It really is as easy as Tony H said to switch to 100% Green Power. A quick phone call to Origin, which took under five minutes (I was already a customer). As of now my house is no longer responsible for emissions from brown coal. Which is good, ‘cos I’m afraid I’m a little cynical that the state government’s plan to capture the CO2 emissions will work very well, on a big enough scale, or any time soon.
The impact on my bill is an extra 5 cents per kWh, which based on my most recent bill is $37.95 for three months. (It’s 5.5 cents if you count GST.) It should cut my annual emissions by about 5 tonnes.
According to Channel 7 last night, they’re about to change the formula for solar panels that feed back into the grid, so it’ll be worth re-doing those calculations when the budget is announced today. But this’ll keep me going for now.
So, no more coal power for me!
(via the Greens blog.)
PS. Wednesday: The paperwork arrived. It’s actually effective 16th May (allowing for a 10 day cooling-off period). And it’s 4.99994 cents per kWh including GST.
8 replies on “Cutting coal power”
They’ve really got to pull their finger out and pour more $ into solar power and increase the rebate for solar panels.
As solar panel life expectancy is 25 years +, a few dollars now would see a large proportion of the population no longer dependent upon coal power, not to mention feeding extra power back into the grid.
It really needs further intense research but there is a massive market of it in USA, UK, etc why the heck has Oz been allowed to lag behind?!
The satire in the video is brilliant. Very clever. (“What is this for?”) Gold!!!
This is a very good parody of a tipical sappy, patriotic, emotional appeal political ad in the USA that Americans are bombarded with regularly. It was so well done that I thought at first it was an ad for “clean coal technology” that is often promoted on American TV. Thankfully coal only generates a large portion of power in certian regions of the US.
GreenPower at home. Nice one Daniel!
The vid is right in reminding us that coal’s advantage (well, aside from it’s current dominance) is that it’s the cheaper option as an energy source. The hidden (well not so hidden, these days) is the environmental cost that entails.
And that when it comes to voting with our wallets, as individuals, we are notorious for opting to keep the money for other ‘important things’ which are apparently more important to us than the environment. Though the choice is rarely presented that way. Everything has its price and we are paying ours through climate change.
Research is showing that most of us, when asked about the long term future, say we agree that climate change is a big worry and must be addressed. When asked if we’d be prepared to pay more for our power bills tomorrow, to reduce carbon emissions, the answer is mostly ‘no’.
Paying extra for GreenPower is making a statement that we are willing start taking responsibility and action today.
Whilst I welcome the additional 60-odd cents extra you’ll receive with a feed-in-tariff, I think we’re way behind Europe.
That American ad made me laugh “Coal is clean?” Clean coal isn’t even clean (it’s actually oxymoronic). But America is full of weirdness, so this is to be expected.
The feed-in tariff recently announced by the Victorian government has been described as a flop by environment groups. There’s a rally this week to call for something better.
Re Cam’s point – I wonder if Mr Brumby was lobbied by the electricity generating businesses who see ‘no future for Victoria’ (I heard a local Pollie say that whilst discussing climate change in the last election) without?
BTW – look at who owns the power stations in Victoria. Mostly overseas corporations from UK, Japan, Hong Kong. Do we feel good about making profits for them overseas while they pollute our State? Admittedly we can’t shut down the power stations any time soon – but we MUST have a plan for the alternatives and implement that plan ASAP. A good feed in tariff would be a start.
‘without Brown Coal’ that is . . :-)