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I would love to see photos like these from Australia too one day. We have so much inhospitable land that would be perfect for solar and wind farms. Suncable is

I would love to see photos like these from Australia too one day. We have so much inhospitable land that would be perfect for solar and wind farms. Suncable is trying to do this on a small(er than China) scale. We are just too politically confused and too deep in the belief that mining is the only thing we can do here.

chrysoprace 9mo ago
I was just saying this to my colleagues after seeing these. Decades of political sabotage has done significant damage to our transition to renewables. I'm hopeful (perhaps a bit too wishful) that we'll see more of a push for renewables in the coming election cycles, but I'm staying realistic as the last 20 years of climate debate has been frankly shameful. At least rooftop solar is so ubiquitous.
- DavidPiper 9mo ago
  I'm hopeful that the advent of the Teals might generate some momentum here. I believe there are some very large wind farms in progress across NSW too, which is good news. Home solar / battery installations also seem to be on the rise in low density areas (I don't have hard data to back that up though). I'd also love to see solar panels on top of every Bunnings, Westfield, and other warehouses/complexes, as well as above every outdoor carpark, which would have the added bonus of preventing hand roasting in summer.
rstuart4133 9mo ago
> I would love to see photos like these from Australia too one day. You may never see them. Not because we aren't adding renewables, but because South Australia was at about 80% renewable last year (average, not peak) so if you were going to get those sort of pictures anywhere in Australia, you would be getting them from SA now. You probably don't see them because while the countries are about the same size in land area, but China has 50 times the population so it needs about 50 times more power.
- DavidPiper 9mo ago
  This is true, and I'm a big fan of SA leading the charge, having grown up there. However, we could also build out more green energy technology to become a large energy exporter. (You could argue we are kind of that now, with the amount of coal we export.) Especially given we have strong but complicated geopolitical ties to both China and the USA, it feels like guaranteeing our own energy sovereignty, plus gaining the ability to export power directly, would be a strong political as well as environmental move.
  - PinkMilkshake 9mo ago
    I only just learned about SunCable. I think using our vast swathes of empty, sun-drenched land to provide power to our Southeast Asian allies is a great idea.

chrysoprace 9mo ago

I was just saying this to my colleagues after seeing these. Decades of political sabotage has done significant damage to our transition to renewables. I'm hopeful (perhaps a bit too wishful) that we'll see more of a push for renewables in the coming election cycles, but I'm staying realistic as the last 20 years of climate debate has been frankly shameful. At least rooftop solar is so ubiquitous.

DavidPiper 9mo ago
I'm hopeful that the advent of the Teals might generate some momentum here. I believe there are some very large wind farms in progress across NSW too, which is good news. Home solar / battery installations also seem to be on the rise in low density areas (I don't have hard data to back that up though). I'd also love to see solar panels on top of every Bunnings, Westfield, and other warehouses/complexes, as well as above every outdoor carpark, which would have the added bonus of preventing hand roasting in summer.

rstuart4133 9mo ago

> I would love to see photos like these from Australia too one day. You may never see them. Not because we aren't adding renewables, but because South Australia was at about 80% renewable last year (average, not peak) so if you were going to get those sort of pictures anywhere in Australia, you would be getting them from SA now. You probably don't see them because while the countries are about the same size in land area, but China has 50 times the population so it needs about 50 times more power.

DavidPiper 9mo ago
This is true, and I'm a big fan of SA leading the charge, having grown up there. However, we could also build out more green energy technology to become a large energy exporter. (You could argue we are kind of that now, with the amount of coal we export.) Especially given we have strong but complicated geopolitical ties to both China and the USA, it feels like guaranteeing our own energy sovereignty, plus gaining the ability to export power directly, would be a strong political as well as environmental move.
- PinkMilkshake 9mo ago
  I only just learned about SunCable. I think using our vast swathes of empty, sun-drenched land to provide power to our Southeast Asian allies is a great idea.