It's not rocket science, unless you're a puppet politician captive to the fossil fuel industry. India, which is where the bulk of the Carmichael coal mine in QLD would be headed to, says that solar power will soon be cheaper than coal - possibly as soon as 2017. Why oh why then would anyone want to invest in a new coal mine?
Other coal mines in Australia are laying off people now through lack of demand. Australia's future energy is in renewables. Being the amount of sunlight Australia gets, we should be world leaders in R&D of solar products, selling to the planet our technology and innovation. Yet what has Abbott done in the last two years? Gutted science funding and planned new coal mines.
FFS sometimes you just want to shake these pollies by the shoulder and tell them to wake the fuck up!
Where do you see solar expanding in the next couple of years, realistically?
Right now it’s small capacity because the industry has just started to take off. But India can get to 10-15 percent of the mix from solar in the next 3-5 years. And if we can continue with the same ambition you can even get to 30 percent. I think the highest mix of solar anywhere in the world is in Germany, where most months in the summer it goes as high as 50 percent. From an integration standpoint it has been tested. So 10 percent is perhaps a good first goal to achieve and then getting to 30 percent would be great.
But they also pay much higher energy bills than Indians do.
But I think when solar becomes Rs 4 and coal becomes Rs 7 then the discussion in India will also change. That’s the inflexion point for India. I believe it is possible by 2017-18 that you get power cheaper from solar than new coal-based plants, if not the old. Huffington Post
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