ARTICLES
Solar Energy to battle the severe water shortage in regional NSW? (continued)
ideas, especially those still refusing to acknowledge the reality of
human-induced climate change despite the predictions shown in
former US Vice-president Al Gore’s film “An Inconvenient Truth”
in 2006 being clearly proven.
water is currently a major challenge. Together with the Walgett
Shire Council, Jenni and Elizabeth are enthusiastic about the
possibility of using the artesian water available once it has been
purified.
In her article, Elizabeth explained the formation of the Great
Artesian Basin, in particular its base that consists largely of
siliceous material that allows water to move through it fairly easily.
Water from the Basin used to be raised for feeding stock by
windmills; nowadays most have been replaced by alternative
pumps. Farmers are not permitted to use artesian water for
irrigation, since the ultimate source of the artesian water is
seawater with a high salt content, which damages the soil.
A field of solar panels - ugly, but daily harvesting sunshine to
generate electricity
Nevertheless, there are further potential advantages available
for those who do harvest the sunshine. I have only recently
returned from Spain, and was excited to see that cars that use
only electricity are becoming more and more frequent, and hook
up to special outlets to recharge. Of course, there is a charge
per “fill-up”, which currently is reasonable relative to diesel and
gasoline, but is likely to decrease as more electric vehicles are
purchased. [Right across Spain the main source of electricity is
windmills rather than solar power.]
Another field in drought. Will we have to sell up
My belief is that the project that Jade and Macinley developed in
2017 might well be significant if it can be carried out on a large
scale. Of course, it would be essential to use electric power to
purify the water, but one of the most consistent ‘certainties’ of
modern days in regional NSW is sunshine! Despite the scepticism
of many country people, provoked largely for dubious political
advantage, ‘harvesting the sunshine’ is very likely to be far more
profitable in the long run than harvesting crops or animals that
so desperately need consistent rainfall. Fields now bare due to
the drought could become rich sources of electric power, both to
pump water up from the artesian sources and purify it, even by
simply boiling it to capture the steam and discarding the salt if no
better way can be contemplated.
Very recent news reports tell that plans are already afoot to sell
Australian solar power. The idea is to capture solar energy on
a large scale using a ‘solar farm’ in the Northern Territory and
beam it some 4000 kilometres via an optical cable to Singapore!
Furthermore, NSW’s Deputy Premier, John Barilaro, appears
to have ‘seen the light’, and very recently announced a plan to
harvest solar power using both windfarms and banks of solar
panels in an area north-east of Dubbo, so changes are happening!
Possibly more exciting is the potential use of hydrogen as a fuel
for modern vehicles – including for aeroplanes! Hydrogen fuel
that launches rockets into space is very capable of powering
all types of vehicle, and the only significant emissions from the
vehicles would be water vapour!
Dr. Jenni Brammall, another palaeontologist living in Lightning
Ridge, has begun construction of an exciting project to store
both the many opalised fossils she has received from numerous
opal miners over the past twenty years, and also the opals she
sells. They require protection from both the extreme summer
temperatures and the dry atmosphere, so the building is intended
to be 100% energy-efficient. She and Elizabeth have managed
to raise $20M of the anticipated $34M needed to complete the
project. Naturally, it is to be powered with solar panels, but clean
So, how would the hydrogen be produced? In simple terms, by
using electricity to decompose water. This water would need to
be salty to allow the electric current to flow easily, so there is the
capacity for seawater to be used, or even artesian water.
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SCIENCE EDUCATIONAL NEWS VOL 68 NO 4