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If its not coal, it has to be gas. It will be the only possible replacement to base load electricity in this country short of breakthroughs in fusion power.
Nuclear only not viable due to the startup cost, as the cost of all the red tape to get it over the line in this country would be greater than actually building & running the things.
Remember the nuclear accident in Japan was from secondary cooling failures, the reactors themselves survived the earthquake and tsunami intact.
Back to natural gas, problem at the moment is the supply of gas is still tight in this country. We have large resources in ground but they need to be untapped. The focus for gas reserves is about to shift though from where I sit, from the offshore NW shelf to unconventionial gas onshore, such as shale gas.
There have just been some test wells drilled in the Cooper Basin that look very promising & may unlock reserves of gas & security of supply for the SA & East Coast for decades maybe centuries. Watch this space. Similar plans for shale gas in Perth and Canning Basin WA as well.
Call me alarmist, (I really think we have more to worry from an Ice Age cycle setting in, rather than Warming...) If there is some cataclysmic event such as massive volcanic eruption or large collision event which ment reduced sunlight for months or years, those solar panels and wind generators are going to be pretty useless. We might all be screwed anyway, but its a thought.
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