired by the commercial media. Which makes the Getup Campaign to Save the ABC and SBS from interference and cuts all the more necessary.

So can we save the Bananas from a liberal Blend?

Sunshine in Winter

This morning was cold and crisp. Great swathes of white fog concealed the roads and the ghostly car lights meant cautious driving was needed for my trip to the local heated swimming pool.
But once I emerged, exercise having warmed my blood, the bright wintry sunshine kept my spirits warm.

My solar panels are still generating about 3 kwH per day, which is not bad, but nowhere near enough to keep my house going. Fortunately the house is designed not to need heating on these sunny winter days, until the sun goes down when the efficient wood heater kicks in.

The Melbourne Solar Conference 2013 was held yesterday and today. Barely a peep in the press until today when the Opposition Environment Spokesman Greg Hunt indicated that the Coalition promises to scrap any contracts entered into by the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), set-up recently to encourage action for renewable energy.
Given this agency was set-up to be as independent from Government and was initially supported by the Coalition in Opposition, I wonder why this change has occurred.
The Coalition favours Direct Action for its Climate Change Policy. Surely ARENA would be an important mechanism for such Direct Action by funding a number of projects?? Or does the Coalition only mean to encourage Soil Carbon as its only action?
Putting all its eggs into one basket is certainly direct and dumb!
Who has been whispering sweet $$ into the Coalitions ear? The Electricity companies perhaps, whose business models of high peak electricity costs are being undermined by all the distributed generators us solar people have installed?
Certainly the car companies have demonstrated they can only surivie in Australia with Government support.
My Facebook feed generated this report http://tinyurl.com/d3oophl on the same topic in the US.
Action is certainly needed on Climate and not the Coalitions wrecking Action!!!

Wintry Woes- Budget time!

This last week or so is the time of the annual State and Federal Government Budgets. So along with the change to a cold and wintry weather, we have the various governments fiscal woes.
Last night the Federal Opposition Coalition Leader Tony Abbott gave his rebuttal of the governments budget.
The Federal Labor Government has made a mess - promising a surplus and delivering a resounding deficit for the next ten years, or so the commentary goes.
Mr Abbott promises to keep all the Governments savings and slash Public sector Jobs, abolish the Carbon and Mining Profits Tax, but keep paying out compensation to the Electricity and other large companies hit by the Carbon Tax. Various other  "savings" will occur so we can have paid parental leave, a scheme somewhat more generous than the current one. Other cuts include low income offsets to superannuation, and a delay of increasing superannuation contributions, all of which hit low income earners more.

At the same time, reports that the CO2 levels in the atmosphere has reached 400ppm and indications from various sources that the Carbon Tax, Solar and Energy Efficiency measures are working to not only cut emissions but also saving $$ in normal home owners pockets.
The Business Spectator reports that SP Ausnet's figure show Home Energy Efficiency Regulations  in Victoria are helping to reduce household gas usage. A measure the Queensland Government recently scrapped.
So what do you want? $600 in savings from taxes to spend on whatever you want, who cares about carbon pollution? Or a Carbon Tax that hits you each year through electricity prices, while watching regulations, solar and other efficiencies measure save you a similar number of dollars in living costs?

The Carbon Tax is less invasive than the GST was, has had a smaller effect on the economy as a whole as the GST and is a tax on pollution. The big miners are saying Australia is uncompetitive (I'm not linking to her speech here!). The high Australian $$, caused by the mining boom, have certainly helped wreck the small business exporters.  And those on the lowest income levels certainly are uncompetitive, in earning a living!
Lucky country indeed!

Solar 'Breakthrough' in the News

This headline "Breakthrough in Solar Efficiency by UNSW Team Ahead of its Time" caught my eye after the morning radio talked to Professor Stuart Wenham, University of New South Wales.

The research into solar photovoltaic panels has been going for 30 years or more and the University of NSW has been one of Australia's leading lights. So this research breakthrough, that of developing technology to use  lower grade silicon is welcome.

Many research breakthroughs go on to enhance products we the consumer can buy and lets hope the potential of this one will filter through quickly to production. Anything that decreases the cost of solar panels is good news.

But many of Australia's R & D is sent overseas to be manufactured. Manufacturing here is hard with high costs of labour, machinery and property. Like CSIRO's long fight to claw back royalties from infringed patents over wi-fi, lets hope this discovery, if found to be as good as the media hype, enables any $$ earned to be ploughed back into more solar research & large scale development.

I hope to enhance my current solar generation with more panels in the future, so cheaper means better for me and I hope the environment. I wonder what happened to the Solar Sliver research? This article paints the sad picture with a comment from Origin energy "that current market circumstances did not support investment in new technology."

Going Solar Report - 1 Million Australian Households with Rooftop Solar

As Australia celebrated the passing of the 23 Million person in the country, so the Centre for Policy Development has found, 1 million households have installed rooftop Solar in its new report "Going Solar".
The ABS puts the average household size at 2.6 people, meaning 2,600,000 Australians or possibly more think having Solar on their roof will help ameliorate the anticipated electricity price rises.

Going Solar Report, Centre of Policy Development

So I will take time to sit in the sun streaming through my north facing windows and read this report. Particularly the parts on Feed-In-Tarriffs, solar consumer complaints and demographics of those who installed solar. This last relates to a previous report by Australian Government and the Solar PV Program by Andrew MacInstosh of the Australia Insitute and reported by me on 29 Nov 2010 . Equity of access to solar is a problem, but so is equity of access to housing for low-income individuals. I haven't noticed support for various schemes to encourage first home buyers to be abandoned because some can't access that scheme.

Andrew mentioned here that the take-up of solar was by the more affluent households. I would argue, from looking at the large numbers in my suburb whose socio-economic status is middle-low income, that this is not now the case. But there is no doubting that if you don't own your roof you can't invest in Solar Power.

This current report indicates that the drivers of cost reductions in the PV industry has been the large decreases in manufacturing costs as China manufactures and install more Solar. This is predicted to continue.

"Socket Parity" is the term used in this report, pg 14, to show countries whose Solar PV costs have fallen to parity or better against traditional fossil fuel electricity generation.

CPD"Going Solar"Report, pg 14

So this morning, as the temperature fell to approximately 5 degrees C, I am able to sit in the sunshine without heating and generate electricity. Go figure whats better for you, control over your own electricity use and generation or leave that up to business interests.