LewsTheri's

Today it rained. No. It was a downpour. Strong winds. Plenty of rain. But too little too late. It hasn't rained in Canberra for at least a month, and the last two months have been considered the driest and the hottest September and October for the past ten or twenty years.





Canberra is considered lucky. The worst hit areas are the farm lands in New South Wales. The people involved in the primary industry, especially the farmers and orchard owners, are devastated by draughts which have lasted six years. The government is trying to get the farmers back on their feet by allocating funds and assistance but I guess it's too little, too late. Apparently, the statistics say that one male adult in the primary industry commits suicide every four days.

When there are extreme weather conditions for long period of time, it's a sign that there is something wrong with the environment. The effects of global warming are really taking its toll but no one, not even the government is doing much. It is only these few days or so that we've heard measures being taken and funds being allocated to research into these dire areas.

I went to a seminar the other day given by a solar energy researcher of ANU. Prof. Andrew Blakers is the Director of the Centre for Sustainable Energy Systems & ARC Centre of Excellence for Solar Energy Systems here at the ANU. His group has invented a new solar cell technology which can reduce the cost of solar cells by 3 quarters and has 20% energy efficiency, which is extremely good when we consider that the energy source is the sun. They are currently commercialising the technology and a factory is currently being built in Adelaide which will manufacture these new solar cells.

It's interesting because when he was asked what the best ways for sustainable energy management in the future are, he said 'with diversity comes stability'. What he means is that we should not depend on a single energy source, unlike the current world situation where fossil fuels are the most important source of energy, but have a variety of renewable energy sources such as solar, wind, geothermal and perhaps nuclear. In terms of researching into these technologies, Australia lags behind and there aren't a lot of encouragement and funding into these areas.

One of the richest man in China, Zhengrong Shi, was a researcher in solar technology from the University of New South Wales. The Chinese government saw that the technology has potential and thus invited him back to China to commercialise the technology. He is now worth an estimated $3 billion, making him the wealthiest person in mainland China, 4th in Australian and 350th richest person in the world, according to Forbes.

Although Australia has lost its world lead in developing a solar energy industry, it is not too late to catch up, he says. "But we have to think long-term and in a more creative way. Australia has the best solar technology. And we have got so much sunshine."

And let's hope that we're not too late.