New Energy
Stand: That we the Australian Citizens, independently form a Research and Discovery Corporation who's sole objective is to determine our best new energy source. This project to be called The Mackerel Sky Project.
Background: No-one knows what the next ubiquitous energy source will be but, what if we did? The fact is this, a new energy source is coming to a powerpoint near you very soon. Coal, oil and gas will be ancient history within your lifetime. In their place will be a new clean, green energy source and if you knew what it was you could get in on the ground floor. I propose we (you and I) form in a new company to study every single energy-generating-source there is and tell us which one works and why! The benefits are clear:
Imagine it's 1904 and there is an energy revolution going on. One man, JD Rockefeller takes a risk. He decides that the next great energy revolution is in oil refined into gasoline, not kerosene! At the time, everyone believed that kerosene would power the cars and factory's into the future as the main energy source. They were all wrong.
Imagine that today you had the latest, research, trends and information sent to about what the next new energy source will likely be. Would you make some different investments or decisions? It's our intention to form an Australian Led Company to lead the world in new energy research and, we'd like you to be part of it. We call it The Mackerel Sky Project.
Background: No-one knows what the next ubiquitous energy source will be but, what if we did? The fact is this, a new energy source is coming to a powerpoint near you very soon. Coal, oil and gas will be ancient history within your lifetime. In their place will be a new clean, green energy source and if you knew what it was you could get in on the ground floor. I propose we (you and I) form in a new company to study every single energy-generating-source there is and tell us which one works and why! The benefits are clear:
- For an Australian company to be a world leader in determining the new source of energy for the planet.
- As an investor you will receive confidential reports telling you where the next best energy investment is likely to be.
Imagine it's 1904 and there is an energy revolution going on. One man, JD Rockefeller takes a risk. He decides that the next great energy revolution is in oil refined into gasoline, not kerosene! At the time, everyone believed that kerosene would power the cars and factory's into the future as the main energy source. They were all wrong.
Imagine that today you had the latest, research, trends and information sent to about what the next new energy source will likely be. Would you make some different investments or decisions? It's our intention to form an Australian Led Company to lead the world in new energy research and, we'd like you to be part of it. We call it The Mackerel Sky Project.
Interesting Background Research
Bill Gates talks about an "energy miracle". Not an innovation of an existing technology but the invention of an entirely new energy source. The fact is, there are a number of alternative energies which are tantalisingly close to becoming the new energy source for our planet. Cold Fusion and Superconductivity are just two. Bringing them into commercial production requires the clearest of visions and the boldest of actions.
New Energy is the issue of our time and we as a nation are not doing enough to find a viable replacement for coal, oil and gas. Developing an energy vision for Australia firstly requires a reality check of where we are right now and what the actual options are going forward.
As it stands today it’s all but universally accepted that burning fossil fuels to propel vehicles and create electricity is causing very serious long-term issues. Not only that, but the actual supply of the raw materials is becoming evermore scarce and expensive.
Essentially there are really only 3 options available to create the energy necessary to power Australia.
1. Energy Farming; The two main sources being wind and solar. Energy farming is also called ‘intermittent’ energy in that it’s not a continuous supply.
2. Energy Factories; This is how most energy is currently generated, coal, petroleum & gas are converted to energy in factories which run continuously and deliver uninterrupted, base-load power.
3. An Energy Miracle; This would be a revolutionary breakthrough in something like ambient-temperature-fision or superconductor technology where clean green energy was generated essentially for free. Currently such a source does commercially not exist.
“There’s really only one guarantee, and that’s if we don’t try, nothing is going to happen.”
Charles Chase; Lockheed Martin
Moving forward I believe Australia needs to be aggressively pushing forward in all 3 realms, working to our strengths and making investments that have best chance of the biggest payoffs.
One of those strengths has to be solar. We’re the hottest country on earth and I’ve heard it said that if we could harness the latent energy in one day’s sunlight it would be enough to power the whole of Australia for a year. Why then isn’t this happening? There are a few reasons;
1. The technology hasn’t yet delivered upon its promise. Currently, state-of-the-art solar panels can achieve a sunlight conversation rate of around 20%. The most optimistic predictions for the foreseeable future still only put conversion efficiencies of solar at around 50%.
2. We still lack effective ways to;
a) transport the energy from where its generated (central Australia) to where it’s most needed (major coastal cities),
b) store it for when we need it (i.e. battery technology is still expensive and relatively inefficient)
3. There are inadequate incentives in place to compel industry and enterprise to innovate. For solar to become a major energy force in Australia, massive innovation and improvements need to take place and this government is no-where near doing enough to make that happen.
As it stands today it’s all but universally accepted that burning fossil fuels to propel vehicles and create electricity is causing very serious long-term issues. Not only that, but the actual supply of the raw materials is becoming evermore scarce and expensive.
Essentially there are really only 3 options available to create the energy necessary to power Australia.
1. Energy Farming; The two main sources being wind and solar. Energy farming is also called ‘intermittent’ energy in that it’s not a continuous supply.
2. Energy Factories; This is how most energy is currently generated, coal, petroleum & gas are converted to energy in factories which run continuously and deliver uninterrupted, base-load power.
3. An Energy Miracle; This would be a revolutionary breakthrough in something like ambient-temperature-fision or superconductor technology where clean green energy was generated essentially for free. Currently such a source does commercially not exist.
“There’s really only one guarantee, and that’s if we don’t try, nothing is going to happen.”
Charles Chase; Lockheed Martin
Moving forward I believe Australia needs to be aggressively pushing forward in all 3 realms, working to our strengths and making investments that have best chance of the biggest payoffs.
One of those strengths has to be solar. We’re the hottest country on earth and I’ve heard it said that if we could harness the latent energy in one day’s sunlight it would be enough to power the whole of Australia for a year. Why then isn’t this happening? There are a few reasons;
1. The technology hasn’t yet delivered upon its promise. Currently, state-of-the-art solar panels can achieve a sunlight conversation rate of around 20%. The most optimistic predictions for the foreseeable future still only put conversion efficiencies of solar at around 50%.
2. We still lack effective ways to;
a) transport the energy from where its generated (central Australia) to where it’s most needed (major coastal cities),
b) store it for when we need it (i.e. battery technology is still expensive and relatively inefficient)
3. There are inadequate incentives in place to compel industry and enterprise to innovate. For solar to become a major energy force in Australia, massive innovation and improvements need to take place and this government is no-where near doing enough to make that happen.
"The history of civilisation can be seen as the history of incentives – they are the cornerstone of our economic life."
– Professor Steven Levitt
– Professor Steven Levitt
Australia can have a solar economy but it requires a clear vision, a massive commitment, a vibrant incentive scheme, passionate leadership and a sense of national urgency to the point where this single issue is elevated to the status of a national emergency. That’s really what it’s going to take.
On this subject and many more like it there has simply been and has been lack of leadership, lack of incentives, lack of urgency and the entire absence of a national vision.
Whilst we’re working out how to convert to a solar economy we’re going to need at least two generations of bridging energy.
This is where things become really controversial.
There are no easy options and it’s a situation which doesn't allow us to just watch, wait and hope for the best.
Where I live in the Southern Highlands of NSW there’s a push toward the extraction of coal seam gas. Locally, action groups oppose it because of the direct threat to prime agricultural land, river systems, water catchments and aquifers. No-one wants any of these consequences, not the residents, not the miners, not the government but what are our options? There is of course another option, one most of us have written off but which deserves reconsideration in light of the current situation and it is of course, nuclear.
“The nuclear power plant stands on the border between humanity's greatest hopes and its deepest fears for the future.” –Howstuffworks.com -
Personally, I’ve been against nuclear my whole life. The reasons are obvious, risk of a disaster, risk of theft for bombs and for me the most pressing one; what to do with the spent fuel. There’s also the fact that a nuclear power plant is just an oversized steam engine, it basically boils water to make steam. That combined with the vast supplies of water a nuclear power plant needs to create fission seems to stack the deck against nuclear as our next source of electricity. Or does it?
Nuclear power generation today is very different from what it was 30 years ago. Generation 3 nuclear power reactors have become much safer than the earlier Gen 1 & 2 systems.
They use state of the art technology, have multiple failsafe systems and as of 16 January 2013 there are 439 nuclear currently in operation in 31 countries (Wikipedia). Built in stable geological areas there is a very low risk of an accident. The threat of someone stealing the rods to make a bomb is negligible because the uranium in a reactor is fundamentally different to that used in a bomb.
"Commercial reactors have just a few percent fissile material in them, and bombs have more than 90 percent," - Arjun Makhijani
Although it might sound futuristic now, a company like SpaceX which is already carrying payloads safely into space could in 30 years be expected to be so reliable that carrying the spent fuel rods into outer space would be a simple, low risk operation.
The reality is, we need continuous reliable energy and as it stands right now there are only two real choices, more mining or nuclear. There is however a third option. Option 3 is what Bill Gates calls “an energy miracle”. What he means is not innovation but invention, an entirely new technology. It might be a breakthrough that for example lead us to the much touted Hydrogen Economy. It might be a new battery technology which enables currently impossible levels of energy to be stored. It might be something else entirely. Of course Option 3 is a ‘moon-shot’ but surely it’s worth a try !
Thus, "The Mackerel Sky Project."
For one next decade, starting in 1/1/2015 and ending 31/12/2054 Australia throw everything its got at discovering and developing an entirely new technology for producing a (series of) clean green and potentially free source(s) of energy.
On this subject and many more like it there has simply been and has been lack of leadership, lack of incentives, lack of urgency and the entire absence of a national vision.
Whilst we’re working out how to convert to a solar economy we’re going to need at least two generations of bridging energy.
This is where things become really controversial.
There are no easy options and it’s a situation which doesn't allow us to just watch, wait and hope for the best.
Where I live in the Southern Highlands of NSW there’s a push toward the extraction of coal seam gas. Locally, action groups oppose it because of the direct threat to prime agricultural land, river systems, water catchments and aquifers. No-one wants any of these consequences, not the residents, not the miners, not the government but what are our options? There is of course another option, one most of us have written off but which deserves reconsideration in light of the current situation and it is of course, nuclear.
“The nuclear power plant stands on the border between humanity's greatest hopes and its deepest fears for the future.” –Howstuffworks.com -
Personally, I’ve been against nuclear my whole life. The reasons are obvious, risk of a disaster, risk of theft for bombs and for me the most pressing one; what to do with the spent fuel. There’s also the fact that a nuclear power plant is just an oversized steam engine, it basically boils water to make steam. That combined with the vast supplies of water a nuclear power plant needs to create fission seems to stack the deck against nuclear as our next source of electricity. Or does it?
Nuclear power generation today is very different from what it was 30 years ago. Generation 3 nuclear power reactors have become much safer than the earlier Gen 1 & 2 systems.
They use state of the art technology, have multiple failsafe systems and as of 16 January 2013 there are 439 nuclear currently in operation in 31 countries (Wikipedia). Built in stable geological areas there is a very low risk of an accident. The threat of someone stealing the rods to make a bomb is negligible because the uranium in a reactor is fundamentally different to that used in a bomb.
"Commercial reactors have just a few percent fissile material in them, and bombs have more than 90 percent," - Arjun Makhijani
Although it might sound futuristic now, a company like SpaceX which is already carrying payloads safely into space could in 30 years be expected to be so reliable that carrying the spent fuel rods into outer space would be a simple, low risk operation.
The reality is, we need continuous reliable energy and as it stands right now there are only two real choices, more mining or nuclear. There is however a third option. Option 3 is what Bill Gates calls “an energy miracle”. What he means is not innovation but invention, an entirely new technology. It might be a breakthrough that for example lead us to the much touted Hydrogen Economy. It might be a new battery technology which enables currently impossible levels of energy to be stored. It might be something else entirely. Of course Option 3 is a ‘moon-shot’ but surely it’s worth a try !
Thus, "The Mackerel Sky Project."
For one next decade, starting in 1/1/2015 and ending 31/12/2054 Australia throw everything its got at discovering and developing an entirely new technology for producing a (series of) clean green and potentially free source(s) of energy.
"Our willingness to fail gives us the ability and opportunity to succeed where others may fear to tread. I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. Twenty six times, I've been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed. — Michael Jordan
Funding for The Mackerel Sky Project would come from a wide range of sources including the establishment of a private venture capital fund, The Mackerel Sky Project, where everyday Australians who believe that a clean green energy future is achievable within their lifetime can invest.