renewable energy may cost less than coal power

From today's SMH

http://www.smh.com.au/environment/renewable-energy-may-cost-less-than-coal-power-20090702-d6ki.html

The following paragraph from the article clearly shows the extent of funding that needs to be committed one way or another across a range of power generation technologies by various state govts and the federal govt.

"Building a new coal-fired power station to meet demand before 2020 would cumulatively cost up to $30 billion, while building the infrastructure to supply the grid from more local low-emissions sources plants would total about $27 billion over the next decade, the university report calculated."

The funding levels mentioned above are just for NSW.

Whilst the article is clearly about renewables (which ucg is not), it is clear to me that nothing can be off the agenda for govts responsibly addressing future power needs for their jurisdictions.

A significant advantage of cleaner greener electricity generation by either csg or ucg syngas is that the technologies and generation hardware exist right now and can give probably the quickest inroads to a 30% or so reduction in CO2 emissions and can producer cheaper electricity.

Renewables is strictly speaking and ongoing story that will become commercially scalable and a reality over a much greater timescale than can be achieved with gas.

The reserves for ucg runs to centuries and will plug any renewables development timelines imo.

Cheers
Dex