I think alot about that that list of Bill Gates about the reality of life and it has things like, “Your grandparents had a word for burger flipping, they called it oppurtunity” and “Before you go moan about how your parents have destroyed the planet, try delousing the closet in your bedroom”, well thanks Bill time for the children to at least try and save the planet (messy closet and all)…

Hmmm, I disagree a bit with other greenies on the hydro issue, sediment bypass tunnels can reduce the some of the effects common in current dams and I’d rather have some river issues than a planet 5 – 10 degrees C hotter…

The most exciting geothermal development I have seen, more for worldwide than NZ is:

http://www.potterdrilling.com/

I hope they are only a few years away from being very rich and geothermal power replacing almost all thermal plants (no need to buy coal or gas if the earth heats up the water for you..!)… Added to the developments in concrete production with low emissions, if we can find ways to make steel low emission and agriculture, we may be able to keep living up to our current standards… Then all thats left is to legislate energy effiency on existing buildings, start to base our transport system on renewable electricity and make all new buildings net zero energy and hope we can get emissions under control before its too late…

Oh no, I’ve gone crosseyed…

The problem is that we really struggle to build more hydro due to environmental reasons (quite justifiably so too), and most other renewables are not baseload. Geothermal is the exception, and I certainly hope we roll out a LOT more geothermal plants in the next decade or two. There is also enormous potential for tidal power generation in Cook Strait (enough power for the whole country potentially apparently).

In terms of diesel, only a tiny proportion of that would be from trains.

I don’t share you’re optimism when it comes to renewable power generation, renewable power is now at 66% of production share and has been DROPPING year on year, it was 91% in 1975… Almost all new plants consented are thermally generating plants… Our energy sector emissions will go up unless we get really serious about renewable energy which is not currently going to happen (Gerry Brownlee is the Energy version of Steven Joyce and transport)…

This reduction in renewable energy production share is a national disgrace considering our wind farms are 25 – 50% more productive than European equalivalents, we are one of a handful of countries that can build geothermal plants will minimal drilling, our hydro reserves are huge, we have a coast line almost the same length as America for wave generation, our largest city is in the north where Solar will be effective…