Energy solution is growing on trees

Some influential politicians appear dazzled by the nuclear option as the solution to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. By contrast, many Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries have turned from nuclear to another option of base-load power that has been effectively ignored here.

Sweden, Finland, Austria, Britain and Germany, among others, are investing heavily in energy plants fuelled by woody waste, often mixed with flammable municipal waste.
Sweden, once a significant importer of Australian coal, has gone well along this path and is now generating about 20 per cent of its energy needs from woody biomass. This nation of about 8 million now has about a quarter of the Australian emissions of greenhouse gases per head, while maintaining a lifestyle most Australians would envy. Some cities and municipalities are as low as a sixth of Australia’s per-head emissions, and aim to reduce them further. Many strategies Sweden uses can be readily introduced here, with the scope to rapidly and cost-effectively halve our greenhouse gas emissions by 2020.

The Age