Lots Of Hot Air But Not Enough Wind  

A visiting Greenpeace honcho has noted the obvious problem with the MRET - it's not big enough.

Greenpeace International's climate policy director, Steve Sawyer, currently visiting Australia, warned that without legislated targets to achieve 20 per cent renewable energy by 2020, Australia's clean energy industry would not be able to compete with those in China, Europe and the United States, where similar targets are in place.

Mr Sawyer said Australia had tremendous clean energy resources in wind, solar, wave and bioenergy. "Yet the industry expansion in countries like Germany, the UK and China outstrips Australia's because of supportive government policies," he said.

"In 2004, Australia's installed wind power almost doubled, and there are projects approved or under construction that will quadruple it again. Once completed, wind will be supplying enough energy to power some 750,000 homes. Yet government incentives are running out fast, with the pitifully low federal clean energy target almost reached three years ahead of schedule."

Mr Sawyer said Wind Force 12 was a global industry blueprint which demonstrated there were no technical, economic or resource barriers to supplying 12 per cent of the world's electricity needs with wind power alone by 2020. "But the report also explains that, for the industry to achieve its real potential, governments must introduce policies to remove obstacles and market distortions that currently constrain it."

The cost of new nuclear power has been underestimated by a factor of three, according to a British think tank. The New Economics Foundation (NEF) says existing estimates do not allow for the cost of building novel technologies and expensive time delays in construction. They claim that renewable energy sources like wind and solar should be relied upon instead of nuclear power.