Mining giants must pitch in to `keep the industry viable'

Courier Mail
Thursday 19/11/2009 Page: 17

IT IS time Australia's massively wealthy mining companies started to pay their way and an emissions trading scheme is probably the best way to do it - at least that is the view of some central Queensland mine workers. Despite claims from coal companies that an emissions trading scheme would lead to widespread job losses and the closure of several Queensland mines, their workers are supportive of the scheme as a way of keeping the industry alive and viable.

Peter Freeleagus, a boilermaker at the Peak Downs mine near Moranbah, said he could not see any way that jobs would be threatened. "Maybe some of the smaller speculative mines might have trouble, but if the ETS is so evil why are so many (mine development plans) going through?" he said. "Why are there 80 ships waiting off Mackay for coal? "There's (plans for) Daunia and Caval Ridge and Isaac Plains, and then there's Galilee. I don't think coal is going to disappear."

Mr Freeleagus said he had noticed one mine after another going out for approval in recent times. "The industry is still going to grow, but just under different parameters," he said. "From the coal miner to the CEO, we have to acknowledge that we have to do our bit." His claims that the mineral and energy industry is still booming and planning greater expansion despite the ETS is backed by figures from the Federal Government's Australian Bureau of Agricultural Resource Economics.

It found that last month the industry was planning to invest a record $112.5 billion on projects, an increase of 40% since April. Queensland accounted for about $9 billion of that, with the bulk of the rest being invested in the massive Gorgon LNG project in WA. Mr Freeleagus said a lot of the confusion in the community about the ETS was caused by the fact that the industry was still booming while companies complained about the potential to shut existing mines.

Saraji mine process technician and union leader Wayne Woodhouse said the coal companies were only putting a fraction of their profits to developing clean coal. "It's a drop in the bucket for them," Mr Woodhouse said. "Some of the big companies have posted profits up to $10 billion. Obviously they are not that worried about an ETS." He said a lot of miners considered the ETS to be "just a big bucket of money that the Government can get its hands on".

The coal industry wants your cash to save them

Crikey.com.au
Wednesday 18/11/2009 Page: 1
Managing editor of SourceWatch Bob Burton

A recently released report by the World Coal Institute (WCI) on how to finance the experimental carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology for power stations, reminded me of a cartoon from years ago by the Australian cartoonist, Patrick Cook. In the cartoon, a huge bloated budgie (parakeet) with the letters "BHP Billiton" emblazoned on its chest, was holding a gun to its own head while proclaiming to a cowering politician, "Hand over the loot or the budgie gets it." (At the time, BHP Billiton - - which owned iron ore mines and steel mills - - was haggling for government support for its ailing steel operations).

BHP Billiton ditched its steel interests long ago and is now one of the world's biggest miners and exporters of coal for power stations. It is also a member of the WCI. In its report, titled Securing the Future: Financing carbon capture and storage in a Post-2012 World, the WCI argue that there is an urgent need for massive funding of CCS trials by governments and with a generous slice of revenues from emissions trading schemes. Current funding, the WCI claims, is "too slow to allow necessary global GHG [greenhouse gas] emissions reductions goals to be achieved." Not surprisingly, they identify that "the appetite for this will largely hinge on public acceptance."

What the coal industry realises is that without massive public funding, CCS is dead. Without CCS, the coal industry and power companies locked into coal-fired power stations will, at best, be on life support. The WCI report, just a few weeks ahead of the COP15 talks in Copenhagen, reflects the increasing desperation of a coal industry trying to get someone else to pay for the mess it has created. Everyone knows that if the global community agreed to make deep cuts to greenhouse gas emissions, the biggest loser will be the coal industry.

Years ago, the industry could have invested its own money in researching CCS, but didn't. Instead, from the late 1980's on, they poured money into the pockets of lobbyists and conservative think tanks wanting to derail any move aimed at limiting greenhouse gas emissions. Even today, the coal industry invests pitiful amounts of its own money in CCS research.

Instead, the budgie is back. Having largely succeeded in stalling changes which would have cut coal consumption, the coal industry now hopes that it can harness the public sense of urgency over global warming to have politicians allocate tens of billions of dollars in research funds largely for their benefit.

In its report, the WCI floated a number of ways that everyone other than themselves could be compelled to fund CCS research. Electricity consumers, they suggested, could be subject to a levy on consumption or even a%age of revenues of emissions trading schemes be earmarked. They also flagged that power generation companies could be issued free or even bonus emission allowances if they had plants with CCS technology attached, or even that a levy be imposed on coal-fired power stations that don't have CCS plants attached.

They also suggested that other direct government subsidies could be considered too, including tax credits, loan guarantees and direct payments. Perhaps most audaciously, they have suggested that perhaps CCS-fitted plants could be explicitly included in Emissions Performance Standards (such as the "Schwarzenegger clause"), which mandates carbon performance standards for sources of electricity.

At the heart of the coal industry's current panic is the recognition that few believe CCS will deliver any substantial greenhouse gas emissions anytime soon. The most optimistic think CCS may be deployed at commercial scale by 2020. Others think 2030 is perhaps more realistic. Others think that even if the technology can be made to work at commercial scale, it won't be economically competitive with other emissions-reduction strategies or technologies for a long, long time.

The pessimism about CCS is breaking out everywhere. Last June, Jim Rogers, CEO of the huge power company, Duke Energy, said that "CCS as a magical technology that solves the carbon problem for coal plants is oversold... I think there is a lot to learn, and it is going to take us a lot longer for us to figure it out than a lot of us think." Just last week, former Australian government minister Ian MacFarlane, who had until recently been an enthusiastic promoter of CCS, said that "what happened was nothing happened... The clean coal option has passed us by.

Twenty years to wait before the technology is available. Thirty years before it is commercial. We will need to move on to other options by then." (Macfarlane is now a booster for gas-fired power stations and nuclear plants.) As pessimism about CCS increases, the WCI sees public funding as crucial in creating the illusion that CCS is a viable option. In its report, the WCI argues that "an effective programme to accelerate the widespread deployment of CCS should build public confidence in and acceptance of CCS as a mitigation option." Maybe.

An alternative scenario is that once the scale of public funding becomes obvious and more than a handful of CCS projects go belly up, the public will object to throwing good money after bad. And that is what has the coal industry worried. Of immediate concern to the WCI is the prospect that the COP15 meeting won't agree to include CCS as an option in the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), a market-based scheme designed to allow private developers to gain credits for emission reductions from projects in developing countries.

A recently released report (large pdf) commissioned by the Global carbon capture and storage Institute, a pro-CCS agency, stated that "in the absence of a mechanism such as the CDM it seems unlikely that investment in CCS will be achieved in many developing countries within the timeframe proposed by the G8." (At its June 2008 meeting in Japan, the G8 agreed that "20 large-scale CCS demonstration projects need to be launched globally by 2010, taking into account varying national circumstances with a view to supporting technology development and cost reduction for the beginning of broad deployment of CCS by 2020.") There are numerous governments - - including the United States, Norway, Australia, Canada and Saudi Arabia - - enthusiastically supporting including CCS in the CDM. There are also the business lobby groups such as the International Chamber of Commerce, the carbon capture and storage Association and the International Emissions Trading Association, all cheering for the inclusion of CCS in the mechanism as well.

Other countries are less enthusiastic. Brazil and India oppose its inclusion, as do the Alliance of Small Island States. The Executive Board of the CDM was also equivocal, noting (pdf) that there are a host of complex technical, legal and economic issues that still need to be addressed.

One thing that both supporters and opponents of including CCS in the Clean Development Mechanism agree on, is that the main beneficiaries would be countries that are major producers and/or consumers of fossil fuels for power generation. That being the case, the risk is that new CCS projects approved under the Clean Development Mechanism would generate so many emission credits they could undermine the price of carbon and end up perversely deterring the development of renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies. Worse still, this could undermine the prospects of increasing energy efficiency and expanding renewable energy in the very countries that are least reliant on coal power generation.

The likelihood is that COP15 will struggle to reach agreement on anything beyond a broad outline of what could be included in a successor agreement to the Kyoto Protocol. It is also likely that the debate over whether to include CCS in the Clean Development Mechanism will not be resolved at the Copenhagen conference.

But the coal industry, like Patrick Cook's big bloated budgie, will be back demanding more public money. And the odds are that the coal-lobby funded think tanks will be conspicuously silent about the big government handouts their sponsors want for their pet CCS projects.

Turnbull's troops find their voice on emissions

Sydney Morning Herald
Thursday 19/11/2009 Page: 7

SUPPORTERS of the Opposition Leader, Malcolm Turnbull, have broken a long public silence to begin advocating a deal with Labor on an emissions trading scheme, taking on their colleagues who have dominated the debate for months. As they did so, Liberals on both sides of the argument began speculating a deal would be reached with the Government, pushed through the party room and passed by the Senate next week. As negotiations over amendments resumed yesterday, debate began in the Senate.

Those who had kept quiet so far spoke out in what one source said was a co-ordinated tactic designed to send a message to the rebels. The Queensland Liberal senator Sue Boyce stated defiantly that she was convinced by the "overwhelming scientific evidence" underpinning climate change that "Labor's clunky scheme is better than no scheme at all". I would like to see the package of bills passed and there is no reason why they cannot be passed ahead of the Copenhagen climate conference next month if the Government accepts fair, reasonable and timely amendments," Senator Boyce said.

To suggest that there should not be an emissions trading scheme because it will increase costs, is to my mind, an immoral proposition." The South Australian senator Simon Birmingham said he would support the bill if the Government offered concessions. "I hope ultimately to be voting for action on climate change," Senator Birmingham said. He conceded the party would split on a final vote but said lie respected the right of his colleagues to cross the floor. The Tasmanian senator Guy Barnett said he also would support an amended scheme.

Before the Senate rose last night one of the chief rebels, Cory Bernardi, exposed the gulf in the Liberal Party. He said man-made climate change was nonsense and alarmism and described those who subscribed to the concept as "anthropogenic global warming rent seekers". A fellow rebel. Mitch Fifield said the impending failure at Copenhagen to bind the world to greenhouse gas reduction targets meant the argument to pass the scheme before the conference had "been shot".

The Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, said yesterday he was confident the Government would reach agreement with the Liberals "but I am still concerned about what is actually happening in [Coalition] ranks". Senior Liberal sources said the desire by Mr Rudd and Mr Turnbull to reach agreement meant it was likely a deal would be struck.

The biggest hurdle for Mr Turnbull will be to then receive party room approval of the deal. One Liberal hostile to a deal said there would be no ballot in the party room. Mr Turnbull would make a decision based on the mood and, so even was the split, he would be able to decide the party had approved.

India targets 1,000mw solar power in 2013

timesofindia.indiatimes.com
18 November 2009

The US and other advanced countries may be dithering in the fight against climate change but India is ready to launch its Solar Mission under the National Action Plan on Climate Change, with plans to generate 1,000 MW of power by 2013.

The Union Cabinet is going to consider the mission document, which requires India to generate 1,000 MW of solar energy every year by 2013. A complete package has been proposed to propel the power sector into 'solar reforms' that could lead to annual production of 20,000 MW by 2020 if phase 1 of the solar mission goes well. The country currently produces less than 5 MW every year.

In the first phase, between 2010 and 2013, the government is also proposing to generate 200 MW of off-grid solar energy and cover 7 million m² with solar collectors. The mission, if approved by the Cabinet, will entail three phases with the ambitious targets and financial mechanisms for the latter two phases being reviewed on the basis of performance in the first three-year phase. By the end of the final phase in 2022, the government hopes to produce 20,000 MW of grid-based solar energy, 2,000 MW of off-grid solar energy and cover 20 million m² with collectors.

Solar lighting systems would also be provided to 9,000 villages under existing schemes by providing soft loans which would be refinanced by the Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency Limited. Instead of the large direct subsidy to solar energy producers suggested earlier, the government has decided to integrate solar energy production and sale into existing power purchase mechanisms.

NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam Limited (NVVN) shall in the first phase be made the nodal agency to buy solar energy from producers at the rate recently established by Central Electricity Regulatory Commission. It would then sell it to state utilities which would be credited against the compulsory renewable energy purchase targets which the respective state electricity regulatory commission sets up. Specific targets for solar energy may also be set up for the utilities to buy as part of their power portfolios.

NVVN will bundle solar energy with the unallocated central pool to sell it to state utilities. The government also plans to do away with customs and excise duty on import of capital equipment as well as ease the duty rates for raw material and inputs. Roof-top solar energy will be promoted by providing a generation based incentive for self-use as well as putting the power on to the grid.

To enhance human resources involved in the sector, it wants to train at least 1,000 engineers to specialise in the field besides providing scholarships to 100 engineers to study abroad in the first phase of the mission. IITs and other engineering institutes will be asked to set up specialised courses to meet the industry's demand.

To promote innovative uses of solar energy, a venture capital fund will be set up to promote start-ups in collaboration with institutes like IIMs. A national centre of excellence for research on solar energy is proposed as well to push research and development in the emerging field. The government has proposed a Solar Energy Authority or a Mission with an additional secretary rank official to head the executive arm.

Green Wave Energy is trying to turn wind power market on its axis

www.latimes.com
November 17, 2009

The company and investors are banking on the unconventional design of its micro turbines that can generate energy by capturing breezes from any direction. The potential for profit is blowing in the wind, and Green Wave Energy Corp, plans to catch it. Among its secret weapons: an 11-foot-tall, blazingly white, nearly indestructible prototype generator that produces as much as 11 kWs of electricity using gusts of wind.

The fiberglass contraption could make homespun, do-it-yourself wind energy a reality, Chief Executive Mark Holmes said. A model version recently stood amid yachts in a Newport Beach shipyard before being disassembled for updates, but Holmes envisions it moving soon into the backyards and rooftops of homes and businesses. "It's gee-whiz stuff," he said. "It gets really Space Age."

Green Wave Energy Corp has big dreams for its generators, known as micro turbines, and for a product that churns out energy using ocean waves. There are also ambitious plans for a park filled with larger turbines. The wind-energy industry is growing, in part with help from federal stimulus money. For the first nine months of the year, more than 5,800 MWs of wind projects were added to the nation's energy supply, up nearly 40% from the same period last year, according to the American Wind Energy Association.

But for fledgling energy companies such as Green Wave Energy Corp, staying aloft can be a major challenge. "It's been hard getting this off the ground," Holmes said. Unlike most windmills' propeller-shaped turbines, the Green Wave Energy Corp products operate on a vertical axis, merry-go-round style. More than 20 U.S, companies build or are developing vertical-axis turbines. Around 200 urban or rooftop units were sold in 2008, double the 2007 number.

Sales of small wind turbines soared last year to $77 million and 10,500 units capable of generating 17.3 MWs of electricity, marking a 78% increase in capacity sold from 2007, according to the American Wind Energy Association. Holmes has invested $100,000 of his own money since Green Wave Energy Corp launched in October 2008 with a vast underestimation of the resources, time and effort needed to operate. Development costs have been about $1.7 million, about four times higher than the team had expected. The crew quickly learned the value of resourcefulness.

Friends, family and other investors, who have pitched in $110,000, have given Green Wave Energy Corp access to $1.5 million in facilities, supplies, vehicles, equipment and services, Holmes said. The company has no official employees. Instead, all partners who provide services, equipment and working space are considered shareholders and officers. Most Green Wave Energy Corp workers have day jobs, such as the man who engineers corneas for eye replacement surgeries when he isn't designing turbine parts.

Using shareholders' properties - - the shipyard, a 10-acre manufacturing facility in Perris, two others in Santa Ana and Costa Mesa, and a garage in Orange - - saves thousands of dollars in rent a year. Instead of using an expensive wind tunnel to test the strength of the turbines, team members hitch a 4-foot prototype to a truck bed and go for a 55-mph spin. But even though Holmes is an ace at being thrifty, he's less adept when it comes to government regulations and holdups, he said.

Before wave-power generators can even get close to public waterways, companies must hack through a pack of regulatory agencies, including the California Coastal Commission and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The process, Holmes said, could take as long as three years and cost thousands of dollars in legal, permitting and other fees.

Fewer than 1% of small wind turbines are built in urban settings because of poor wind quality and zoning restrictions, according to the wind energy association. Convoluted permitting practices and resistant city planning departments thwart a third of all potential installations, the group said.

"The regulatory maze is so thick and complex that I am fairly certain no one can navigate it but well-trained lawyers - - and even for them, it's rather daunting," Holmes said. The federal government and several states offer rebates and tax credits to stir investment in the wind industry. California, according to the association, boasts some of the strongest sales in the market. There's plenty of competition from a crush of other young energy companies, all angling to set themselves apart.

Buying and installing a small turbine costs an average of $3,000 to $5,000 a kW, according to the wind energy group. Recouping the investment could take six to 30 years. Green Wave Energy Corp tries to position itself first as a company with money-saving products, while touting its eco-friendly qualities. "We're here to make money," Holmes said. "We're the new guys on the block. If we didn't show up with a better mousetrap, we wouldn't have a chance."

Although he majored in chemistry in college, Holmes, 49, strayed from science for nearly two decades as he pursued a career as a maritime and corporate lawyer. In the 1990s, however, he worked on bankruptcy cases involving solar energy companies. Intrigued by alternative energy, he began combing through patents, trawling the Internet and meeting with inventors. Along the way, Holmes had to learn physics and engineering. Now he can translate "scientific gibberish" for investors.

Unlike most turbines, Green Wave Energy Corp's vertical-axis products can generate power using wind from any direction, Holmes said. The smallest operates alongside a solar generator to power batteries built into a light pole, designed to generate light from dawn until dusk for as long as 20 years in remote or harsh locations such as deserts or jungles. There's also an "urban turbine," which is smaller than many rooftop air-conditioning units.

The first prototype turbine was finished in February to the tune of $30,000, but others have been progressively cheaper to build. Eventually, Holmes hopes to manufacture turbines like "tinker-toy sets" for easy manufacturing and installing. Meanwhile, in the desert near Victorville, Green Wave Energy Corp is participating in a joint venture to construct and operate a 5-acre park filled with 70 wind turbines. The first 40-foot-tall, $350,000 colossus could be turning its 50-pound blades by February, Holmes said.

A venture capital firm has initially promised 90% of the $26.5 million to develop the park, which could be finished in two years. Green Wave Energy Corp and other partners will raise the rest. The turbines could each bring in $160,000 a year if the park works out a power-purchase deal with a California utility, Holmes estimated. "It's kind of a risky deal, but even if it works half as well as it's supposed to, it's still revolutionary," he said.

The company also is developing a 20-foot-long wave-bottom generator that produces energy using surging ocean swells. Potential locations include the fronts of bridge pilings and piers, or in the enormous waves off the South Africa coast. If they clear regulatory hurdles, six generators will be tested at a site 100 feet off a granite Santa Catalina Island cliff, where the water is so choppy that even seals and sea lions avoid it. "We don't discriminate on technologies," Holmes said. "When you get down to it, the concepts are pretty similar. We don't want to pick any winners in the alternative energy game."

State money `plan B' for power

Age
Wednesday 18/11/2009 Page: 8

ALMOST 15 years after the Kennett government took the state government out of the electricity business, Victoria's main employer body has called for it to go back in, warning that the markets are too risk-averse to invest in the new power options the state will need.

In a report to its Victoria Summit, a Victorian Employers' Chamber of Commerce and Industry task force warns that Victoria will need 6000 MWs of new generating capacity by 2030 - the equivalent of six Loy Yang B power stations - or 12,000 MWs if the present coal-fired plant is shut down. The State Government has been urged to become more heavily involved in planning and financing new low-emission sources of power generation, and the new transmission lines required to make them viable.

While strongly backing research and development of carbon capture and storage to keep brown coal viable in a carbon constrained age, the report urges the state to also develop a plan B (developing renewable energy sources) and a plan B+, in which Victoria would go nuclear. "Long-term prosperity for Victoria requires a vision for a carbon-competitive future," report convener Vicki McDermid of Pitcher Partners told the summit.

Secure, low-cost electricity from brown coal had been a vital competitive advantage for Victorian business, she said, but to retain that edge would require an "energy revolution' in sources. The market could not be relied on to provide the power we need when we need it, the report said. Financial markets were risk averse when confronted by new technology, requiring some form of state involvement to get new generating sources off the ground.

This would be particularly true if nuclear energy were to become Victoria's best option, she said. In his address to the summit, Premier John Brumby called on the Rudd Government to speed up its development of renewable energy in Victoria, as the state prepares for the impending emissions trading scheme.

Mr Brumby said the Federal Government should quickly announce the allocation of $1.6 billion in its solar energy program. He also called on money collected from the carbon trading scheme to be spent on renewable energy projects. "Changes to our energy mix will not necessarily be easy," Mr Brumby said.

"But one thing is certain: a strong move towards renewable and low-emissions energy will mean more aggregate investment in the state, not less." Applications for projects under the scheme are due to open by the end of the year, with the selection of projects next year. Victoria last week received more than $66 million for a wave energy program in Portland.

Carnegie Wave Energy project in WA is on the mark

www.proactiveinvestors.com.au
November 16, 2009

Wave Energy developer Carnegie Corporation Energy (ASX: CWE) has announced its MW Western Australian project is on track with the first commercial scale autonomous CETO unit scheduled for deployment early next year. In a statement, Carnegie Corporation said development of the small scale commercial demonstration project in the waters off Garden Island was running smoothly with the autonomous (stand-alone) unit deployment also going well. Recently, the company has carried out a detailed marine geophysical survey using a combination of seismic refraction, sidescan sonar and bathymetry systems.

The survey determined the composition and features of the seabed across the development site to support mooring design and inform environmental baseline assessments. Other activities also over the past few months include detailed SCUBA diver surveys to determine the environmental values of the development site and verify geophysical properties of the seabed, finalisation of detailed design and installation methodology of the mooring, charter of a specialist jack-up rig for installation of the mooring and a comprehensive consultation with key stakeholders.

The geophysical surveys were carried out with the use of a Defence Maritime Services vessel and in accordance with applicable environmental guidelines. The survey results verified expected seabed conditions and allowed finalisation of the detailed design and installation methodology for the mooring. The mooring design is based on a drilled and grouted pile and is currently being manufactured ahead of its deployment in the coming weeks, subject to final State Government approvals. Mooring deployment activities on site will be undertaken in accordance with the conditions of approval to install and operate the CETO unit and with regard for other marine users.

The first commercial scale, autonomous CETO unit is scheduled for deployment in early 2010. Carnegie Corporation chief executive and managing director Michael Ottaviano said the 5MW project, following successful testing of the autonomous unit, would be the first commercial scale wave energy project to operate in Australia and is supported by a $12.5 million grant from the Western Australian Government. "Successful autonomous unit testing in 2010 will be the most significant milestone achieved in the development of CETO as it will prove the technology's functional performance at full scale," Mr Ottaviano said. "Development beyond this point will then focus on refining performance, extending reliability and balance of plant improvements."

The location of the first large scale commercial project will occur at one of the CETO international sites currently being studied. "Carnegie Corporation has been investigating several locations globally where high power tariffs co-exist with excellent wave resources," Mr Ottaviano said. "Some of these sites also involve mandated Government support for renewable energy generally and wave energy specifically. "The combination of these factors will contribute to an attractive economic return for the first large scale project." A decision on the location of the first international project site is expected shortly.

Due to its exceptional wave resource and improving renewable energy policy framework, Australia remains an important focus for Carnegie Corporation. The company will continue to develop CETO projects in Australia and to continue its feasibility activities at its current pipeline of sites across Australia. The CETO system distinguishes itself from other wave energy devices by operating out of sight and being anchored to the ocean floor. An array of submerged buoys is tethered to seabed pump units. The buoys move in harmony with the motion of the passing waves, driving the pumps which in turn pressurise water that is delivered ashore via a pipeline. High-pressure water is used to drive hydroelectric turbines, generating zero-emission electricity.

Minchin has no excuse for his ignorance

Crikey.com.au
Monday 16/11/2009 Page: 1
Mungo MacCallum

The most depressing statistic of modern times is the one that tells us that well over 50% of adult Americans do not believe in evolution. Or at least it was until last week, when Senator Nick Minchin, the Liberal leader in the senate, told Four Corners that a majority of his party room did not accept the reality of man-made climate change. At least the Americans - - well, some of them, anyway - - have an excuse for their ignorance and perversity. In a great many places education standards are low and the general environment is bigoted and provincial. The evolution denialists can reasonably claim that they don't know any better.

But Liberal members of the Australian federal parliament are among the most privileged groups in the world, with access to the best education money can buy. That a majority can comprehensively reject a scientific consensus that has been confirmed over more than two decades is almost beyond belief - - until you remember that these people are first and foremost politicians for whom the truth has always been an optional extra.

What concerns them is political advantage, and rightly or wrongly they perceive their current advantage lies in opposing the government's emissions trading scheme. They could, of course argue about the detail and seek to amend it, which is what the more rational members of the party are doing. But it is far easier just to reject the lot, to say it's all a left wing conspiracy and a fraud cooked up by communist greenies intent on destroying the Australian way of life.

They take their cue from the right-wing commentariat headed by Andrew Bolt, Janet Albrechtsen and Miranda Devine, none of whom is inclined to let the facts get in the way of a good diatribe. Their loathing for the left in general and the Greens in particular is so obsessive that the mere suggestion that the Greens might support a position is sufficient for them to condemn it out of hand.

So in pursuing their vendetta against the reality of man-made climate change they are prepared to give aid and comfort, and most importantly media space, to every maverick dissenter who emerges from the woodwork. This utterly unmerited exposure is calculated to make it appear that the argument is still unsettled, there is still a sizeable and respectable body of scientists who doubt the validity of the climate change thesis. There isn't: the basic fact of man-made climate change is accepted by all but the fruitloops - - and it would appear that Australians are among them.

Britain's new High Commissioner to Australia, Baroness Valerie Amos, commented rather tactlessly last week that she was surprised to find there was still debate about it in her new posting. She refrained from suggesting that she felt herself surrounded by slow learners, even primitives, but the point was clear. Throughout the civilised world, man-made climate change is a scientific fact, up there with the law of gravity. Of course there is still debate about the details, but no serious student of the literature questions the role played by carbon emissions in accelerating global warming or the catastrophic consequences which will flow from it unless action mistaken.

Those who pretend otherwise can no longer plead ignorance, so their perversity must be put down either to cynical self-interest or to sheer bloodymindedness. In the case of the recalcitrants in the Liberal Party room it is probably a combination of the two. So Kevin Rudd is perfectly entitled to excoriate them in the strongest possible terms, as he finally did in his Lowy lecture.

The pity is that he has left it so long. For most of the last two years the government has virtually ignored the debate on climate change in favour of pursuing its agenda on the Global Financial Crisis. This is understandable in the circumstances, but it has left a political vacuum to be filled by the denialists and as a result public opinion, once red hot for action on climate change, is now at best lukewarm. There is confusion over just what the government's emissions trading scheme entails and doubts over its efficacy.

Rudd is now attempting to revive the sense of urgency which prevailed at the start of his term. But it may be too little too late. As, of course, may be whatever course of action is determined at Copenhagen next month. And if Copenhagen is a flop, Minchin and his troops will undoubtedly claim the failure as a justification for their do-nothing stance, and even as some sort of political victory. Those whom the gods seek to destroy, they first make mad.

Wind of change is a capital idea

Daily Telegraph
Tuesday 17/11/2009 Page: 42

THE windfarm to power Sydney's desalination plant starts work this week and owner Infigen Energy said similar projects would drive the company's growth. The 67-turbine Capital Wind Farm, near Bungendore, east of Canberra, will be the state's largest windfarm, more than five times the size of any other, Infigen Energy said. The windfarm, opening tomorrow, can generate 140.7 MWs, enough to power 60,000 homes, although average output is expected to be slightly more than one third of full capacity.

Most of the windfarm's output will power Sydney Water's desalination plant at Kurnell, in Sydney's south, under a deal done last year. Infigen Energy managing director Miles George said the desalination plant would use 40MW of electricity when it starts this summer, and any leftover power from the farm would go into the national electricity grid. The opening marks a major milestone for Infigen Energy, formerly known as Babcock and Brown Wind Partners until a management internalisation in April this year.

With four Australian wind farms working, another being built and 12 in its project pipeline, Infigen Energy said federal government renewable energy targets will be the main driver for its future growth. Plans to sell Infigen Energy's windfarm assets in the US, Germany and France were on track.

Illawarra steelers get set to tackle renewable energy

Sydney Morning Herald
Tuesday 17/11/2009 Page:9

THE State Government is backing a bipartisan plan by industry, unions and University of Wollongong to gear the heavy-polluting manufacturers of the Illawarra towards renewable energy. The steel plant at Port Kembla can produce metal components for wind turbines, and be partially powered on site by recycling hot gases from its blast furnaces in a cogeneration energy plant, according to recommendations put to the Government. Wollongong would become a hub of wave power, using technology inspired by the Kiama Blowhole, under the Green jobs Illawarra Action Plan, which has attracted some early funding from the Government.

The result would be a net increase in jobs, without damaging the existing steel industry, according to the plan developed by university academics, the South Coast Labor Council, the Australian Industry Group, local governments and staff from the state environment and education departments. "This strategy provides an excellent blueprint for regions that are traditionally supported by industries like coal and steel to build long-term plans for the future," the Premier, Nathan Rees, said in a statement.

The Government will also support the purchase and development of a so-called "green street" of about eight display homes near Wollongong, which will feature examples of energy saving technology. The homes will be sold after an extended public viewing period. The South Coast Labor Council, which initiated the project, said one purpose of the exercise was to demonstrate that heavy industry and the work it sustains were compatible with reducing Australia's carbon emissions. "What we've done is broken the back of the old jobs versus environment conundrum," said Arthur Rorris, the Labor Council's secretary. "If you call do that in Wollongong' with our heavy industry steel and coal jobs, then you can do that anywhere. "Our community has come to realise we will be living in a carbon-constrained world, and our industry needs will play a role in that future."

BlueScope Steel estimated that it would have to spend up to $1 billion to fully devP[op a cogeneration plant at its Port Kembla steelworks, and shelved its plans during the economic downturn. But the proposed plant would stop the release of about 1 million tonnes of greenhouse gases per year - a significant cut to a facility responsible for about 7% of the state's total emissions. The report called for the "facilitation of urgent discussions between the Commonwealth and NSW governments, the steel industry and regional stakeholders" to get the project back on track.

Infigen sitting pretty

Age
Tuesday 17/11/2009 Page: 5

WIND farm operator Infigen Energy is looking for possible acquisitions among the many struggling renewable energy companies that have been hit by a plunge in the price of renewable energy credits. Infigen Energy managing director Miles George yesterday said more and more distressed companies were approaching Infigen Energy as a potential saviour. Small renewable energy developers have been hit hard by a plunge in the price of renewable energy certificates caused by the Federal Government solar rebate program flooding the market for the certificates.

Mr George said Infigen Energy, which is selling US wind farms worth about $US1.2 billion ($A1.3 billion) after debt, could be interested in opportunistic takeovers. Infigen Energy - known as Babcock and Brown Wind Partners until a name-change this year - had a cash balance of $405 million at the end of the financial year. Infigen Energy shares rose 1 to $1.42.

Turbines ready

Adelaide Advertiser
Tuesday 17/11/2009 Page: 39

Infigen Energy's 67-turbine windfarm, east of Canberra - which will power Sydney's desalination plant - will begin operation tomorrow. At 140.7MW, it will be the largest windfarm in NSW. Infigen Energy managing director Miles George said the desalination plant would use 40MW of electricity and any excess power generated by the windfarm would go into the national electricity grid.

Geothermal reservoir in Sri Lanka

www.dailynews.lk
16 November 2009

The potential of buried geothermal energy in Sri Lanka and the feasibility for developing geothermal energy as a source of power generation must be given a serious thought, said Institute of Fundamental Studies Director Prof. C.B. Dissanayake. Addressing the commemorative program organised by the National Research Council (NRC) of Sri Lanka at the Hilton Hotel on November 10 to mark its ten years of service to the nation and its scientific community, he said that a potential geothermal belt running from Hambantota to north of Trincomalee is discovered and there are about ten identified thermal (hot water) springs situated along this line.

"Even though, Sri Lanka is not located in an active volcanic ground unlike the vast majority of the countries that utilise geothermal energy, there are indications that a sufficient reservoir of geothermal energy exists at low enthalpy. This belt extends for over 300km and runs through some of the most underdeveloped regions of the country, and still can be utilised for national development," he noted. He pointed out that, Sri Lanka has a major challenge ahead in its search for alternate fuels with the ever growing demand for power and energy sources, and research into other forms of energy has long been overdue. "Environmental concerns have always impeded the utilisation of many fuels, and geothermal energy has minimum negative environmental impacts," he explained. He also stressed the need to work for a geothermal resource map as a research priority and added that Sri Lanka must first find and locate its natural resources.

China Pushing Solar Like Never Before

www.businessinsider.com
Nov. 15, 2009

At the 2010 China Industrial Development Forum on November 7th, Chinese officials reaffirmed their commitment to alternative energy, particularly solar, according to visit note by Goldman Sachs.

Goldman: solar energy is the other rapidly developing industry in China as China now accounts for about 1/3 of solar energy production capacity globally. The speaker refuted the view that PV cell production is an energy-ineffective process as he pointed out that the energy breakeven time is about 2 years for PV cells (energy used to produce PV cells equals the energy generated by the PV cells) but the normal lifetime is around 20 years. He also believes that solar energy could become commercially viable in the foreseeable future as the energy generating cost has been reduced from Rmb4 to Rmb1.1 per kWh over the past few years and is getting close to the Rmb0.3-0.4/kWh level of coal-fire power plants.

Given the tendency for silicon-based technology to advance at a much faster rate than most other technologies (as seen with chip speeds, and now with solar's falling cost), then should current trends continue, solar could feasibly become cheaper than coal in the not too distant future. Regardless, energy policy trends seem very much in solar's favour given China's ambitious alternative energy goals, in addition to those of developed nations.

Solar panel supply glut past peak: research

www.reuters.com
Nov 15, 2009

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The global glut of solar panels that has overwhelmed the industry for much of 2009 is past its peak as strong demand from Germany, the world's largest solar market, eats up extra supply, according to a report issued on Friday by industry research firm iSuppli. solar panels have piled up and prices have tumbled this year since the financial crisis and pullbacks in government incentives in Spain triggered a drop in demand.

The research group previously forecast the oversupply of panels to last through 2010, but said it estimates the glut could be resolved next year. "solar panel installations in Germany began surging to record levels in July as prices for photovoltaic systems plunged," said Henning Wicht, senior director of photovoltaics research for iSuppli, in a statement. "This phenomenon has boosted the global solar panel business and mitigated the severe oversupply situation that has stung the industry throughout this year." The global supply of solar panels is expected to exceed demand by nearly 66% in 2009, down from the previous forecast in August of about 92% overage, iSuppli said.

The report echoes some positive forecasts given by solar energy companies that have reported financial results recently. Chinese solar panel maker Yingli Green Energy Holding Co Ltd posted better-than-expected quarterly profit on Friday and said that demand in Europe is outstripping supply. European renewable energy companies - - such as Germany's Q-Cells AG, one of the world's largest solar cell makers - - sounded upbeat for 2010 as cost cuts and an expected pickup in demand helped lift profits after a difficult year.

Smart State's time to shine

Sunday Mail Brisbane
Sunday 15/11/2009 Page: 27

QUEENSLAND researchers have gained a $3.14 million grant from the US Department of Energy for their trailblazing solar energy technology. University of Queensland School of Mathematics and Physics Associate Professor Paul Meredith and his team of five have been developing new coatings to make solar panels on house roofs more efficient. "It is a coup for us to be operating in this market," he said. Prof Meredith's project, called XeroCoat, initially received funding from the State Government.

Climate Change Minister Kate Jones said the grant demonstrated Queensland's world leading role in green technology. "It shows that Queensland does not have to look overseas for technologies that address climate change," she said. "We have visionary people starting companies right here that are committed to developing innovative products that reduce energy and greenhouse gas emissions. The US project will enhance the viability of thin film solar panels, increasing their efficiency and helping make solar energy a viable alternative to burning fossil fuels." Ms Jones said testing by XeroCoat indicated that more efficient solar panels could mean an extra hour of energy creation.

Farmers cut from carbon plan - Concession removes major sticking point

Sunday Canberra Times
Sunday 15/11/2009 Page: 3

THE RUDD Government has upped the pressure on the Opposition over the emissions trading scheme by agreeing to exclude agriculture from the legislation to be debated this week. As negotiations wind down to the crucial vote, the Government will try to force the hand of the Opposition by agreeing to exclude farmers, growers and land owners from its carbon pollution reduction scheme - a key sticking point thus far of the Opposition's resistance to the Bill.

Federal politicians return to the national capital tomorrow for the final sitting weeks of the year with Government determined to push through its emission trading legislation before the Copenhagen conference next month. The Government had previously said the agricultural industry would be exempt from any scheme until at least 2015 but a senior Labor source said this would be extended indefinitely.

"Over the next fortnight, the Government is determined to work with the Liberal Party to achieve a negotiated agreement to establish a carbon pollution reduction scheme," the source said. "As a sign of good faith, the Government will agree to exclude agricultural emissions from coverage under the CPRS indefinitely. In light of our decision to exclude agricultural emissions indefinitely, the Government is considering ways in which the agricultural sector can contribute to the transition to a low-pollution economy. "This will include monitoring world best practice in reducing emissions in the agricultural sector."

The Opposition has been seeking amendments to the Bill that would see the permanent exclusion of agriculture on the emissions side but its inclusion for the purpose of claiming credits for good farming practices, tree planting and other green" projects. The source said the Government was considering how best to implement the amendments. "In negotiating with the Opposition, the Government will consider a range of ways in which the sector can reduce its emissions over the medium to long term, including by being able to generate offsetting credits."

Negotiations between Climate Change Minister Penny Wong - who has made her intentions of ramming the legislation through the Senate in the next two weeks consistently clear - and Opposition climate change spokesman Ian MacFarlane have been proceeding smoothly with Mr Macfarlane indicating he would have the party room numbers for the Opposition to support the Bill. He will take his amendments to a shadow cabinet meeting on November 23, before presenting the final proposal to the joint-party room.

A number of dissenters remain in the Coalition ranks, however, with backbenchers Julian McGauran, Dennis Jensen and Wilson Tuckey, all publicly rejecting an emissions trading scheme. They are expected to cross the floor in the vote. But Mr Turnbull has said if the Government were to accept a significant package of amendments, he would recommend the party room pass the Bill.

Advertising aside, coal sector hasn't dug deep

Age
Saturday 14/11/2009 Page: 2

Industry should invest in the future, not in gloomy ad campaigns.

THE coal lobby trots out some fair dinkum looking blokes in its TV commercials. But then, that's advertising. The Australian Coal Association, which hopes to blunt the Federal Government's proposed emissions trading scheme with the ad campaign, is also not being fair dinkum with the public about what the carbon pollution reduction scheme (CPRS) will do to their business, or what the industry is doing to cut greenhouse gas emissions by investing in so called clean coal technologies.

It's impossible to reconcile the ACAs doom and gloom with record planned investment in new coal mines and export infrastructure, and expectations - in ballpark terms - that exports of thermal and metallurgical coal are set to double. The ACA's claims that 9000 jobs and 16 mines will go if the CPRS gets up are contentious to say the least. Take the issue of fugitive greenhouse gas emissions from coal mines. With annual carbon dioxide emissions of 25 million tonnes from "gassy mines", and a forecast carbon price of (say) $20 a tonne, we're talking about an impost of $500 million easily covered by the assistance already being offered, of $750 million.

Turning waste coalmine methane into energy is an opportunity anyway, with companies like the unlisted methane" target="_blank">CSM Energy, which partners with AGL, specialising in just that. Citi Investment Researchgroup/Dyn/FrontPage" target="_blank">Citi Investment Researchgroup's analysts this week attacked the coal industry line. While they recognised some limited impact of the CPRS on the profitability and valuation of the coal companies, they said the scale of the debate might have superseded the scale of the evaluation impact. "We do not see CPRS as a major negative investment for the coal sector at current share prices," they said.

The ACA position on the CPRS is pure posturing, and industry executives know it even if they wont say so publicly. One industry source says Marius Kloppers, chief executive of Australia's biggest coal exporter, BHP Billiton, recently confided that he too thought the lobby group was stretching the facts. Another said simply it was pointless hoping for any endorsement for the CPRS out of the coal industry: "This is the pig shooting community we're talking about."

The real risk to the coal industry, though it may not believe it, is that the world will radically reduce coal use. Assuming some form of carbon price is brought in, shadow resources minister Ian MacFarlane told G-BIZ: "There won't be a domestic market for steaming coal in 20 years' tine." Macfarlane used to say God played a joke on Australia, putting the people on the east coast and the gas on the west coast. But with the development of Queensland's vast coal seam gas reserves, the joke is over.

Macfarlane - resources minister from 2001 to 2007 and a supporter of clean coal technology-says Australia is now "awash with gas". Coal-fired power using carbon capture and storage (CCS) will not play a significant part in Australia's future energy because, by the time it's ready, we'll have far more cost effective options. Using gas in the transition, Macfarlane thinks we'll be on to nuclear energy by then. Others think renewables could provide ample baseload power by 2030. Only the Federal Government thinks that by 2050 we'll be getting a third of our needed emissions reductions from coal-fired power with CCS. We might, if the coal industry had invested enough to make it work. But it hasn't.

Accounts filed this week showed so far, out of the ACA's so-called $1 billion Coal21 fund - the main vehicle for funding clean coal technologies - only $36.4 million has been spent since it was launched in 2006. Which is the other change Macfarlane has observed: if anything, over the past three or four years, he says CCS has "gone backWards". Queensland's Zerogen project - the biggest in Australia, with a funding commitment of up to $300 million from Coal21 (but only $6 million spent so far) - has "gone nowhere".

Oddly, Macfarlane is a supporter of the Government's $2.5 billion CCS flagships process, which hopes to part fund between two and four commercial-scale coal-fired power stations, because it will show overseas customers the technology is viable. For that reason he believes it is "very much" the role of the coalminers to invest in CCS. "[Even] $1 billion is not enough for the industry to invest, especially if the taxpayer is investing $2.5 billion," he said. The electricity sector isn't investing in CCS either.

In a sustainability briefing on Thursday, AGL conceded that just "several million dollars" had been spent on clean coal technology at its minority-owned brown-coal-fired Loy Yang power station. Fundamentally, apart from running negative advertising and lobbying campaigns, the coal industry has failed to invest in climate change abatement and is now struggling. "The industry hasn't committed enough resources at a high enough level to deal with one of the great challenges of the age," an industry source said. It's showing.

paddy.manning@fairfaxmedia.com.au

Tidal Power Milestone: A 1MW Turbine Goes Live!

www.greentechmedia.com
November 12, 2009

Ireland's OpenHydro and Nova Scotia Power have officially launched a tidal power turbine in the Bay of Fundy in Canada capable of generating 1 MW of power. The 400-ton device is located approximately three kilometers off shore and is producing power already.

Wave and tidal power companies have for years touted ocean energy as a potential growth market, but it's been mostly characterised by missteps. Finavera Renewables dropped its experimental wave buoy into the drink off of the coast of Oregon in one experiment. Pelamis Wave Power sold 750 kWs worth of wave power equipment to a company that installed it off of the coast of Portugal. It worked for a bit, but then pulled in. It hasn't been on the seas since. Meanwhile, Pelamis Wave Power tossed its CEO overboard a few weeks ago.

Small turbines off of the coast of Manhattan from Verdant were pulled in for repairs after installation. OpenHydro's is the biggest commercial turbine, wave or tidal power, to be deployed. It's an interesting device. Instead of three rotating blades, like a wind turbine, it is more like a kitchen fan. All the extra blades and steel give it survivability.

Threat of climate change should be treated like war say engineers

www.telegraph.co.uk
13 Nov 2009

Britain must adopt a 'war time footing' to tackle catastrophic climate change, a major report has warned.

The Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) said it would be almost impossible for the UK to meet ambitious climate change targets to cut greenhouse gases by 80 per cent by 2050 without drastic action. The only way to reach the target would be to "go to war" against carbon emissions, its report said. This would mean setting up a Department of Climate Security to act like the War Cabinet and co-ordinate action across every other Government department.

Unemployed people would be trained in making homes more energy efficient, factories would make solar panels and schools would encourage pupils to adopt more sustainable lifestyles. Money would be pumped into wind turbines, nuclear energy stations and solar panels as a matter of urgency. Individuals would also be expected to "do their bit" by reducing the amount of energy used in the home, flying less and switching to public transport rather than driving cars, the report said. Personal carbon allowances that limit the amount of energy used on transport, heating and flying could also have to be introduced.

Even then, the report said that the UK would have to adapt to a certain amount of global warming by building flood defences, making buildings cooler and changing the way cities are designed. 'Geo-engineering', such as artificial trees, that suck up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, would also have to be used in order to meet targets. Tim Fox, lead author of the report, said the population must adopt a "war mentality".

"What we are illustrating is the scale of the task before us and putting that into perspective. If you were fighting a war it would certainly need a certain level of rationing beyond what we see today to enable us to deliver the [cuts in carbon] that will still be lower than those the scientists tell us to deliver."

If the UK is to meet its legal requirements to cut emissions by 80 per cent on 1990 levels by 2050 – even if energy demand is reduced by half – it would still need to build 16 nuclear energy stations and 27,000 wind turbines by 2030, and use biomass, solar, waste, tidal power and wave energy and smart grids. Dr Fox said it was unlikely engineers will be able to build the infrastructure needed on time. "From all the evidence to date it is clear we're losing the battle with climate change. We're facing a requirement to decarbonise the economy at an unprecedented rate, which hasn't been seen in industrialised nations before."

The best rate of cutting emissions the UK has ever achieved occurred during the "dash to gas" in the 1990s. But even if the same rate was achieved now, the UK would still be 330 million tonnes of carbon dioxide over the 2050 target. Dr Fox suggested the UK make up the difference by installing around 100,000 artificial trees. "The Institution believes it's time to go to war on climate change. It's about to attack and it's time to defend ourselves and fight back," he said. Professor Kevin Anderson, director of leading climate institute the Tyndall Centre, supported the idea of a war footing to tackle climate change, including rationing.

He said people in countries like Britain may have to accept a level of "discomfort" by reducing energy and even a "loss of liberty" by travelling less but these changes in lifestyle will prevent worse suffering in the developing world due to climate change as well as the costs to our own society in the future. "Whatever the cost is of avoiding climate change – and we might think it's high – it's much lower than the costs of not avoiding dangerous climate change," he said.

$3.1m US funds for solar coat

Daily Telegraph
Monday 16/11/2009 Page: 18

AN AUSTRALIAN solar technology company has won a multi-million dollar grant from the US Government. XeroCoat, which makes an anti-reflective coating to increase the efficiency of solar panels, has been awarded a $3.1 million US Department of Energy grant. The company, started by two University of Queensland researchers, was now a world leader in its field, Queensland Environment Minister Kate Jones said. "It shows that Queensland does not have to look overseas for technologies that address climate change," she said. "We have visionary people starting companies right here that are committed to developing innovative products that reduce energy and greenhouse gas emissions." The US project will focus on increasing the efficiency of thin film solar panels to give them an extra hour of energy creation, helping to make solar energy a viable alternative to fossil fuels.

No such thing as clean coal

Summaries - Australian Financial Review
Saturday 14/11/2009 Page: 26

After years of shameless pretence from both sides of politics, opposition emissions trading spokesman Ian MacFarlane has finally ended the great bipartisan dream that Australia's largest export earner, coal, could someday be made 'clean.' Mr Macfarlane told the ABC that carbon capture storage 'will not materialise for 20 years, and probably never.' The Global Carbon Capture Storage Institute says that until the price for an emissions permit reaches $90 a tonne, it will be cheaper for a coal-fired power station to pay the penalty and keep pumping out greenhouse gases rather than capture and store them.

A $90-a-tonne permit price would make CCS far more expensive in Australia than wind, geothermal and other emerging renewable technologies. James Cameron of Climate Change Capital in London says CCS requires huge underground chambers to store CO2 and a big investment in infrastructure, including pipes to transport liquefied gas.

The Australian Coal Association now accepts the science of global warming but has rejected the proposed emissions trading scheme. A Rio Tinto/BP joint venture to store carbon off the West Australian coast has been abandoned because a suitable site could not be found, while Santos has postponed its $1 billion sequestration trial at Moomba in the Cooper Basin, citing the need for high oil prices and a significant carbon price to make the project economic. The Co-operative Research Centre for Greenhouse Gas Technologies, one of the leading advocates for CCS, has warned that people will 'just move on' if there is not 'significant progress within five years.'

Macfarlane and Liberal Party colleague Greg Hunt, the opposition's environment spokesman, are looking into another version of CCS. MBD Energy, which is building a $2.5 million display plant at Loy Yang power station in Victoria, is testing technology developed by James Cook University in Queensland which injects captured CO2 into waste water and transforms it into oil-laden algae which can be used to make biodiesel, plastic and jet fuel.

Spain Projects Solidify Its Top Solar-Thermal Ranking

www.bloomberg.com
November 13, 2009

Spain approved wind and sun-powered projects today that solidify its ranking as the world's biggest developer of solar thermal energy. The industry ministry approvals will increase the nation's renewable-energy potential by about 37% over three years, allowing builders of 6,000 MWs of wind energy and 2,440 MWs of solar thermal to receive higher prices and priority access to customers than fossil fuel plants.

The solar projects were picked from proposals with a combined potential to supply energy to 6.5 million residences. The nation, which has already attracted developments from France's Alstom SA, is home to the world's largest wind-energy investors, Iberdrola SA and Acciona SA. "This removes any uncertainty and brings regulatory stability to the industry," Jose Javier Ruiz, utilities analyst at Exane BNP Paribas, said today by telephone. "By formalising these projects, the companies can now secure investment."

Spain already has the world's largest development pipeline for solar thermal, which uses the sun's rays to heat liquids to a high enough temperature to produce electricity after sunset. About 2,000 MWs of solar thermal are under construction in the world, with 89% in Spain, according to an October report by industry publication CSP Today and consultant Altran Technologies. Spain has about 23,000 MWs of renewable-energy capacity, including biomass and mini-hydroelectric plants, that produce about as much power as 20 nuclear reactors.

Iberdrola, Alstom
Both forms of clean energy receive subsidised rates paid for by consumers that have fueled development by international investors such as Siemens AG of Germany and FPL Group Inc, of the U.S. The new projects, whose names of individual developers weren't disclosed, enter the ministry's registry and will be allowed to start selling energy over the next three years with their connection to the grid set out in a staggered fashion.

The full list of approved generators will be published next week, a ministry official, who declined to be named, said today. Solar Millennium AG, based in Erlangen, Germany, announced earlier this week that its Andasol 3 and Ibersol projects in Spain were approved. A bottleneck for approvals had developed since June because the government was overwhelmed with applications for green-energy plants and wanted to slow the pace of development.

Solar power startup Ausra looks to sell itself

www.reuters.com
Nov 13, 2009

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Kleiner Perkins and Khosla Ventures-backed solar thermal start-up Ausra Inc is in talks to sell itself with three potential buyers, two sources familiar with the company told Reuters on Friday. The buyers could take a majority stake or snag the whole company and the discussions are at a "very aggressive level", said one source familiar with the company, who was not authorised to discuss the matter publicly.

Both sources said the interested companies were global conglomerates in the power generation business but declined to name them. The companies already have various power products, such as steam and gas turbines, and are committed to renewable energy. One interested party has engaged with Ausra previously, one source said. Ausra declined to comment.

A sale of the high profile Silicon Valley start-up that has raised $130 million in venture capital would add to a string of recent deals and growing consolidation in the solar energy industry. Chinese solar wafer manufacturer ReneSola Ltd plans to buy Dynamic Green Energy Ltd while silicon maker MEMC Electronic Materials Inc plans to acquire privately held SunEdison, which installs, maintains and finances commercial solar systems.

Privately held Ausra, which is based in Mountain View, California, launched as a solar thermal developer in 2006, when solar energy and other clean technology were luring venture capitalists. Two years ago the company landed a power purchasing agreement with California utility PG&E, a unit of PG&E Corp for a 117 MW solar thermal plant. solar thermal plants use the sun's rays to heat liquid to create steam, which drives turbines and generates electricity. Earlier this year, the company switched tracks, saying it would move away from developing projects and focus on supplying large-scale solar steam generators.

This month Ausra said that it canceled its agreement with PG&E and sold the project's land to the largest U.S. solar energy company, thin film photovoltaic FirstSolar Inc. Ausra also has deals in Jordan and Australia and other investors include Starfish Ventures and KERN Partners. One source familiar with the company said that "extensive work" has been done at various stages of completion with the interested buyers. "We're talking about meetings with dozens of people involved," said the person, who also was not authorised to speak publicly about the discussions.

Solar power at night? Yes, with a grain of salt

www.watoday.com.au
November 13, 2009

IN THE past few years, something remarkable has emerged on a dry plateau in the Spanish province of Granada. At the Andasol Power Plant, neat lines of 200,000 mirrors spread across 200 hectares harness the sun's rays. It is the world's largest solar plant - and energy experts are excited not so much by its scale but what it does when the sun goes down. This industrial Spanish power plant has overcome one of the biggest problems facing large-scale solar energy: how to produce electricity at night or when it is overcast. The Andasol plant stores heat from the day in molten salt, which then powers electricity turbines overnight.

The plant can continue for 7½ hours without sunlight, and more advanced plants coming online in the next few years are set to double that storage time. For Australia's solar thermal industry, such breakthroughs are critical because they disprove the old claims that solar energy is too unreliable to run an economy on. As Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull said in 2007: ''You cannot run a modern economy on wind farms and solar panels.''

The potential for solar thermal in Australia is huge. John Grimes, the Australian and New Zealand Solar Energy Society's chief executive, says enough sunlight falls on Australia in 40 minutes to power the country for a year. Keith Lovegrove, leader of the Australian National University's solar thermal team, says you could power the country on solar thermal dishes on land measuring 168 kilometres long and 168 kilometres wide. ''If you draw that on a map of Australia, it is a tiny little spot,'' he says.

Solar thermal technology can be used for many things, from heating swimming pools to domestic hot water. In large solar thermal power plants, mirrors are used to concentrate the sun's rays and create heat to warm water or oil. This heat then creates steam to drive electricity turbines - mimicking the steam-driven process inside coal-fired power stations.

Solar thermal's future role in powering Australia is being highlighted by the Run for a Safe Climate, a 6021-kilometre run by emergency services workers from Cooktown to Melbourne to highlight the need for action on climate change. The runners will visit a solar plant in NSW today, and ANU's solar dish next week. Globally, solar thermal is growing, particularly in Spain, where the Government offers generous tariffs, and in the US, where there are favourable tax incentives. The largest project is a 1000-MW plant being built on a US air force base that will generate as much power as a large coal-fired plant.

An international consortium led by the world's biggest re-insurance company, Munich Re, is pushing ahead with a $430 billion plan to supply Europe with solar energy from the Sahara Desert from as early as 2015. Ausra founder David Mills told The Age he was excited by the Andasol plant's breakthrough, as well as US research showing the country's solar and wind resources could cover Americans' hourly energy demands. ''It's very exciting work and, once this is done, people will understand that it is very easy to power modern society with renewable energy.''

Red tape holding up bid for cheap, clean power

Courier Mail
Friday 13/11/2009 Page:44

COMPANIES aiming to develop carbon pollution-free power plants in Queensland say they are being held back by unexplained delays in the state energy department. GeoDynamics is a Brisbane based global pioneer of geothermal technology that taps heat sources over 4km below ground at its Cooper Basin project in which Origin Energy has a 30% stake. It aims to have a 25-MW commercial-scale demonstration plant operating at the site in South Australia in 2013.

GeoDynamics managing director Gerry Grove-White said it expects to produce continuous or baseload-capable, zero emissions power from the site for less than $100 a MW hour. That undercuts the estimated $120-$140/MWh price of coal-fired power from plants equipped with still-unproven carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology. GeoDynamics says studies show its Cooper Basin site alone has the potential to support generating capacity of over 1O,000MW, which is about a fifth of Australia's electricity capacity.

GeoDynamics is now keen to get to work in Queensland. Several months ago it agreed terms for two tenements in the state's southeast with the Queensland Mines and Energy Department. But it has not been formally issued with permits. "We would be delighted to start work on our (Queensland) tenements that have been awarded. They're stuck in bureaucracy. I wish I knew (when work could start),"~ Mr GroveWhite said. Other companies are also waiting to be issued with exploration permits for paid-for Queensland tenements. State Energy Minister Stephen Robertson's office yesterday did not respond to requests for an explanation.

Years of global research into new ways of harnessing deep underground heat for emissions-free electricity have culminated in several advanced projects, mainly in SA. Governments have been warned that global greenhouse gas emissions - largely from coal, oil and gas - need to peak by about 2015 to have a fighting chance of averting catastrophic temperature and sea-level rises. But the International Energy Agency said it· could be at least 2030 before CCS can contribute meaningfully to carbon cuts. Investment is rising in technologies that· harness the wind, sun, tidal power and subsurface heat energy. Of these, solar thermal and geothermal art' seen as most able to provide 24-hour, baseload power and thus replace coal and gas plants.

Calling TRUenergy's CPRS bluff

Crikey.com.au
Thursday 12/11/2009 Page: 1

Yesterday the Australian Conservation Foundation and Environment Victoria called the bluff of the multinational power company playing a high stakes game over the future of power generation in Victoria. For months electricity generators have been pushing for a massive increase in CPRS compensation. At the heart of their demand is a threat designed to make any politician go weak at the knees - - electricity supply may be disrupted. Generators met with the government as recently as last week.

TRUEnergy, owned by Chinese power giant CLP Group, owns several coal and gas-fired power stations in NSW and Victoria, including Yallourn in Victoria. It has aggressively criticised the government's emissions trading scheme proposals from the outset, warning in July last year that the scheme would "effectively bankrupt" generators, and they wouldn't be able to operate after December 31, 2008. That, needless to say, failed to occur.

In July this year, as part of a growing campaign by power generators to claim the impact of the GFC and the CPRS would cripple them, TRUEnergy declared it was cancelling $100 million worth of maintenance works at Yallourn. Since then, TRUEnergy have continued to claim that the reliability of supply was threatened by the CPRS, which if legislated will not start properly until mid-2012. Under the CPRS, TRUEnergy alone will receive more than $700 million worth of free permits over five years. TRUEnergy and other generators want compensation tripled to between $8 billion-$10 billion over five years for the sector.

There is industry speculation that TRUEnergy has deliberately been more aggressive than other generator owners because it is considering leaving Australia, and accordingly can afford to damage its relationship with the Victorian and federal governments. Earlier this week, TRUEnergy switched from stick to carrot, saying it would invest in new gas-fired generators - - doubling its Tallawarra facility in NSW and constructing a new plant in the Latrobe Valley - - if its balance sheet "was not wiped out by the emissions trading scheme".

The ACF and Environment Victoria yesterday wrote to the Australian Energy Regulator urging an investigation of TRUEnergy's claims that there is a systemic threat to power supplies. Today there was another round in the game of bluff, with the generators leaking "confidential legal advice" to the AFR about the possibility of supply disruptions and even an "Enron-style contagion".

Only the generators know their exact financial position and how much they are bluffing. The financial crisis has undoubtedly seriously affected their financing options. A senior Coalition figure tells of US investors who have simply crossed the Australian power industry off their areas of interest.

But yet again, there is a peculiar distinction between what large polluters say in their quest for additional compensation, and what they tell key financial stakeholders such as customers and shareholders. In its presentation to investors in February, TRUEnergy simply said it estimated it would receive about 25 million free permits and would lobby to receive more. The CPRS was not even mentioned in CLP Group's brief description of Australian issues to investors in September. No mention of possible disruption to supply.

It's a similar story from British multinational International Power PLC, which owns Hazelwood and Loy Yang B. In an interim statement to investors in the UK yesterday, International Power simply said about the CPRS "we will continue to engage with government on scheme design and implementation?". That company has a $445 million tranche of debt due for rollover in February. "We are actively reviewing refinancing options, whilst closely monitoring developments on the proposed CPRS," the statement said.

In a conference presentation in the US last week, a company representative said that it was "very actively engaged" on the CPRS but that the Australian market looked good: "significant improvement in results across the portfolio - - improved availability, higher prices, price spikes from extreme weather events". The most serious warning about the CPRS was the bland statement "clarity of CPRS required before further investment decisions can be made". Again, nothing about supply disruptions.

Yesterday TRUEnergy appeared to back away from the threat to cut power supplies. The Age reported that, in response to the ACF/Environment Victoria letter, TRUEnergy had said "at no point in time has the company believed or publicly stated that it may default on supply contracts". That's only two days after TRUEnergy CEO Richard McIndoe said about the gasfired power stations ''it takes over three years to permit and develop any new power station. If these developments do not go ahead, we see a very real risk of electricity outages in Victoria in the future".'

Environment Victoria's Mark Wakeham explained to Crikey that, even in the event of TRUEnergy shutting down Yallourn, under National Electricity Market Management Company contracting arrangements, it would be required to source power to meet its contracts, including buying electricity on the spot market if necessary. According to Wakeham, the broader concern is that the federal government may provide further compensation to incumbent electricity generators, thereby discouraging new investment in cleaner gas-fired power stations. "Origin Energy is constructing a 552MW gas-fired generator at Mortlake in Victoria, with the potential to expand to 1600MW. Santos is considering gas-fired generators.

Additional compensation for existing coal-fired generators means they can go on polluting at low cost, or use taxpayer funding to build their own gas-fired generators. Their competitors have to factor that in to their investment decisions." There is no doubt electricity generators face a much more difficult financial environment in the wake of the GFC and, to an extent, because of the CPRS. But TRUEnergy appears to have significantly overplayed its hand by threatening to turn off the lights, especially given it has failed to tell investors or key customers that there is any such problem.

Landlords forced to come clean on energy ratings - Offices turning green

Herald Sun
Friday 13/11/2009 Page: 37

BUILDING owners will be forced to reveal the energy efficiency of their properties when they sell or lease office space. The national disclosure scheme, starting next year, will mean thousands of commercial property owners face fines if they fail to provide an up-to-date Building Energy Efficiency Certificate. Commercial properties larger than 2000sq in will be affected. Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett called the scheme a "tremendous driver" for greener buildings, since tenants, owners and potential buyers would easily be able to compare the costs of running office space.

He told an Energy Efficiency Council conference in Melbourne yesterday that the plan would "help drive demand for greener offices that are not only more comfortable to work in, but can also deliver more motivated and productive workers and support cleaner energy jobs". He cited a US study that indicated "green" buildings sold for 16% more than others and had a 6% increase in rental rates. He did not provide an estimated cost for building owners, however, or make himself available to reporters for questions after the speech. Mr Garrett used the podium to expand on Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's blistering rebuke last week of the "reckless gamblers" within the Opposition.

Climate change sceptics threatened positive environmental change with their "destructive irresponsibility", just a month out of the Copenhagen summit, he said. The Coalition's time in office included 12 inactive years on energy efficiency, he said, warning that current negotiations on an emissions trading scheme and environmental policy proved to be no different. "(This is) climate change scepticism 2.0 - like the new Vegemite, it's a slightly different flavour, just as brown," he said to laughs from the crowd.

Mr Garrett said the evidence had never been clearer that climate change was real and posed major risks to Australian farmland and coastal residents. As he entered the conference at a Melbourne hotel, he was confronted by Friends of the Earth activists campaigning against nuclear energy. He walked through the crowd saying "good morning" as police and hotel security held back about a dozen protesters. "How do you sleep at night, Peter?" one shouted.

Work to start on £42m Wave Hub

www.thisiswesternmorningnews.co.uk
November 12, 2009

THE world's largest commercial wave farm is moving closer to fruition as its developer announced onshore construction will begin next week, writes the WMN's Graeme Demianyk. Wave Hub, which will be sited 10 miles off the north coast of Cornwall, is in effect a giant electrical grid-connected "socket" on the seabed in which green energy firms can "plug" their wave energy devices. The South West Regional Development Agency yesterday said contractors would start work at Hayle beach in Cornwall on Monday ahead of laying a massive sub-sea cable next summer.

The government-backed project has been hailed as massive boon of the Westcountry economy, creating an estimated 1,000 jobs in the region and laying the foundations for a new, well-paid marine energy industry in Cornwall. Stephen Peacock, executive director of enterprise and innovation at SWRDA, said: "This milestone is the culmination of more than six years' work by the RDA and its partners and will catapult South West England and the UK to the forefront of wave energy development. "Our aim is to create an entirely new low carbon industry in the South West and hundreds of quality jobs."

While the project has secured planning consents and around £42 million of funding from SWRDA, the EU and the Department of Energy and Climate Change, it has signed up just one developer thus far. Ocean Power Technologies is to take one of four berths available at the scheme, while talks continue with engineers Fred Olsen and Bodmin-based Orecon. In April it emerged a consortium of energy company E.ON and Bristol-based partner Ocean Prospect dropped out to focus on testing wave technology at a rival site in Orkney.

The first wave energy devices will hopefully be deployed in 2011, SWRDA has said. During the first phase of construction between now and the end of the year, civil engineers Dean & Dyball will drill a 200-metre duct under and through sand dunes on the beach at Hayle in Cornwall. The narrow duct will be lined with a pipe as it is drilled and will eventually link Wave Hub's sub-sea cable with a new electricity sub-station on the site of a former power station. Work on the sub-station will start in January and is expected to take six months to complete. Wave Hub will be deployed and the sub-sea cable laid in the summer of next year.

The SWRDA has also announced the appointment of Guy Lavender as general manager for the Wave Hub project. Energy and Climate Change Minister, Lord Hunt, said: "Clean green renewable energy is a central component of our response to climate change and ensuring future energy supplies. The scope for wave and tidal power energy around the UK's shores is massive and the Wave Hub will help marine energy developers test their cutting edge projects and help them reach commercial viability."

US to boost solar manufacturing with tax credits

www.environmental-finance.com
13 November 2009

US Senators have introduced a bill that would extend the 30% solar investment tax credit (ITC) to equipment and facilities used to manufacture solar technology. Currently, the solar ITC can be drawn on for investment in or installation of solar energy technology in operation in the US before 1 January 2017. Under the Solar Manufacturing Jobs Creation Act, equipment and facilities used to manufacture solar energy technology would become eligible for the solar ITC. These technologies include solar cells, silicon, evacuated tubes and flat-plate solar collectors.

Senators Debbie Stabenow, Robert Menendez and Michael Bennet introduced the bill in the Senate this week. Congressman Dave Camp plans to introduce a version of the bill in the House of Representatives later this month. "This bill will provide additional tax credits for solar equipment manufacturers that will help us win the global race against China and other countries to produce solar technology in the clean energy economy," Stabenow said.

The bill would also make manufacturing equipment eligible for the grant programme created in the economic stimulus package, which allows renewable energy project developers to receive cash payments in lieu of tax credits, according to a summary of the bill by the Solar Energy Industry Association (SEIA). The proposal would extend this provision to manufacturing equipment for property in operation before 1 January 2011 or after that date if a written binding contract was entered into before then.

The US produced more than 40% of the word's solar photovoltaic (PV) cells a decade ago, but only 5% in 2008, SEIA said. "Not long ago, the US was the leading global manufacturer of photovoltaic solar cells, but we've fallen behind Europe and Asia because we didn't have the right policies in place," said SEIA president and CEO Rhone Resch. "By extending and expanding the solar manufacturing tax credit, we'll have the support necessary to compete with other countries and continue creating jobs in the solar industry."

The tax credits in this legislation will create 315,000 domestic jobs, SEIA estimated. With the eight-year extension of the solar ITC last autumn, the solar industry is projected to gain $325 billion in investment by 2016, according to a study by Navigant Consulting.

Search on for geothermal sites

www.abc.net.au
Nov 12, 2009

The State Government says it has started assessing sites along the Queensland coastline that are potential sources of geothermal energy. Natural Resources, Mines and Energy Minister, Stephen Robertson, says Queensland Government scientists are collecting temperature and heat flow data at population centres on the electricity grid. He told Parliament, the information gathered will be used to map potential geothermal sites before drill tenders are put out next year. "This is an Australia first," he said. "The first State Government program designed to directly target information gaps in data for geothermal potential along the eastern coastal region of Australia."

The Government says exploration drilling is expected to start at potential geothermal energy sites by mid next year. "Sources of geothermal energy identified near transmission lines have the potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through increased use of geothermal energy for powered generators," Mr Robertson said. "This will also assist in the growth of a diverse economy and create new job opportunities in the state."

Spain's power plan is a `risk'

Courier Mail
Thursday 12/11/2009 Page: 65

ADOPTING more ambitious policies to cut Australia's reliance on coal for electricity would pose a risk to jobs and growth, Federal Energy Minister Martin Ferguson says. Appearing yesterday at a conference in Brisbane of the Australian geothermal industry, Mr Ferguson was asked why Australia did not follow the example of countries such as Spain and Germany in rapidly deploying renewable energy. He said: "Spain's also got very high unemployment and poor economic growth. "So we actually want to do a bit of research (into) what these countries have done and their economic outcomes. "Each country has chosen a route which best suits themselves. "Our approach will prove more successful."

Geothermal companies are trying to commercialise power plants that tap deep underground heat sources and don't emit greenhouse gases or exhaust water resources. They have begun to receive sizeable federal funding to aid development. Australian Geothermal Energy Association executive director Susan Jeanes said recent grant announcements were positive but geothermal developers needed the same funding structure as "clean coal" companies, guaranteeing funding over nine years. "We also need to know that funding is coming over a timeframe," Ms Jeanes said. "We're not going to get investors without that."

The Federal Government's biggest single direct investment in technology to slow climate change - more than $2 billion - is in clean coal. Australia's total electricity generation capacity is about 47 GWs, with 82% coming from coal. Spain now derives 22GW of electricity capacity from wind, solar and small hydro plants. Germany has 34GW of renewable energy capacity.

Utah's biggest wind-energy project goes online - Milford facility's power output will go to S. California

www.deseretnews.com
Nov. 10, 2009

The "green" energy wave has hit southwestern Utah in a big way. On Tuesday, the state's biggest wind-energy electricity-generation facility began commercial operation near Milford. Located in Millard and Beaver counties, the first phase of the Milford Wind Corridor project features 97 wind turbines and is expected to generate 203.5 MWs of electricity, making it the largest renewable-energy facility in Utah, according to a news release from developer First Wind LLC, based in Newton, Mass.

Previously, the largest utility-scale wind project had been a 19-MW, nine-turbine facility in Spanish Fork Canyon that began operation in August 2008. Construction of the Milford project began just over a year ago. The first phase generated nearly $86 million in direct and indirect spending in Utah and the creation of 250 development and construction jobs, the release said. The first phase will generate enough power to provide electricity to about 45,000 homes per year.

Eventually, the $400 million project will include 159 turbines across 40 square miles of public and private land. "We're looking forward to expanding it in the months and years to come," Paul Gaynor, chief executive officer of First Wind, said in the release. "This project is a great example of the kind of development that helps create jobs and helps stimulate the economy." The project's power will go to the Southern California Public Power Authority, on behalf of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and the cities of Burbank and Pasadena, Calif. In December 2007, First Wind signed a 20-year power purchase agreement with the authority.

"We're pleased to see this project go online and begin delivering clean power to our customers," said Bill Carnahan, the authority's executive director, said at Tuesday dedication ceremony. The Milford Wind Corridor is the first wind-energy facility permitted under the Bureau of Land Management's Wind Energy Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement for Western U.S, states, designed to promote the development of renewable-energy projects on federal land.

"The Milford Wind project is a perfect example of the priority the BLM puts on the generation of renewable energy to support the nation's energy needs," Selma Sierra, Utah state director for the BLM, said in the news release. "It exemplifies our ability to fulfill our energy needs in a timely and efficient manner through the combined efforts of partnering federal and state agencies, as well as private industry. "The Milford Wind project is an excellent example of positive, clean, renewable energy production."

Passing ETS would be huge global help: summit chief

Australian
Thursday 12/11/2009 Page: 5

THE chief of the Copenhagen climate summit says it would make a "huge difference" to global negotiations if Australia passed its emissions trading scheme soon. Danish Minister for Climate and Energy Connie Hedegaard is organising the crucial summit, which was called to thrash out a new pact to tackle climate change. Ms Hedegaard urged the Australian parliament to pass the ETS before the summit begins on December 7. "That will make a huge difference in Copenhagen," she told a press conference in Copenhagen yesterday. "It will be very exceptional and I hope very much that the Australian government can manage to get the whole package through the parliament."

The Australian government wants the scheme passed by parliament before Copenhagen and is putting the ETS laws to the House of Representatives on Monday. But the scheme is in trouble in the Senate, where the government does not have a majority. Many opposition MPs say it would be better to delay a vote; some want to vote down the scheme outright. The Rudd government and the opposition are locked in negotiations but as yet no deal has been struck.

Ms Hedegaard said the finalisation of Australia's ETS, due to start in 2011, would make it clear that Australia could meet its target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 5-25% by 2020. Organisers do not want a repeat of the Kyoto climate change pact, when many countries promised to cut emissions but did not do so. European Union climate negotiators believe Australia passing an ETS would be valuable because it would encourage the US another heavy-polluting country to reduce emissions.

Steep fall in energy funding

Adelaide Advertiser
Thursday 12/11/2009 Page: 53

THE global financial crisis has led to a dangerous drop in energy investment around the world which could choke the economic recovery, the International Energy Agency stated yesterday. The IEA, a policy adviser to 28 mostly industrialised oil-consuming nations, estimates that the financial and economic crisis had led to a $US90 billion drop in global oil and gas investment this year, 19% less than in 2008. "Falling energy investment will have far reaching and, depending on how governments respond, potentially serious consequences for energy security, climate change and energy poverty," the IEA stated in its annual World Energy Outlook report. The resulting drop in oil and electricity supplies could "undermine the sustainability of the economic recovery", the IEA warned. Meanwhile, oil demand is set to continue rising over the next two decades.

Satcon Selected for Largest Urban Solar Power Plant in the U.S.

www.businesswire.com
November 10, 2009

Partners with SunPower to Deliver 10 Megawatts of Solar PV for Exelon City Solar in Chicago

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Satcon Technology Corporation (NASDAQ CM: SATC), a leading provider of utility scale power solutions for the renewable energy market, today announced that it has been selected for the 10-MW Exelon City Solar photovoltaic (PV) power plant, the nation's largest urban solar energy plant, which will be built at a former industrial site in the West Pullman neighbourhood on Chicago's South Side. The site, owned and operated by Exelon Generation, was designed and is being constructed by SunPower Corp., a manufacturer of high-efficiency solar cells, solar panels and solar systems.

The 41-acre solar facility will utilise Satcon Prism™, a fully customisable one MW medium voltage package complete with factory integrated step-up transformers, switchgear, and electronics. The Prism solutions will connect nearly 32,300 SunPower solar panels to the local utility and efficiently convert the sun's rays into enough clean, reliable electricity to meet the annual energy requirements of up to 1,500 homes per year.

"The Exelon City Solar project demonstrates solar energy's integration as a stable and viable core contributor into one of the country's largest energy markets," said Howard Wenger, president, global business unit at SunPower. "This project is a clear example of the unique demands of large scale solar energy generation, and required that we design a system that is composed of the industry's highest performing and most reliable components. Satcon Technology's experience and expertise in large scale solar made them the natural choice for us."

The Exelon City Solar plant will combine Satcon Technology's Prism solution, designed to deliver the highest levels of energy harvesting, efficiency and system uptime, with SunPower panels, which generate up to 50% more power than conventional solar panels and two to four times as much power as thin-film solar technology. The site will also use SunPower® Trackers, solar tracking systems that tilt toward the sun as it moves across the sky, increasing daily energy production by up to 25%.

Satcon Technology Prism is built on the foundation of the industry standard setting PowerGate(R) Plus 500kW solar PV inverter platform, the most advanced and field proven large scale inverter solution, with over 400 MWs delivered since 2005. The solution is delivered complete in an all-climate outdoor enclosure and ready to connect to the PV array and utility grid, enabling rapid installation through a modular prepackaged design.

"We are honored to be chosen as a key partner by SunPower to deliver our Prism solutions to Exelon City Solar," said Steve Rhoades, Satcon Technology's President and Chief Executive Officer. "Satcon's solutions have been used on some of the largest renewable energy sites in the world with hundreds of millions of grid connect kW hours delivered to date. Exelon City Solar showcases today's best in class total system solutions, optimally designed to deliver the highest levels of reliable large scale solar energy production."

China Solar Power Buys ThinSilicon

www.solarindustrymag.com
10 November 2009

China Solar Power Holdings Ltd. (CSP), a manufacturer of thin-film amorphous silicon photovoltaic modules, has purchased ThinSilicon Inc., a Mountain View, Calif.-based developer of thin-film manufacturing process technology. No financial terms were disclosed. ThinSilicon was founded three years ago and has since developed a unique device and process technology that significantly boosts both panel efficiency and manufacturing throughput, according to CSP.

Miners digging their own graves to preserve profits

Courier Mail
Wednesday 11/11/2009 Page: 33

The mining industry's claim that carbon pollution cuts will be too costly is as shortsighted as it is shallow, writes John Connor

QUEENSLANDERS, particularly in the regions, have been pounded with ads from the mining industry talking about job losses and closures should coal mines and other industries shoulder their share of efforts to reduce Australia's carbon pollution. But you don't need to scratch much below the surface to show the slipperiness and shortsightedness of such claims. The reality is that tens of billions of dollars are pouring into the mining industry and more than a dozen new mines are slated for opening.

The Australian Bureau of Agricultural Resource Economics has listed 74 mining, energy and minerals processing projects worth $80 billion that are in advanced development. And the coal-mining union's analysis of the industry's job numbers revealed that even with the proposed carbon pollution reduction scheme, Queensland mining jobs would grow 120% by 2030. What industry lobbyists are also not telling you is the CPRS and other clean-energy policies, if effectively implemented, could grow a million more clean-energy, clean-technology jobs across Australia by 2030.

Climate Institute Australia research shows Queensland could triple the jobs in the renewable energy sector by 2020. These industry lobbyists and some Queensland politicians are also remarkably silent when it comes to the job losses and economic impacts that will follow as climate change hits Queensland's natural and economic assets such as the Great Barrier Reef, the Wet Tropics and coastal and regional communities.

What's more, they were silent when research was released showing Australia was well behind all other developed countries, and indeed some developing countries, in its carbon competitiveness - the ability to prosper in a world already turning to clean energy and low-carbon economic growth. Respected global economist Lord Nicholas Stern writes in his preface to this research: "A global economic recovery will present an ideal opportunity for countries to shift towards low-carbon growth. Countries which don't seize this opportunity will undermine their future competitiveness and prosperity."

The global low-carbon and environmental goods sector is now valued at $6.1 trillion. In 2008 alone, $167 billion was invested in new clean-energy sources, representing a four-fold increase since 2004 and, for the first time, outstripping investments in the fossil fuel technologies. Worldwide, the renewable energy sector already employs about 2.3 million people - more than the number employed directly by the oil and gas industry.

The pace of these changes needs to accelerate to avoid the worst impacts of climate change but only dinosaurs in business and politics can't or don't want to see these changes. This is why the Climate Institute Australia has joined with union, welfare and environment groups in a national clean-energy jobs campaign - the Southern Cross Climate Coalition - calling for urgent climate action. These groups know climate action is urgent, that there needs to be a just and fair transition and that Australia will be left behind if we don't take decisive steps. It's time to strengthen and pass the CPRS and other clean energy and industry policies.

John Connor is CEO of the Climate Institute Australia.
www.climateinstitute.org.au

Britain wants more reactors

Sydney Morning Herald
Tuesday 10/11/2009 Page: 11

LONDON: Britain is set to hand an expanded role to the nuclear industry and suggest more sites for new reactors as it unveils controversial guidelines for fast tracking big energy projects through the planning process. Ed Miliband, the Energy Secretary, was due to reveal his blueprint for the future energy industry overnight in a series of "national policy statements" analysing 11 sites proposed by companies and several more potential locations.

A senior official at the Department of Energy and Climate Change said that the extra sites would leave the door open for a greater use of nuclear energy than currently envisaged. "I'm comfortable that with the current options and the possible new ones we will have sufficient sites for our nuclear needs in 2025," he said. The Government is introducing the guidelines on fossil fuels, nuclear and renewable energy to speed up the planning system, handing the power to approve major projects to an independent body, the Infrastructure Planning Commission.

Utility companies have warned that Britain is facing a shortfall in power generation over the next decade unless more projects are given swift approval. In an interview with The Daily Telegraph on Saturday, Mr Miliband said "saying no" to nuclear was no longer an option given Britain's need to bolster its energy security, adding that he wanted the first new plants built by 2017. But Government officials admitted over the weekend the grand 3000-page policy statements could soon "become out-of-date" due to climate change.

This would mean large chunks of the documents, which have already been on the drawing board for three years, would have to be rewritten - entailing delays to the fast-track system. If the evidence that climate change is progressing rapidly becomes really compelling, we will have to revise the national policy statements," the Department of Energy and Climate Change official said. Utility companies keen to build nuclear plants in Britain have long been desperate for stability in the planning regime since it takes up to seven years to construct a station. The 11 sites under consideration are mostly places with a strong nuclear history, including Dungeness in Kent, Sizewell in Suffolk and Sellafield in Cumbria.

Rees takes a shine to solar 40 panel incentive

Sydney Morning Herald
Tuesday 10/11/2009 Page: 9

THE State Government will increase the incentive for families installing solar panels by about $1500, overturning its cautious approach to supporting the technology. In the process, it has broken ranks with every other state and turned its back on advice from the NSW Treasury. The decision will buy the Premier, Nathan Rees, valuable support at this weekend's ALP state conference, since the move is supported by the Electrical Trades Union which is headed by the party's state president, Bernie Riordan. The unions Victorian branch released a study in September pushing for the generous subsidy.

After a review initiated by Mr Rees, the cabinet yesterday decided that households with solar energy systems will be paid for all of the electricity they generate, receiving the so-called gross" feed-in tariff and not just the smaller "net" amount for surplus electricity they actually sell into the power grid. This also means all other electricity users will pay the electricity bill of families with solar panels. Only the ACT has this generous gross feed-in tariff, with all states supporting a net tariff to limit the cost.

The switch is expected to give the NSW solar industry a significant boost by sparking a big increase in households installing solar panels. The cabinet decision will increase the average amount each household would receive from installing solar panels by more than 60%, to about $1500 a year. The Government's backflip will ensure that solar systems pay for themselves within 10 years of installation, depending on the amount of electricity generated. Previously, the extended time it took for the systems to pay for themselves made many families reluctant to install the panels.

'A 'gross scheme' is based on the total solar energy produced in your home rather than payments based only on what you don't use," Mr Rees said. "These changes will see an average family paid around $1496 a year. "That's a 62% increase on the previous scheme and means households can pay off their investment in solar panels in around eight years."

In September the Electrical Trades Union released a report based on work by Access Economics to argue that switching to the greater tariff could create as many as 22,500 "green" jobs. Countries such as Germany and Sweden have given the solar energy sector a push by adopting generous subsidies built around adopting a gross feed-in tariff. As many as 48 countries have adopted the same approach.

In NSW, a gross tariff is expected to cost all households about four cents a week, or about $2 a year, according to Muriel Watt and Robert Passey, researchers at the Australian Photovoltaic Association, who examined data collected by the Centre for Energy and Environmental Markets at the University of New South Wales. "It's important for political leaders to take bold steps on climate change," said Jeff Angel of the Total Environment Centre. "This will have the dual benefit of creating a significant number of jobs as well as dampening the need for additional coal-fired power stations. This fits in well with the Premier's preference for a future with no new baseload coal power."

Pull the plug, it's socket science

Sydney Morning Herald
Tuesday 10/11/2009 Page: 3

ALL over the world, electrical appliances are blinking away on standby - and burning so much energy they need 60 coal-fired electricity stations a year to power them, analysis by the International Energy Agency has found. "That seems ridiculous just to cover appliances that are supposedly turned off," said Nigel Jollands, who heads the agency's energy efficient unit that conducted the research.

Dr Jollands advises world leaders on energy efficiency and is in Australia this week to speak at the Energy Efficiency Council conference in Melbourne. But he admits that he cannot even get his own family to turn off the microwave at the wall. "We've given up in our own house because trying to get around the back of the microwave to switch it off is just stupid, and then when you turn it back on it takes three minutes to reboot," he told the Herald.

His agency is promoting a "one watt standard" to manufacturers - calling for appliances to use one watt on standby rather than the 20 watts that are used even by some appliances that consume only 25 watts when fully switched on. The energy agency says efficiency is the fastest way to cut greenhouse gas emissions. But its most recent report on the subject, published last month, shows that despite promises by leaders none of its member countries, including Australia, has substantially implemented most of its recommendations. Australia's track record is especially lagging when it comes to building and transport efficiency, Dr Jollands said.

This week he will meet the Environment Minister, Peter Garrett, and the Climate Change Minister, Penny Wong, to advocate that energy efficiency is crucial whether or not the nation adopts an emissions trading scheme. He said the Government had to do more to make commercial buildings and older homes more energy efficient. "Australia does not have a very strong energy efficiency standard in the building code. It's far behind many other countries." While praising the nation's improvements to appliance efficiency standards, he pointed out that about 80% of the agency's efficiency recommendations for transport had not been introduced and there was still no legally enforceable fuel efficiency standard.

Dr Jollands believes legal standards on energy efficiency are important where the market is failing to deliver reform and cited the example of set-top boxes for pay television, which are usually switched on all day, every day. In most homes and offices, set-top boxes are supplied by a company that has no incentive to make them energy efficient because the electricity bills are paid by the consumer. An analysis by the energy agency found that in the United States about 150 million switched-on set-top boxes burned the equivalent of six supertankers of oil a year. Dr Jollands said there was a cultural aversion to regulation in some parts of the world, but if the market was not working, regulations could be effective without imposing additional costs.

CSIRO backs down on banned ETS paper

Australian
Tuesday 10/11/2009 Page: 6

THE CSIRO has agreed to allow the publication of a paper criticising emissions trading schemes, subject to "minor" amendments. The backdown came as union officials lashed the CSIRO for not consulting with them before rolling out a new publications policy that limits the ability of scientists to publish their findings on politically sensitive issues such as climate change. CSIRO Staff Association secretary Sam Popovski said the union was demanding answers from management as to why it was not consulted on the changes.

The changes make it more difficult for scientists to publish their findings in their private capacity. The CSIRO began rolling out the new policy three weeks ago but has so far refused to release it. However, the union welcomed chief executive Megan Clark's decision to allow economist Clive Spash to publish his paper on ETS policies with only minor changes. Dr Spash's paper was initially banned from publication by senior CSIRO managers because it was politically sensitive.

The acting head of the CSIRO's sustainable ecosystems group, Daniel Walker, said at the time that any critique of ETS policies, even if made in general form, breached the CSIRO's charter, which prevented scientists from debating the merits of government policy. The initial decision to gag the paper involved the head of CSIRO's environment group, Andrew Johnson, who is a member of the organisation's executive and reports to Dr Clark. Following a meeting with Dr Spash and Mr Popovski, Dr Clark said the paper would be amended to comply with the charter.

A spokesman said the amendments were minor. "We have agreed to resolve this matter quickly and all parties will now work to make the amendments with the intention to have the paper ready for publication," Dr Clark said. Dr Spash's paper, The Brave New World of Carbon Trade, argues the Rudd government's ETS is an ineffective way to cut emissions. It was accepted for publication by the journal New Political Economy' after being internationally peer-reviewed.

TRUenergy plan `close to blackmail'

Age
Tuesday 10/11/2009 Page: 6

PLANS by TRUEnergy to build a gas-fired power plant in the Latrobe Valley only if it gets extra compensation have been described as "verging on blackmail". The Age yesterday revealed that the energy company was preparing a proposal to build a $2 billion, 1000-MW gas plant next to its brown-coalfired Yallourn power station. TRUEnergy says the new plant could allow the retirement of half the Yallourn station by 2013. It is estimated it would reduce the state's greenhouse gas emissions by 10%.

But TRUEnergy said it would make the switch only if the Federal Government boosted its $3 billion compensation offer to Victorian coal stations under a proposed emissions trading scheme to at least $8 billion. Critics said the extra compensation was unnecessary as gas was expected to become profitable once there was a carbon price. Origin Energy is building a $640 million, 552-MW gasfired plant at Mortlake with no government support. Environment Victoria campaigns director Mark Wakeham cited a recent analysis that found TRUEnergy would get $738 million in free carbon permits for the Yallourn station over the first five years of the emissions scheme.

"They are essentially arguing that the compensation needs to be at least doubled. I don't quite understand why.., when they are going to make money out of it for the next 30 years," he said. Mr Wakeham said announcing the plant and demanding compensation a fortnight before the emissions trading bill faces a second vote in the Senate was "verging on blackmail". Bruce Mountain, a director of consultants Carbon Market Economics, said paying additional compensation to brown coal generators could discourage other companies from investing in gas-fired plants.

Offshore wind energy project for Japan

www.windtech-international.com
09 November 2009

Pavilion Energy Resources, Inc, has announced that it is a 10% equity partner in a joint venture (JV) that has submitted a multi-billion dollar proposal to the Japanese government to develop a wind energy project in multiple locations adjacent to its coastline in the Sea of Japan, Sea of Okhotsk and Pacific Ocean.

The proposal calls for installing at least twenty-five, 10,000MW, wind farms over a twenty-five year period. The turbines incorporated in the JV's proposal are based on the proprietary wind accelerating technology invented by Peter Sterling, Pavilion Energy Resources's President and Chief Executive Officer. These turbines generate 400% more turbine power per dollar of capital than existing technology. This technology makes very-large-scale, offshore, wind energy farms with slower average wind speeds more than economical.

Haze, dust and price force rethink of solar methods

www.thenational.ae
November 09. 2009

Haze and dust over Abu Dhabi and a drop in costs for solar panels have caused Masdar, the Government's alternative energies company, to rethink solar technologies planned for the emirate, executives told a conference yesterday. solar thermal technology, in which the sun's heat is used to boil water and power a conventional turbine, was expected to make up 90 per cent of solar capacity when the Government announced in January a goal to generate 7 per cent of electricity from renewables by 2020.

But this year's plunge in costs for photovoltaics (PV), a competitor technology, and the effects of haze and dust on solar thermal performance mean the country now plans to build both technologies equally, said Olaf Goebel, a department manager at the firm's utilities and asset management unit. "We think it will be a mixture of concentrated solar energy and photovoltaics, approximately 50-50," Dr Goebel told a clean technology conference in the capital, hosted by past students of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "PV is cheaper these days because they've already experienced a shake-out of the market."

Both technologies have their advantages: PV, which generates electricity directly from the sun's rays, is cheaper to buy and maintain, and less susceptible to diffusion of sunlight caused by dust and haze, Dr Goebel said. But solar thermal produces more electricity in a year, and energy can be stored for use after the sun sets. "A PV plant will be one third cheaper but it will produce 20 per cent less kW-hours (kWh)," he said.

Sgouris Sgouridis, an assistant professor at the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, said last month diffusion of sunlight reduced the efficiency of solar thermal between 15 per cent and 20 per cent in computer modelling of sites in Abu Dhabi. Prices for PV systems have dropped between 45 and 60 per cent this year because of an oversupply in the market, said Goran Bye, the director of Masdar's industries unit. Mr Bye predicted prices for each kWh of electricity generated by PV over its lifetime would fall to between $0.10 (Dh0.40) and $0.15 by 2020. That compared with at least $0.20 in other countries.

Costs for solar thermal will drop as well, said Samer Zureikat, the managing director of MENA Cleantech, which is planning a 100 MW plant in Jordan. Mr Zureikat predicted costs for solar thermal in the region would fall to $0.15 per kWh over the next five years. Both technologies cost far more than the current cost in Abu Dhabi of generating electricity from natural gas, which amounts to $0.056 per kWh, according to documents submitted by Masdar and published on the website of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Wave plant tipped to be renewable energy drawcard

www.abc.net.au
Tuesday, 10 November 2009

The Glenelg Shire Mayor, Geoff White, says a new wave-power generator in the region will help attract more renewable energy projects. Victorian Wave Partners will build a 19 MW wave power plant near Portland. The Federal Government will provide more than $66 million to help set up the project, which it is said will be the first of its kind in Australia. Councillor White says the project confirms south-west Victoria is the state's renewable energy hub. "We've got those gas-fired power plants that are being developed at Orford on one hand and Mortlake on the other, and there is a proliferation of wind farms in our region," he said. "We've also got Hot Rock at Koroit, exploring the geothermal opportunities, and now to add to that we've got this wave power initiative."

World’s first hybrid power plants show promise

www.thenational.ae
November 5. 2009

In the urgent search for a quick fix to the world's carbon emission problems, some of the most promising technologies are those that marry new energy sources to old. Thus fuel-saving hybrid cars, powered by a combination of electricity and petrol, have found more buyers than zero-carbon vehicles, and have done more to cut overall transportation emissions. Soon, a bridging approach to solar and gas-fired electricity could reduce carbon emissions from power generation. Meet the integrated solar combined-cycle (ISCC) power plant, a hybrid design being pioneered in North Africa.

Currently there are three utility-scale ISCC plants under construction in the region, which will be the first of their kind in the world. At least two, and possibly all three, should start operating next year. Algeria's 150 MW Hassi R'Mel project, which is scheduled for completion next October, is likely to be the first. It will be closely followed by the start-up of Egypt's Kureimat power plant, another 150MW facility. Morocco's 472MW Ain Beni Mathar power project was scheduled for completion in the middle of next year, but construction delays may push start-up into 2011, according to industry sources.

Elsewhere in the MENA region, Iran is expected to invite bids within the next two months for an engineering, procurement and construction contract for a 430MW ISCC plant. Kuwait has completed a feasibility study for a hybrid plant proposed for a site south-east of its capital, but the emirate's electricity and water ministry has not yet unveiled plans to follow through on the 280MW project. The promise of hybrid gas-solar energy plants is that they would reduce the need to build separate gas plants to compensate for fluctuating power output from solar arrays, which at best generate electricity about 30 per cent of the time.

"Instead of relying upon a separate power plant miles down the road to guarantee grid reliability to generate electricity when the solar plant cools off, just one plant can be built with two sources of heat – sunlight and natural gas," said Craig Severance, a US accountant and energy expert. "This saves on construction costs because only one steam turbine is needed instead of two. Also, much of the ancillary equipment such as controls, pumps, valves, et cetera are not duplicated. Perhaps most importantly, duplicate sets of transmission lines are avoided."

Further savings can be realised on operating costs, because only one team of workers is needed to run an integrated plant. Gas costs can also be lowered by combining two heat sources. The Kuwaiti feasibility study, conducted by the Japanese firm Toyota Tsusho, found that by using solar thermal energy to supplement gas-fired steam generation, the proposed hybrid power plant could save 21.1 million cubic metres of gas per year. That should be significant to a state with insufficient gas to meet domestic demand, and which imported liquefied natural gas this summer to cover a seasonal shortage.

Mr Severance has estimated that hybrid plants could be built for about US$2,500 (Dh9,181) per kW of capacity, versus $1,100 to $1,500 per kW for gas-fired plants. The difference could be recovered over the plant's lifetime through lower operating costs. For a hybrid plant running all the time "the two choices are near parity in total generation costs, but the solar hybrid plant would have less exposure to long-term increases in fossil fuel prices and carbon penalties", Mr Severance concluded. Price tags for the Algerian, Egyptian and Moroccan ISCC projects are respectively $370 million, $310m and $472m. The proposed Iranian plant has an estimated cost of $322m.

North Africa is in many respects an ideal location for deploying the hybrid power-generation technology. It has abundant supplies of gas and sunlight, and plenty of cheap, under utilised land to accommodate solar arrays. The region is also well positioned to export electricity to Europe. But a number of other countries are also planning to develop ISCC capacity, notably the US. There, the primary interest is in retrofitting gas-fired plants with solar arrays. The $476m Martin Next Generation Solar Energy Centre, a solar array under development in Florida, will be the first in the world to be connected to an existing power plant when it is completed next year. The 75MW solar thermal facility with 180,000 mirrors will be a component of the 3,705MW Martin County power plant.

US solar energy developers also hope to add solar arrays to coal-fired plants in suitably sunny locations to reduce emissions from the most carbon-intensive form of power generation. But the scheme has been heavily criticised by environmentalists who want to see coal-fired facilities phased out as quickly as possible. Nonetheless, Abengoa Solar, which builds big solar thermal power plants in Arizona, in August announced plans to connect a solar array to a coal-fired plant in Colorado. Ausra, a solar energy company based in Melbourne, has demonstrated similar technology in Australia.

Revealed: polluters' fear tactics on climate

Sydney Morning Herald
Friday 6/11/2009 Page: 1

BIG greenhouse polluting companies around the world, employing thousands of lobbyists, are exerting heavy pressure on governments to weaken climate change laws at home and slow progress on an international climate agreement in Copenhagen, a global investigation reveals. In Australia, 20 companies who have already won the most concessions from the Rudd Government's emissions trading scheme employ 28 lobbying firms with well over 100 staff, many of them former politicians, political advisers or government officials.

In the US there are more than 2800 climate lobbyists, five for every member of Congress, an increase of more than 400% over the past six years. From Washington to Canberra and New Delhi to Brussels, companies and their lobbyists are often raising the same widespread fears about jobs, power blackouts and economic losses unless governments weaken commitments to combat climate change.

The report by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists examined the climate lobby in eight countries including the US, Canada, Australia, India, Japan, China, Belgium and Brazil. It relied on more than 200 interviews, lobbying registers and political donation records. The Herald collaborated in the investigation for Australia. The findings come as hopes are fading that a binding climate change agreement will be reached at Copenhagen next month.

This week African nations staged a day-long boycott of UN climate talks in the lead-up to the summit, demanding that rich countries make more ambitious pledges to cut emissions. And the President of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, bluntly told reporters: "We are not going to have a full-fledged binding treaty - Kyoto type - by Copenhagen". Instead, a political agreement is being flagged with a treaty not being concluded until at least next year.

The consortium's investigation found big greenhouse-polluting industries in all countries, developed and developing, are pushing back against ambitious targets to cut national emissions. In China, the Government's plans to boost renewable energy has not been embraced by many of the nation's power companies which rely on coal. Only one of the top power companies, all state-owned, will meet the Government's goal to get 3% of their power from renewable energy by 2010.

In the US, chief executives of coal and power companies have hosted a public campaign against climate legislation which is being blocked in the Senate. The millionaire coal chief Don Blankenship appeared at a "Friends of America" rally with country music stars and prominent Fox TV host Sean Hannity. The rally was designed to warn Americans "how environmental extremists and corporate America are both trying to destroy your jobs". In Europe, ambitious targets to cut greenhouse emissions were significantly reduced after lobbying by heavy industries protesting they would face unfair competition from the developing world.

Industry lobby groups have also carved out a permanent role at the UN talks as representatives of the so-called BINGOS - Business and Industry Non-Government Organisations. While lobbyists for the renewable energy industry, the carbon traders and environmental groups are also becoming more prominent, the report finds that their voices "can barely be heard above the clamour of the older, well-capitalised and deeply entrenched industries that have been lobbying on climate change for more than 20 years".

Grants of $235m put thermal and wave power to test

Sydney Morning Herald
Saturday 7/11/2009 Page: 2

WAVE and geothermal technologies have been given a much needed boost under a $235 million round of renewable energy grants from the Federal Government. The Energy Minister, Martin Ferguson, announced the grant money for four commercial-scale renewable energy demonstration projects in Canberra yesterday. In an expected decision, two South Australian geothermal projects received significant grants - $62 million for Petratherm's 30 MW plant and $90 million for GeoDynamics's 25 MW multi-well power project.

The announcement sent both GeoDynamics and Petratherm share prices soaring. GeoDynamics rose 8c to 91c, or 9.6%, and Petratherm rose 7.5c to 44c, or 20.5% yesterday. The commercial manager of GeoDynamics, Alistair Webb, said the company was ready to proceed with the first stage in developing the 25 MW project. The Cooper Basement project will be the world's first commercialsise demonstration of a multi well hot fractured rock power plant.

Mr Webb said the project would need nearly $300 million by its completion in 2013 but the government funding - staged over the life of the projects - would make finding money much easier. We are not in need of capital straight away, but it is on the radar," Mr Webb said yesterday. He said the project would aim to demonstrate the technology on a commercial scale and drive the price per MW down so geothermal could compete with other energy options on the market.

Speaking in Canberra yesterday, Mr Ferguson said he placed the same level of importance on the commercial development of geothermal as carbon capture and storage technologies. If geothermal was not commercially demonstrated by 2015-2020, Australia would have a big challenge in moving to a low-carbon energy market in the face of climate change, he said.

A 19-MW wave project in Portland, Victoria, led by the US-based Ocean Power Technologies and Leighton Holdings, received $66.5 million. The project trumped more fancied West Australian projects, which the the director of OPT Australasia, Gilbert George, credited to its partnership with Leighton Holdings. Mr George said the project would need to raise a further $100 million at least before its full realisation, but he was "very excited" about the grant's potential to help this along.

Japan plans to harvest sun in space - Bold plan for solar energy

Canberra Times
Monday 9/11/2009 Page: 11

It may sound like a sci-fi vision, but Japan's space agency is dead serious: by 2030, it wants to collect solar energy in space and zap it down to Earth, using laser beams or microwaves. The Japanese Government has just picked a group of companies and team of researchers tasked with turning the ambitious, multibillion dollar dream of unlimited clean energy into reality in coming decades. With few energy resources of its own and heavily reliant on oil imports, Japan has long been a leader in solar and other renewable energies. It set ambitious greenhouse gas reduction targets this year.

But Japan's boldest plan to date is the Space Solar Power System, in which arrays of photovoltaic dishes several square kilometres in size would hover in geostationary orbit outside the Earth's atmosphere. Researchers at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, one of the project participants, wrote in a report, "Since solar energy is a clean and inexhaustible energy source, we believe that this system will be able to help solve the problems of energy shortage and global warming. The sun's rays abound in space."

The solar cells would capture the solar energy, which is at least five times stronger in space than on Earth, and beam it to the ground through clusters of lasers or microwaves. These would be collected by gigantic parabolic antennae, likely to be in restricted areas at sea or on darn reservoirs, a spokesman at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, Tadashige Takiya, said. The researchers are targeting a 1-GW system, equivalent to a medium-sized atomic power plant, that would produce electricity at 8 yen (AlOc) a kW-hour; six times cheaper than its current cost in Japan.

The challenge - including transporting the components to space - may appear gigantic, but Japan has pursued the project since 1998, with about 130 researchers studying it under the agency's oversight. Japan's Economy and Trade Ministry and the Science Ministry took another step toward making the project a reality last month, by selecting several Japanese high-tech giants as participants in the project. The consortium, named the Institute for Unmanned Space Experiment Free Flyer, also includes Mitsubishi Electric, NEC, Fujitsu and Sharp. The project's road map outlined several steps that would need to be taken before a full-blown launch in 2030.

One of the agency's researchers heading the project, Tatsuhito Fujita, said that within several years, "a satellite designed to test the transmission by microwave should be put into low orbit with a Japanese rocket". The next step, expected in about 2020, would be to launch and test a large flexible photovoltaic structure with 10-MW power capacity, to be followed by a 250-MW prototype. This will help evaluate the project's financial viability, officials say.

The final aim is to produce electricity cheap enough to compete with other alternative energy sources. The space agency says the transmission technology will be safe but concedes it will need to convince the public, which may harbour images of laser beams shooting down from the sky, roasting birds or slicing tip aircraft in mid-air. A 2004 agency survey found the words "laser" and "microwave" caused the most concern among the 1000 people questioned.