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SILICON CHIP www.siliconchip.com.au Publisher & Editor-in-Chief Leo Simpson, B.Bus., FAICD Production Manager Greg Swain, B.Sc. (Hons.) Technical Editor John Clarke, B.E.(Elec.) Technical Staff Ross Tester Jim Rowe, B.A., B.Sc Nicholas Vinen Photography Ross Tester Reader Services Ann Morris Advertising Enquiries Glyn Smith Phone (02) 9939 3295 Mobile 0431 792 293 glyn<at>siliconchip.com.au Regular Contributors Brendan Akhurst Rodney Champness, VK3UG Kevin Poulter Stan Swan Dave Thompson SILICON CHIP is published 12 times a year by Silicon Chip Publications Pty Ltd. ACN 003 205 490. ABN 49 003 205 490. All material is copyright ©. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the written consent of the publisher. Printing: Hannanprint, Noble Park, Victoria. Distribution: Network Distribution Company. Subscription rates: $105.00 per year in Australia. For overseas rates, see our website or the subscriptions page in this issue. Editorial office: Unit 1, 234 Harbord Rd, Brookvale, NSW 2100. Postal address: PO Box 139, Collaroy Beach, NSW 2097. Phone (02) 9939 3295. Fax (02) 9939 2648. E-mail: silicon<at>siliconchip.com.au ISSN 1030-2662 Recommended and maximum price only. 2  Silicon Chip Publisher’s Letter Green energy schemes are too costly for Australia Who has not reacted with indignation and dismay on seeing their latest electricity bill? In spite of all you may care about the environment and how careful you might have been in reducing your electricity consumption, your bills have still climbed relentlessly over the past six years or so. And while there is be a lot of blame-shifting for all the rise in electricity costs it seems clear that much of the rise has been due to government-mandated green energy schemes. The main beneficiaries of these schemes are the promoters of wind and solar energy and those who provide back-up gas-fired powered stations; not forgetting those thousands of people who have installed solar panels and now receive a feed-in tariff. Meanwhile, every other electricity user has to pay the piper. In addition, the misnamed carbon tax legislation is clearly adding a significant burden on Australia’s manufacturing, transport and tourism industries. Of course, we are not the only country to feel the high cost of green energy. Consider Germany where the government has turned away from nuclear power and spent billions of taxpayer funds on various green energy schemes, including a very heavy investment in solar power. But Germans are seeing the error of their ways and moving to cut the enormous subsidies. At the same time, plenty of German manufacturing companies are going “off grid” and generating their own power. Germany is not the only European country counting the cost of green energy schemes, with Spain probably being the one that has borne the highest cost. Note that Spain does have an advantage with high solar irradiation but even so the cost has been enormous for the Spanish economy. Solar power seems very attractive, especially to readers of SILICON CHIP, but its implementation as a source of power to the grid has been extremely expensive, in Australia and elsewhere. So what about Australia with its expensive schemes? Clearly, the Federal and State governments should do as much as they can to unwind as many of these schemes as they can. While they may have reduced overall electricity consumption, they have done little to reduce our overall emissions of carbon dioxide and nothing at all to reduce global warming. In fact, while the carbon dioxide content of the planet’s atmosphere continues to climb (currently sitting very close to 400 ppm; up by a piffling 20 ppm from 2004), global temperatures do not seem to have increased at all for more than a decade. Nor have polar icecaps melted, glaciers disappeared, cyclones and tornadoes increased in number or severity, coral reefs have not died (but thrived) and so on. In spite of that, Australia’s Climate Authority, the Bureau of Meteorology and the CSIRO continue to put out ever more frantic reports about warming in Australia over the last year or so while conveniently ignoring the apparent cooling, particularly over the last few winters, in the Northern Hemisphere. Has nobody told them that even if Australia’s man-made carbon dioxide emissions were suddenly eliminated, that it would have virtually no effect on the continuing increase in the carbon dioxide content of the atmosphere? But the Climate Change Authority is calling for Australia to cut emissions by 19% below 2000 levels by 2020, in just six years time. That is ignoring the fact that Australia’s population will have increased over the 20 year period (from 2000 to 2020) by about 5 million people which means that the emission reduction per head of population would be even more severe. It’s just not going to happen. Ideally, Australia should rid itself of any green energy measure which reduces our economic growth and causes more unemployment. If coal-fired power stations are the cheapest source of electricity in Australia we should continue to use them at the maximum and build new stations as and when required. And while I would prefer to see nuclear power stations built in Australia (as China clearly intends in their country) that might not be possible in the near future unless many environmentalists drop their objections. Leo Simpson siliconchip.com.au