The Carbon Tax; Burden or Benefit?

On February 24, 2011, the  Australian Federal government announced a framework to implement a Carbon Tax from July 1 2012. It is set to be implemented over 3-5 year period upon which it will switch to a cap and trade 

system.

The price has not been set but various proposals have been discussed in the recent past, such as $23/t and $26/t. The announcement came after an agreement was reached between the Federal Labor government, the Greens and two Independent MPs, and included commitments to ensure all funds collected go back to homes and businesses to assist in the transition to renewables.  This led to accusations that Prime Minister Julia Gillard had breached a pre-election promise not to introduce such a tax. The Leader of the Opposition, Tony Abbott, 

has called for an election over the issue.

To further understand what exactly a carbon tax is; it is implemented by taxing “dirty” energy sources such as burning coal and other forms of fossil fuels. The tax will be based depending on the carbon emission that a 

particular establishment or industrial firm is responsible for.

Carbon Tax may seem a burden for us, and perhaps it will be initially for bigger businesses who are heavy electricity users. But with it the government will be hitting two important targets at the same time.

1. The tax will help decrease Australia’s carbon emissions

2. The money collected has been committed to be used for the further development of green energy within Australia.

Ultimately the aim is to build a sustainable source of clean, green renewable energy, such as solar panels. Australia wide and carbon tax will play a vital role in ensuring that it is economically feasible for that to occur.

Renewable Energy; Solar, Hydro and Wind Power

Solar, hydro and wind power have all proven that they can produce electricity, but the problem that arises is the economic sustainability of each method and their feasibility in various locations. If we are to phase out burning of fossil fuels we need a reliable and economically viable renewable energy source that can sustain the needs of an ever-growing worldwide population.

Hydro power plants were known to produce a great deal of electricity; however the requirements of these plants made it quite impossible to be used in many geographical locations. In this type of plants you’ll need massive amounts of current water to keep turbines from spinning, so it has been adapted in various countries which are blessed with scenic and powerful waterfalls, but even there it turned out that these power plants are largely just supplemental to grid produced electricity.

Wind Turbines are not reliable because we cannot predict if there would be enough wind to keep them spinning and the huge areas of land required to house them is unavailable in many countries. Though these plants are used to power a fraction of some cities today, it can also be considered as only a supplemental energy source worldwide.

Probably the most viable technology today is the harnessing of solar energy; although the suns energy isn’t available the entire day, it has proven itself to be a highly effective generator of large amounts of clean renewable power around the world, even in cooler European climates. The very flexible technology of solar PV panels which allows it to be scaled to small residential use through to very large commercial soalr power parks has been the key to its success,……though wind and hydro power plants produce a great deal of energy they need to be in colossal proportions to be viable. Solar energy produced via Solar Photovoltaic panels still requires a large amount of roof space but it is efficient enough to be truly viable replacement for at least 20% of current “dirty” energy production methods worldwide

All of these alternative renewable energy innovations are beneficial in the long run; if we can have all of them working at the same time in every country in the world we just might cut off the need for burning of fossil fuels before our Earths resources run out!