Creating a Sustainable Sunshine Coast - Nambour to Mooloolah

I acknowledge the traditional owners of the land where I write, the Kaurareg nation.

Living at the end of the Australian diesel supply chain here on Waibene (Thursday Island) has always made me consider, subconsciously, the potential impacts of an energy disruption. A couple of pieces of information have come to my knowledge this weekend which has moved the debate to my conscious mind.

First of all, according to my calculations, made based on a pamphlet released by the International Energy Association and the OECD (see attached document), Waibene's electricity use requires the consumption of more than 10,000 litres of diesel PER DAY. Electricity supplied here is "off-the-grid" and is supplied by wind and diesel fuel. The wind turbines only account for 10% (at the very best) or less of the electricity supplied.

Second, the Caltex diesel refinery at Lytton has had to conduct unscheduled maintenance. This is going to have an impact on diesel supplies in SEQ for the rest of the month. For the story, click the link below.

"Brisbane diesel drought looms"
http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,23542562-952,00.html

It made me think in two different ways:

1) If I had to give up 90% of my electricity consumption tomorrow, what would I need to do in my day-to-day activities?

2) If Waiben had to give up 90% of its electricity consumption tomorrow, what would the island need to do? Is a plan in place?

My thoughts on this are unclear at this point, although a couple of things came to mind immediately: the hospital, refrigeration, and communications networks. Maybe a fan. Regardless of what I think, the Federal Government does have a plan to deal with such an event. It is the Liquid Fuel Emergency Amendment Act 2007. This diesel drought might be a good time to conduct a dry-run of the new provisions of this Act. The Act can be found at:

http://www.comlaw.gov.au/ComLaw/Legislation/Act1.nsf/framelodgmentattach...

I hope to provide a more detailed musing on all of this when the time comes. In the meantime, if you are interested in keeping an eye on what the retailers are paying for diesel when it is unloaded off the cargo ships, go to the Australian Institute of Petroleum link here:

http://www.aip.com.au/pricing/tgp/index.htm#diesel

By the way, diesel was 87.4 cents/L on Jan 1 2004; it was 158.4 cents/L on April 18, 2008 according to the same website of the AIP. This is an average annualized rise of approximately 18.9% p.a.

Renewable energy is not only becoming less expensive, non-renewables are becoming more expensive.

Peace.