NOTES: ‘Science Teachers for Climate Awareness’  Designed for use of science teachers in talking about low emission energy resources.  We suggest adapting this ppt to your own liking or combining with others.  For suggestions for improvements please contact KB at  PLEASE NOTE: This is not yet a complete presentation but is provided for ideas and feedback. It will be updated as time allows! (Slides after about #38 are from old presentation and may be a bit repetitive.)  Be sure to look at the ‘notes’ pages below for suggestions for how to use and more detail.  This version 30 March 2010

We CAN reduce the CO 2 and other greenhouse gases in our atmosphere

What are the problems?  Emission of greenhouse gases from  Generation of electric power  Transport  Industry  Home and Commerce  Land use and Agricultural emissions

What are the problems?  We have to reduce our dependency on fossil fuels: Total fossil: 410,000 PJ Total non fossil: 70,000 PJ (ie. 15%)

What are the problems?  Australia is even worse!  ABARE: past use and future projections  We use about 6,000 of those 410,000 PJ (ie. 1½%) We are here! (Our population is ~ 0.3%)

Energy units  A quick word on energy units:  The basic unit of energy is the joule (J)  It is about the energy of a falling apple  1 Megajoule (MJ) is 10 6 J  1 Gigajoule (GJ) is 10 9 J  1 Terajoule (TJ) is J  1 Petajoule (PJ) is J

‘Energy’ & ‘Power’  ENERGY is a quantity  Examples:  Fuel tank of a car – approx 2 GJ  Example: Coal in Latrobe Valley – approx 300,000 PJ  POWER is the rate of energy use  1 watt = 1 joule per second  1 kilowatt = 1 kilojoule per second etc.  Examples:  Light bulb 15 watts = 15 joules every second  Power station 2000 MW = 2000 MJ every second = 173,000 GJ each day = 173,000 GJ each day = 63 PJ per year = 63 PJ per year

Energy units ExamplesApple fallingFood/dayCar petrol tankJumbo jet fuelLarge City/day Units Torch bulb in a few secondsRadiator in ¼ hr Power station each second Power station in 1½ hours Power station in a week joule (J) 1 J 10,000,000 J2,000,000,000 J 10,000,000,000,000 J1000,000,000,000,000 J Megajoule (MJ) 10^6 J (10 6 ) MJ 10 MJ 2,000 MJ10,000,000 MJ1000,000,000 MJ Gigajoule (GJ) 10^9 J (10 9 ) GJ0.01 GJ 2 GJ 10,000 GJ 1000,000 GJ Petajoule (PJ) 10^15 J (10 15 ) PJ PJ PJ 0.01 PJ 1 PJ

Energy units  Electrical energy is measured in kilowatt.hours (that is, a 1000 W appliance for 1 hour)  1 kWh = 3.6 MJ (Megajoule)  Hazelwood produces about 1600 Megawatts which means 1600 MWh each hour or ~ 6,000,000 MJ which is PJ each hour or 50 PJ each year

And 17,000,000 tonnes of CO 2 (30 tonnes every minute)

Energy units  Fossil fuels are sometimes measured in ‘Quads’, a quadrillion BTU (British Thermal Units)  1 Quad = 1055 PJ (≈ 1000 PJ)  A Quad is huge!  Total world fossil fuel use per year is about 400 Quad  We will try to use PJ as far as possible Quads

 Most electricity is produced from fossil fuels: This must NOT be allowed to happen! What are the problems? Fossil fuels PS: 20 trillion kWh = 72,000 PJ

What are the problems?  Again – we are worse! Mostly hydro! X! Wind, Solar and Biomass currently about 1%

The solutions !

November 2009 That’s ALL the WORLD’s energy

November 2009 NOT including: CCS,Nuclear, Other ‘exotic’ sources The ‘WWS’ solution: Wind Water Solar

HUGE RESOURCES AVAILABLE AVAILABE TECHNOLOGY COST EFFECTIVE POLITICS BIGGEST OBSTACLE

Tidal turbines Geothermal Hydro Wind turbines Wave converters Roof top PV Solar thermal Solar PV large

NB: Australian coal cheaper than US power. The REAL problem! Vested interests and confusion/apathy among ‘ordinary people’ – leading to lack of political will.

Australian Solutions!  In the big picture:  Solar and Wind  supplemented by  Hydro  Geothermal  Ocean (tidal and wave)  perhaps (in the short term)  Gas  Coal with CCS (?)  Nuclear (??)

Australian Solutions!

 The yellow square is about 125 km square  Ample for ALL of Australia’s energy. (At only 10% collection efficiency) 35 PJ per day That is about 250 Hazelwoods!

Australian Solutions!  “A network of land-based 2.5 MW turbines … operating at as little as 20% of their rated capacity could supply over 40 times current worldwide consumption of electricity” Global potential for wind-generated electricity: Xi Lua, Michael B. McElroya, and Juha Kiviluomac Australia’s 86 PWh = 310,000 PJ (per year) Current total energy use is 6,000 PJ Annual

Australian Solutions!  Introducing: Beyond Zero Emissions (BZE) Five phase study to achieve zero emissions by 2020:  Transport  Stationary Energy* (mostly electricity generation)  Land Use (including agriculture & forestry)  Industrial Processes  Export (replacing coal export revenue) * Stationary energy report available now at

Zero Carbon Australia 2020 Stationary Energy: A plan for repowering Australia with 100% renewable energy in ten years

Oil and GasCoal exportersGenerators The CAN'T DO campaign Funded by fossil fuel industry Army of PR consultants and lobbyists Direct lobbying of politicians and government departments The CAN'T DO MANTRA “Renewable energy cant supply baseload power” “Renewable energy is too expensive” “Renewable energy will wreck the economy” “Renewable energy will cost jobs”

Baseload Solar Thermal Power 24 hour Dispatchable power Andosol 1,2 and Extrasol 3 Spain, operating now, 7.5 hours energy storage Torresol Gemasolar Spain, coming on line 2010, 16 hours energy storagee

What’s happening in Spain? NB means 2,700 to us! - Coming - So far (?)

ZCA-2020: Solar Thermal Power To Supply 60% of Australia’s energy Each module generates 220MW Ability to store energy and dispatch as needed, day or night A plant or Solar Region will be made up of 19 modules and will have a capacity of 4,000MW There will be 12 plants distributed across Australia 220 MW Module 4000 MW Solar Region

ZCA-2020: Wind Power To Supply 40% of Australia’s Energy Low-cost, technologically mature, first dispatch 8,000 turbines 24 geographically diverse regions

The Solutions! – World wind power Australia 2008 approx 1,500 MW (14 th place) NB:.’s would be,’s for us ie means 2,862

China : 150,000 MW wind by 2020 ‘Three Gorges of Wind’ Project, under construction now, equivalent electricity output of Three Gorges Dam

ZCA Modelling: Meeting Australia’s demand CST = Concentrated Solar Thermal WF = Wind Farm

The Solutions!  The Australian scene: UNSW PV

The Solutions! – The future?

“It is a remarkable fact that, in maintaining our standard of living, each Australian produces enough carbon dioxide (CO2) to replace the column of atmosphere above one square metre of land every year.”

The Solutions!  Three extraordinarily pressing reasons to cut oil use  Greenhouse gases threaten our planet  Oil comes from politically unstable parts of the world  If we divide the total of the world’s oil reserves by the rate at which WE are using them we get about 12 years (7 for USA use)

The Solutions!  Fossil fuels  Cutting car use has to be a priority ABS

The Solutions!  Reduce energy use  Better forms of transport – maybe these?

The Solutions!  Reduce energy use  Better forms of transport – definitely these

The Solutions!  Reduce energy use  These are a problem!

The Solutions!  Reduce energy use  This could be fun. Maybe we need to be a bit more relaxed about getting places!

The Solutions!  Lower CO 2 options  Sequestration of CO 2 from power stations - ?  More efficient coal stations  Combined cycle gas generators

The Solutions!  Lower CO 2 options  Nuclear ?

The Solutions!  Sustainable options 60 kilowatt (10 year ago) Yambuk kilowatt 6 MW and increasing

The Solutions!  Sustainable options We make per day about: 6 – 12 kWh Feed in to grid about 3 – 6 kWh Draw from grid about 2 – 4 kWh

The Solutions!  Sustainable options Gas used for hot water October to April: NONE at all

The Solutions!  Sustainable options Where are the solar collectors?

The Solutions!  Sustainable options: This is in sunny Germany!

The Solutions!  Sustainable options

The Solutions!  Sustainable options  Geothermal – ‘hot rocks’  Potentially very large resources

The Solutions!  Sustainable options – HVDC  Energy carried in transmission line is area under the V² graph  V is limited by corona discharge to ~ 800 kV (hence 500 kV AC lines)  So energy carried by DC is twice that of same value peak voltage AC power DC power

The Solutions!  Sustainable options – HVDC  High Voltage DC transmission  Basslink provides peak and stores excess

The Solutions!  Sustainable options – HVDC  Making big difference to long distance transmission  Carries twice the power  Can go 1000’s of km (AC < 1000 km)

The Solutions!  Sustainable options – HVDC  High power, high voltage semiconductors have made the difference

This is not the end!  There are many more sustainable options and the list is growing every day.  We must go beyond the so called ‘debate’ and move toward a safe future.  This presentation is not yet complete.  Go to to find the latest version.