Beyond Zero - Community

This BZE Radio episode was broadcast on Monday 23rd October 2017 “Every parrot in the pet shop is talking about Energy Policy” ACCCBut for a summit , a lot of voices were absent. Big Wind, Big Solar and the growing movement of citizens, intellectuals and NGO’s demanding the rapid energy descent away from coal oil and gas. The chiefs who supply us with over 80% of our dirty energy were there as the clean energy target was swallowed up and the National Energy Guarantee emerged.The NEG requires Energy Retailers to give a guarantee of reliability. They will need to contract or own a certain amount of dispatchable power. As more coal fired power stations close, this could mean they invest in pumped hydro storage , batteries or gas turbines. In a heatwave when all the air conditioners go on, pumped hydro storage can turn on in 20 seconds and batteries in 1 second, according to Professor Andrew Blakers ANU.  He says 20 or 30 of the 22,000 possible sites need to