IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ids/ijgeni/v19y2003i1p78-94.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Can solar sources meet Australia's electricity and liquid fuel demand?

Author

Listed:
  • Ted Trainer

Abstract

It is commonly assumed that because of its relatively high solar energy incidence Australia will be able to meet its energy demand from solar sources. However, an examination of evidence on existing and probable future efficiencies and costs indicates that it will not be possible to derive sufficient electricity or liquid fuels to sustain the present high per capita rates of consumption from solar sources at affordable prices. In view of the limitations and problems associated with fossil fuel and nuclear options, it is concluded that although there must be a transition to reliance on renewables, a sustainable future for Australia cannot be achieved without significant reduction in current material "living standards" and in gross economic activity. However, advocates of "The Simpler Way" argue that a radically alternative society based on frugal lifestyles and local economic self-sufficiency could provide a high quality of life.

Suggested Citation

  • Ted Trainer, 2003. "Can solar sources meet Australia's electricity and liquid fuel demand?," International Journal of Global Energy Issues, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 19(1), pages 78-94.
    • Handle: RePEc:ids:ijgeni:v:19:y:2003:i:1:p:78-94
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.inderscience.com/link.php?id=2383
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ted Trainer, 2010. "A Critical Discussion of the Stern and IPCC Analyses of Carbon Emission Mitigation Possibilities and Costs," Energy & Environment, , vol. 21(2), pages 49-73, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ids:ijgeni:v:19:y:2003:i:1:p:78-94. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sarah Parker (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.inderscience.com/browse/index.php?journalID=13 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.