Citizen Mum

As a writer I have worked for years in that part of the paddock, river, forest, town, coast that lies between the scientists, engineers, ecologists, environmentalists, agronomists, geologists (generally geeks, greenies and tech-heads)* and all the rest of us.  All this time using words to move new knowledge as clearly  (and gently) as possible into the public domain. Fun, frustrating, challenging and constantly involving me having to chomp down on science or knowledge that’s initially way beyond me. As you can imagine there have been hits and misses along the way. Fortunately scientists of all people forgive failures most nobly. After all, science is built on failures.

Hopefully that background is going to help me write this blog, meet deadlines and chomp down on a little bit of technology to deliver knowledge and news about renewable energy, and possibly pop a few myths that bubble up in places they shouldn’t – like the mainstream media, out of politicians’ mouths and from corporates with vested interests.

It is so exciting to see the grass roots movement towards renewable energy in Australia – and seeing states and territories like the ACT, Victoria and South Australia making big policy steps and moving huge obstacles to realise that future. What we are going to do here is look at that transition from a householder’s perspective and break down some of the concepts, look at products on the market for householders, and break the language barrier!

So, over the next few weeks I am going to tackle some of the terms for household solar energy, energy storage and batteries, smart products. Having a good grasp of the concepts and language will help us all make informed decisions about fitting renewable energy into our lives. This is my journey too, and I’m learning as I go. But, I figure I might as well use some of the skills I have to share what I find out with really anyone else who is interested.

(And when I do get my head around Elon Musk’s Hyper Loop mass transit idea I’ll share that too. For now it’s on my bucket list)

*Happy to report that there are fewer beards amongst this lot these days, because there are sooooooooo many more women in the field since when I started. Yay!