Amid all the shake-ups (mainly cancellations) of various solar energy schemes, Australia's original renewable energy scheme - GreenPower - seems to have dropped off the radar. Does it even still exist?
Well, yes. And a large number of Australian residents and businesses still subscribe to the scheme, which involves paying a premium on your electricity bill, used by your energy supplier to purchase renewable energy - mainly wind, hydro or biofuel from burning landfill.
That renewable energy must be in addition to the energy supplier's mandatory Renewable Energy Target, thus increasing the total amount of renewable energy generated in Australia.
But GreenPower has fallen from a 2009 peak when 904,716 customers, purchasing more than two million MWh. By June 30, 2011, that had dropped to 739,854 customers.
There are three probably reasons to customers feeling the squeeze of higher electricity prices, the media focus in recent years on solar rebates and feed-in tariffs, and a decline in media/public concern about climate change since Copenhagen in 2009.
Yet three quarters of a million consumers and businesses are still willing to pay extra to support clean energy. GreenPower is still the simplest way for Australians to "go green" and reduce their carbon footprint. But it is in dire need of some love and (media) attention.
I recommend this post on the Climate Progress blog for some useful statistics about renewable energy (albeit with a US focus) that shatter the idea that it is expensive, uncompetitive or impractical.
With expectations low for the forthcoming Durban climate conference, it looks increasingly like our best hope is falling renewable energy prices. Here are a couple of interesting stories on that subject from Climate Progress and Yale360.
If that equation is projected into the future, the cost of wind will fall another 12% by 2016. The Bloomberg report states: "in the best locations [wind] generation is already cost-competitive with fossil fuel electricity, and that will be the case for the majority of new onshore turbines installed worldwide by 2016.
In my previous blog, I wondered if the Deepwater Horizon oil spill might create a mood among politicians and the public in the US to support a genuine drive for clean energy. Keep an eye on public opinion in the US in the coming months.
Wind energy is currently the second biggest source of renewable energy (after hydro). But if you've experienced a cyclone or just a fierce storm, you'll know there's an awful lot of energy in wind, and there's a feeling we are still a long way from realising the full potential of wind.
Spain's renewable energy sector was rocked last week by a corruption scandal. Officials in several small towns allegedly took kickbacks for approving wind farm applications and similar things.
