Australian Science Paved The Way For The Solar Revolution
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Professor Martin Green and his team from UNSW developed Passive Emitter & Rear Cell (PERC) technology, which graces the billions of solar panels transforming the energy grids around the world. Australian science paved the way for the solar revolution. A solar revolution has been happening globally and it is only going to get even bigger. Despite this Peter Dutton has nothing good to say about solar power in Australia. New Corp, who owns much of the media in this country, likewise, rarely, if ever, has anything positive or even balanced to say about solar and renewable energy in Australia. This strikes me as unAustralian. I wonder why the LNP Coalition and Rupert Murdoch’s newspapers and networks are in lockstep over deriding free energy from the sun? Could it be ideological? Indeed, could it, also, be about propping up the fossil fuel sector, and all those multinationals? Those campaign donors and mates in the neoliberal boys club, which likes to think it runs Australia?
UnAustralian News Corp & LNP Screwing Ordinary Folk Downunder
The cost of solar panels has plummeted over the years making solar power the most economically sound choice in the electricity generating equation. Australia, despite being blessed with loads of sunshine, has lagged behind in this transformation for decades. Even though, we came up with the technology in the first place. Why is this so? Political partisanship and the influence of vested interests are the answers. Australian science paved the way for the solar revolution. Solar power could have been saving ordinary Aussies money on their power bills years ago but for our political leaders betraying our economic interests for their own agendas. This continues today with Peter Dutton and his nuclear reactors policy proposal for the future. Spending $330 billion of our money and waiting around for another 20 or 30 years before these things will be up and running is his idea of a good governing.
It reeks of dragging things out for the coal and gas players in the power grid as it stands today. This is not forward thinking this is stringing the Australian people along whilst dirty business and politics take centre stage.
Even The Yanks Are Way Ahead Of Us In Solar
Battery technology is now making solar energy generation a game changer. In the United States, as in California giant batteries are giving solar the edge even when the sun goes down in the evenings. Down south in Texas, the oil rich state, solar and giant batteries are transforming the power grid there. You will not read about the global renewable transformation in the News Corp newspapers, as that news does not fit with their ideological world view. No, in The Australian it is all doom and gloom on this front.
“Solar was the disruption of last decade,” says Tim Buckley. “Batteries will be the disruption of this coming decade. “ –
Tim Buckley is the director of Climate Energy Finance.
According to analysis by the Carbon Tracker Initiative, “the land required for solar panels alone to provide all global energy is … less than the current land footprint of fossil fuel infrastructure”.
Currently all the solar panels in use around the world would fit into an area half the size of Tasmania, according to the research in the ABC article above. Australian science paved the way for the solar revolution.
Identity Politics Playing Aussies For Dupes
Neocons like the Murdoch press have been playing Aussies for dupes for years. The name of the game has been identity politics. Why do you think they bait the hooks with guff about gender identity and LGBTQI issues? Even though these things affect a tiny percentage of the population they blow them up into bigger stories. The appeal is to the prejudices of white men from the suburbs seeking to offend their sensibilities. This is what the war on woke is all about . Attacking so-called elites for their academic concerns about political correctness. Pointing the finger at stuff that seeks to correct power imbalances by calling it woke madness. Turning the dominant cohort into those playing the victim card. What about white working class folk and their grievances? News Corp and their op-eds have been mining this rich vein of opprobrium and outrage for years.
We Are Lucky To Have The ABC
You know, we are bloody lucky to have the ABC in this country but I meet people who disparage it. I worked as a labourer on a government project recently and listened to my workmates put shit on the ABC. The culture wars have had their way with Australians. Personally, I reckon some of these folk are too dumb to realise what is what. They don’t bother to look beneath the bonnet of things. Their feeds give them more of the stuff containing the prejudices they share. The ABC is the only objective voice in the room.
Many folk, however, don’t like the amount of space they give to those standing up for minorities. Right wing voices have groomed their audience to constantly cry out, indignantly, but what about me? Is this the consequence of social media and the proliferation of narrow casting over broadcasting?
Men Don’t Get Left Holding The Baby
If Australians cannot see beyond their own prejudices and concerns for their own short term welfare, then, the truth about solar and renewables will struggle to be heard. Identity politics is pitting men against women around the world. Neocons are appealing to blokey things – tech bros and this idea that technology will always fix things with no consequences for us. That is BS, of course, nuclear power is a bad idea and an unnecessary one for Australia. Men are not left holding the baby and this sums up the difference between the sexes. Women think beyond the next pay check to what the future holds for their kids. The LNP and their hard right stance is banking on the short termist tendencies of Aussie men. The Coalition is appealing to the unwillingness of the electorate to suffer any economic pain during the energy transformation. Going green sounds good but not at a cost to my view and property values because of wind turbines on the horizon. It reminds me of Christianity being Jewish lite, you know, without the circumcision. This was a factor for many converting to the new Christianity at its start.
Australians Starved Of The Truth About Solar & Renewables
Australian science paved the way for the solar revolution. Solar power is doing great things around the world but we rarely hear about it downunder. That is no accident, as News Corp controls most of our media landscape. It sickens me that the Albanese government would be complicit in propping News Corp up via getting money out of Meta, Google, Apple, Tik Tok and the like. Labor should be making Australia a better place not maintaining what is rotten about it. The duopoly in the media gives too much power to too few voices. The neocons are provided with platforms far exceeding their actual support within the populace. However, he who speaks loudest will always have followers. We do not have a progressive media network in this country. The ABC cannot play this role because it is too concerned with appearing objective and unbiased. Unfortunately, what results is News Corp setting the agenda and the ABC following that loud voice. Progressive themes need a better platform in Australia. After all, it is only progress which will take us forward into a better and fairer future. Conservative self interest never gets the job done. What do wealthy folk do – buy a bigger house, a better car, and stash more money away.
The thing about people like Trump, they never actually do much when they get into power, as it is all about the politics of grievance getting them there. The Coalition were much the same, it is all graft and jobs for the boys, inside running for mates in business, but they did bugger all about the important stuff like the energy transformation. They just wasted time we may not have had.
Robert Sudha Hamilton is the author of Bite & Smile: Delving Into Dental Care for an Informed Choice – his brand new book.
©MidasWord
