Global Financial Crisis Risk from Renewable Power Technology

Greetings from the ANU Climate Update 2018 at the Australian National University in Canberra. Professor John Hewson from the ANU Crawford School of Public Policy warned that advances in renewable power technology could precipitate a global financial crisis. The concern, as I understand it, was that wind turbines, photovoltaic panels and batteries are dropping in cost. The problem then existing fossil fuel investments could become suddenly financial nonviable, disrupting financial markets.

I was reminded about sudden changes in technology yesterday, with the successful launch of the SpaceX Falcon Heavy reusable launch vehicle. This has been under development for at least ten years, but the success makes it a viable option for launching satellites at about one third the current cost.

It is similarly easy to overlook incremental improvements in renewable energy technology, until it is packaged in an understandable form. An example South Australia's 100MW battery and batteries for 50,000 homes.

ANU Climate Update 2018

Greetings from the ANU Climate Update 2018 at the Australian National University in Canberra. The opening address was by Shane Rattenbury, MLA, Minister for Climate Change and Sustainability, ACT Legislative Assembly. He invited community comment on the ACT Climate Strategy to a Net Zero Emissions Territory.

The Minister surprisingly admitted that the Australian Capital Territory (where Canberra is) was easily able to become carbon neutral. This could be done as the ACT doesn't have a lot of coal fired power stations to replace.

ps: I am just finishing updating the notes for my course "ICT Sustainability" being offered by ANU in First Semester, starting online 19 February.