[Pil-pc-oceania] {Blocked Content} [Fwd: [ptua] ABC opinion: Can we live with zero emissions?]

[Dan Rossi]

On 17/03/2008, at 1:54 PM, Kerry Dawborn wrote:
>

Hi very interesting.
>
>
> Your water is heated purely by an evacuated tube solar system in the
> summer months and boosted by an electric heat pump in the winter
> months.

This is what I'm having issues understanding right now with current  
solar hot water systems. Its there a way for it not to use  
electricity / gas for boosting and use something geothermal or  
whatever. If not where would you source that electricity. The options  
I see in the books is using the old wood fire ovens to also help heat  
the water while cooking :)


> Lighting is vivid and dimmable, using Light Emitting Diodes
> (LEDs), which use five per cent of the electricity consumed by today's
> lighting.

Led's like HID are the future I reckon they are so efficient and  
bright, I currently use such systems for head torches and bike light  
systems.  Has anyone seen that overly expensive panel Sharp has just  
released, that is charged during the day via solar and turns on at  
night. I've yet to find a way to retrofit current halogen light  
fittings with Led, I wonder if its possible ?

>
>
> There is no more gas in use, so if your house is of pre-2014 vintage
> it has been retrofitted to 8-star. The gas cooktop is gone, replaced
> by the European style induction cooktop, which cooks faster and gives
> better responsiveness than gas.

I believe I was told that alot of products in Europe and UK are 6 star  
and we barely get such things like that currently.  I also believe  
induction being twice as much as ceramic is the same wattage rating  
maybe even more but the cooking time is reduced I am not sure of the  
load it uses on each element though, it's an awesome design and the  
heat transfer is more efficient than gas.

>
>
> Our televisions are Organic LED (OLED) display based. Sony has already
> released one and they use 10 per cent of the power of today's LCD
> flat-panel televisions.

Thats awesome, a bit of research brings up it uses some organic  
polymer, I wonder if its a corn starch based polymer ? Maybe I am  
wrong there, but bahh to plasma.

>
>
> Water collected from our roofs provides 100 per cent of our water.

I am looking at installing tanks at my mothers place. The roof is  
quite old and is concrete not terracotta I believe. I read that old  
concrete based tiles will start to discolour the water, and I don't it  
would be drinkable. Would there be solutions for this to save people  
having to retrofit their roofs to get drinkable water ?

>
>
> Getting energised
>
> Brown coal use ended in Victoria in 2014 and black coal was phased out
> in 2016 in the rest of the country.
>
> By now, wind power already contributes 40 per cent of total power
> generation and we see rapid growth in concentrating solar thermal
> plants (these boil water to drive steam turbines to make electricity).
> Gas was used to repower coal plants during the transition to a zero
> emissions energy sector, but by 2020 gas has been phased out totally.

I wonder if there is solutions that don't rely on water / steam  
because drinking water is being used for power currently isn't it ?


>
>
> For energy security, reliable baseload and peak power demand, we use
> pumped hydro, compressed air storage, high temperature solar hydrogen
> storage, ammonia thermochemical storage and Phase Change Salt thermal
> batteries as well as flywheels and super-capacitors.

I do think that storage is still a big issue and its 2008 ! I would  
love to see an extremely load efficient , long lasting, non toxic, non  
oil based casing, economical battery array :)

>
>
> Travelling and eating
>
> We get around by traditional bicycle, fully enclosed electric assist
> bicycles, public transport and private cars.

Yes pedal powered roofed mobiles with electric motor boost for the  
uphills :)

>
>
> Asthma rates and air quality related mortality fall dramatically as a
> consequence.

Something I am having issues regarding asthma however is, the root  
cause is that people mouth breach. I personally suffer asthma  
depending on puffers which I have no idea if the entire canister and  
case is even recyclable and it's the major problem. Something I am  
trying to look into fixing herbally. I believe some certain herbs I'm  
considering on trying have been used by the chinese for asthma for  
thousands of years, so I guess asthma is not a recent issue :) Cycling  
in the mountains tends to really clear it up but after a few hours as  
any kind of exercise affects it at first.

>
>
> The vehicle fleet is a combination of electric vehicles (60 per cent)
> and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (40 per cent). Congestion charges
> and road taxes motivate most people to use public transport.
> Intercapital trips are on the $100 billion 400km/h fast rail system,
> which links Perth, Melbourne, Cairns and Darwin.

I believe london has setup some kind of tax like that, but not stop  
there, tax everything leaving the local area in terms of energy being  
used / wasted to try and keep everything local. And I guess the ideas  
that have been going around forever, is to centralised freight to  
train depots, and everything is transported by rail. Thats something I  
would love to see.

>
>
> International air flights are costly and are used to get from Darwin
> to Singapore. For trips to Europe or Africa, you take the Trans Asian
> Fast Train which links to the African Fast Rail. To get to the US, you
> take the Fast Train to Haerbin in China, then fly to Anchorage in
> Alaska eliminating all long haul flights. The only other flights are
> to small remote islands such as New Zealand and Iceland.

Inter-continental Fast trains under water ?
>
>
> Energy used for production is listed on all foods, which are taxed
> based on their total life cycle energy input. Thus, vegetarian dishes
> are more popular, with the average family eating meat less than once
> or twice a week.

I believe Bill tries to validate that carnivore diets is more ideal  
and efficient than vegeterian diets maybe its wrong. I see alot of  
uproar from the vegan communities about some ideals he has.


> Freight is almost exclusively done by rail, with
> shipping containers racing around the city on the tram network.


Woops didn't see this.