Matthew Lambourne, Mullumbimby
While I am inclined to agree with Charles MacFarland that nothing will be done about climate change until the brown stuff hits the circulating device in a big way (Echo, last week), he is too pessimistic about what can be done now.
He says that there are no electricity storage ideas ‘even close to being practical’, but the Tesla battery in South Australia, which cost $100 million, earned $15 million in its first year of operation.
That sounds a lot more ‘practical’ than the less-than-2-per-cent recently offered by my bank to roll over a term deposit.
Pumped hydro is also a proven technology and already exists on a small scale within the Snowy Mountains Scheme.
Two years ago an Australian National University study identified 22,000 potential off-river pumped hydro sites in Australia with a theoretical capacity of 67,000 Gigawatt hours (GWh).
The report said that Australia needs about 450 GWh of storage to support a 100 per cent renewable electricity system.
That’s just two examples of renewables that are proven, practical and affordable, and don’t require drastic changes to our lifestyle.
The kids are right – the problem is our politicians.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
