Grey is the new Orange

Orange, in NSW's Central Tablelands, is quite the place for a visit. If you believe visitnsw.com, it's about unforgettable getaways in exquisite rolling hills, vineyards, lush orchards, boutique shopping, and renowned food and wine. Plus it's renowned also for its preserved heritage.

All that's true of course. I like it, and have often stopped there briefly and quite liked the place.

This time we spent a night and a day there, and looked around a little bit more. (Photo at right courtesy visitnsw.com)

 

 

 

 

We checked out the botanic gardens and Cook Park, both very nice places.

 

 

 

But Orange's recent popularity has brought a big expansion in its population, and big new suburbs are appearing all around. And what's with the ubiquitous dark grey roofing everywhere? Not just unsightly, but a very sub-optimal colour too, if you don't want to waste energy during the rather hot summers they have out here.

Time to turn up the power

Solar power, that is.

My 3 kilowatt system has been proving its worth for nearly three years now. But there's room for another 2 kilowatts worth of panels on the roof.

Thursday was the big day. Up go the panels.

And in go the batteries. 11.4 kilowatt hours worth. Batteries are the contentious bit. I'm not usually an early adopter of technology, but I clearly am here. Batteries are still a little on the expensive side. Payback periods are still of the order of 10 - 15 years, so most people are waiting a bit longer for the prices to come down further. Some will probably be waiting for the promised battery rebates that were announced the very same day by the soon-to-be-back-in-power Labor Government.

I decided not to wait though. The real value will be in saying goodbye to household debates about heaters, coolers, and thermostat settings. Sydney's usually a bit too cool or a lot too hot. We plan to be comfortable from now on.

And somebody has to have an energy policy. Our current federal government certainly doesn't. 

Time to choose

Time to choose between coal mines and renewables. Not so hard, you'd think, and most developed countries made a sensible choice a few years ago. Not so Australia, of course. We don't do sensible here.

On Saturday several thousand people turned out on the streets of Sydney to help the state government make that choice. It was exactly twelve months before the next state election.

























It's astonishing that this still needs to be done. But the coal industry has enormous financial clout still, the coffers of the major parties are full of dirty coal money, and the Murdoch press is full of dirty coal propaganda. The Sydney Daily Telegraph has published dozens of bizarre coal-lovers' letters recently. Yours truly was obliged to provide their letters column with a 'Reality Check on Energy' as they, to their credit, headed it:

It's almost touching to see the faith of some of your contributors in the coal-fired technology of previous centuries as a solution to the energy challenges of the future. Unfortunately that faith is misplaced.

* During recent hot spells the state's coal-fired power stations suffered a huge amount of downtime due to the heat itself.

* By and large they are unreliable old clunkers at the best of times.

* Building new ones would now be massively more expensive than renewables.

* So-called 'clean coal' was largely a distraction to buy time through false hope. It cannot be done at reasonable cost.

We have the world's best resource of clean, inexpensive, renewable energy, and the know-how to harvest it. With modern batteries and hydro storage schemes, plus some new inter-connectors, we could have the world's most reliable supply too. It's time to say goodbye to a misplaced nostalgia for the dirty old days.

Re the photo below, I asked the girl in front who 'The Drip' was, and why he needed saving. It seems it's a scenic spot near Mudgee, and it's threatened by a coal mine.