Now that the talk around Emission Trading Schemes has subsided or at least taken off the political agenda for the time being, perhaps it is time to reflect a little about energy costs. It is fast approaching winter down in the southern hemisphere and we have all been notified by the energy utilities to expect costs increases of 20% or there about. No real explanation of the cost increases have been given.
Our energy generating model is has remained basically a centralised system with electricity being generated from large power stations, be it coal fired or nuclear and hydro electric dams. While the government has introduced incentives for home solar generated electricity, the problem seems to me that it is a very insular approach. Electricity generated is stored individually for a home which is fine. But why are we not investigating a community network based approach. For instance when new apartment blocks are being built, why are the roofs not lined with panels with storage in the basement. Or for that matter when a new housing estates are opened up why not make provision for a storage facility to store the collective power generated for that community.
While it may be argued that the technology has yet to catch up with commercial reality, I have not found any organisation looking to change the source of power generation. Every initiative wind or wave power still seems to be based on the same old "produce it in one place" and distribute it to where it is required. Not only does this result in higher infrastructure costs for the distribution. Think about it if we could turn every housing estate into a micro power generation facility, the longer term utilities distribution cost would also end up lower.
Perhaps with the cost of power and utilities now rising, other more localised means of clean power generation may become more economically viable and better for our environment.
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