I've always made the case for hybrids (fossil fuel +electricity)
For niche applications where you are happy to waste a lot of good farming land, water and fertiliser to get a liquid fuel, but as a large scale energy source its a wasteful use of resources, and there are better options.
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Put some solar panels on it then.The sugar cane industry is not going too well atm. In QLD the vast expanses of cane farmland are not much good for much else except for things like lemon grass. Residential developers are eyeing off the areas near Brisbane & Gold Coast, the only thing stopping them is the QLD development plans.
If you were worried about a shortage of fossil fuels, the answer would be to stop using hybrids and go full electric, rather than try and get the liquid fuels from farming.
Put some solar panels on it then.
If there is a surplus of cane farming land and we have no other option but to brew ethanol, then do as they do in Bundaberg, and sell it as rum, you will get more than $1.20 a litre then, and have a higher value export product.
Australians are set to pay $300 million in subsidies to an outback solar farm owned by a Saudi Arabian billionaire in a new test of the federal government’s looming energy reforms, escalating a dispute over whether to cut the handouts to keep coal-fired power stations alive.
AGL’s controversial Liddell coal power station in the NSW Hunter Valley generates 50 times as much electricity as the Moree solar farm in the state’s north, which stands to gain big subsidies from households from higher electricity bills until 2030, as the government vows to ease the pressure on prices.
The project’s owner, Mohammed Abdul Latif Jameel, is expanding into new solar farms across Australia after the federal government backed the first development with grants and concessional loans as well as guaranteed credits for more than a decade.
The scale of the financial aid has triggered calls to scale back the subsidies as Nationals MPs warn that jobs will be sent overseas if Australia does not find a way to drive down energy costs.
Scott Morrison challenged Labor late yesterday to drop its “coal veto” when the energy plan goes to parliament, arguing new measures will be needed to extend the life of Liddell and other power stations to bring stability to the electricity grid. The Treasurer said the government wanted a “durable” outcome in parliament on the investment rules for the energy sector but did not say this would be a clean energy target, the proposal put forward by Chief Scientist Alan Finkel.
It can help to an extent but it's not a complete replacement for petroleum by any means.
The power shortage is a political one, not an engineering or investment one.This argument keeps going around like "there's a hole in the bucket..."
We don't have enough generating capacity to keep the lights on next summer, let alone to feed millions of electric cars. Do you know how many power stations we would need to do that ?
Solar charging MAY provide some input, but what if you get a spell of rainy or cloudy weather ?
A generation network to feed electric cars would require billions of investment in probably nuclear reactors and I don't see anyone coming up with that sort of cash any time soon.
I have spotted 3 Teslas this week around inner South East Melbourne.
Speaking of trucks, The tesla semi is due to be unveiled next month
Once the Model 3 begins shipments to Australia you will see a big boom in Tesla numbers.
First adopters should start saving now.Tesla will begin mass producing the Model 3 for global markets with Australia expecting to get its first deliveries in early 2019. It should land here at around $50,000...
Yeah, we have everything we need. Vast sparely populated sunny land girt by sea.
No need to burn anything.
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