Solar Power Information for all Australians

This week has seen the Australian Federal Government commence business for 2010 and the release of the Coalitions new Environmental policy. Solar power features heavily in it and in my humble opinion, it is worth cheering for. Solar Power is 'a given' in Australia and why it has taken us all so long to even think about using it advantageously has got to be either a 'real shame job' to Australians or more likely, a result of powerful lobbying forces in Canberra.

I strongly suspect the latter and I am impressed that Tony Abbott, the leader of the opposition, must think so too. One of his ideas is to not to put another heavy tax burden on ALL Australians, but to put a levy on 1000 of Australia's biggest polluters.  He wants the level of their emissions tagged at 2005 levels, and if they increase emissions over and above that, then they will be hit hard with penalties. All up, this should raise approx. ten billion dollars to go towards funding environmentally friendly and renewable energy.

The other suggestion in the coalitions policy that had me cheering was that they want to put solar panels on every house in Australia. Whooppee! This is precisely what I have been espousing for the past few years. All it it needs is some reconfiguring of our substations and power stations and it can be done. Apparently 'the powers that be' think so too. This is the best news for a decade for all Australians.

What it can mean to the average Australian household is much, much lower electricity costs. Now when we get these forty plus degrees Celsius days, we should all be able to enjoy cool air-conditioning safely being powered by the very thing that is creating the heat. What a win-win situation for everyone, including the environment.

Previously what has had to happen is that we've had to burn more coal to generate the electricity and or have it transferred across hundreds of kilometres of high voltage power lines where so much electricity has simply dissipated into the surrounding environment.

The other thing I liked about the coalitions policy is that we aren't burning our bridges behind us (pun almost intended) but we are keeping our options available while we build the new systems. Coal is cheap and dirty but it is still better to have that as a backup than not to have any means at all of generating electricity.

Now Australia is going to need solar contractors because I strongly suspect that there will be an election held early this year and I also believe the coalition will be re-elected again. I have been suggesting to all our construction contractors that this is the beginnings of a new trade and every town, city and whistle-stop will be looking for a solar contractor to hook up solar power to any building with a roof.

As we all know, there isn't yet the capability to build enough solar panels this week (China is working on it but so far isn't into mass production) for the whole country, but there already exists the means for a contractor to build them locally in their shed!

When the ball really starts to roll, it will all be done one house/building at a time.

Solar power is about to happen and we will have a shortage of solar contractors to install the systems. If you are a construction business looking for a 'value ad' for your business then you are on the cusp of something life-changing. Grab it with both hands and run with it, please. We need You.