Should have gone off-list Damo.
Biofuels are interesting but have some problems. Often they represent a
diversion of potential food crops or the land used to produce them into
fuel production - as in Brazil for the Gasohol fuel shandy. A similar
effect to the diversion of land to coffee and beef production to supply the
USA, leading to poor peasant displaced by the large ranching and farming
operations cutting into the Amazon forest for subsistence plots. In this
world we have a shortage of good farm land, soil is an endangered, slow
renewal resource and one third of the population go hungry.
Often so called 'clean' solutions, such as hydro, have far reaching
envirosocial implications beyond a simple scientific analysis of
environmental impact.
Places where Biofuels may be useful are where there are supplies of waste
or pest vegetaion - such as sugar cane waste in Queensland (bagasse). One
scheme I liked was in the Congo (river) where the introduced giant water
hyacinth (serious pest, huge biomass) was dredge harvested and fermented
for alcohol fuel.
In the meantime, I'd recommend hydrogen fuel cells using solar energy for
Australia - if there is an adequate water supply in the area. Solar is
problematic for the UK of course, but so are biofuels - supply is
restricted by conditions rather than economy. Remember, in the UK, many
alternative fuels were thoroughly investigated and employed in the Second
World War when the UK had no domestic oil supply. They went back to fossil
fuel for a raft of good and bad reasons.
In the end, the only approach that makes sense is to explore low
consumption technologies, as you implied (i.e. improved solar cells) and,
of course, reduced social expectations.
Andrew
M.Env.Sci
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