Adelaide Advertiser
Thursday 2/9/2010 Page: 53
SYNTHETIC fuel company Syngas and a Yorke Peninsula farmers' group have received a $300,000 state grant to create a potentially lucrative market for farm waste. The Renewables SA grant will be used to complete trials for commercial-scale collection, storage and transportation of cereal crop by-products, namely chaff and residual straw, on Yorke Peninsula and in the state's Mid North.
Syngas managing director Merril Gray said the company and the Yorke Peninsula Alkaline Soils Group had already invested $120,000 on conducting workshops and technology partnerships. "This additional investment will now help us establish the commercial viability of an entirely nonfood, biomass-fed liquid transportation fuel plant in the Yorke Peninsula area", he said. "It will also allow us to assess other biomass projects like power generation using biomass. "It will help us to secure feed material for our different business models".
Wind farm investment runs out of puff
Age
Tuesday 31/8/2010 Page: 4
INFIGEN Energy says wind farm investment is suffering a "bust" due to complex policy changes and uncertainty over government responses to climate change. But the company whose shares have lost a quarter of their value since June is confident this will become a "boom" within a few years, as power retailers are forced to obtain a growing share of their electricity from renewable sources. The country's biggest specialist wind developer yesterday reported a $73.5 million full-year loss, after asset sales delivered it a $192.9 million profit the year before.
The result comes after Infigen Energy this year abandoned plans to sell wind farms in Germany and the US, underlining the difficult conditions for asset sales in the industry. Amid unconfirmed reports some big investors in the former Babcock and Brown offshoot have been selling down their stakes in the company. Infigen Energy explained its share price fall by pointing to a global decline in renewable energy share prices. "The sentiment towards renewable energy businesses generally has weakened in the last 12 months", said chief executive Miles George. "There's been a reduced interest in climate-change measures and therefore an associated reduced interest in renewable energy stocks generally over the last year, and we haven't been immune to that".
Investor confidence in renewable power was shaken after the lack of progress at last year's Copenhagen Convention, and the deferral of emissions trading in the US. Domestically, smaller players in wind have also been stung by a plunge in the value of Renewable Energy Certificates (REC), issued to wind farm investors, after a boom in small-scale solar power investment flooded the market. Although the federal government moved to increase REC market confidence in June. Mr George said the complex changes were taking time to filter through.
Infigen Energy is banking on a future boom in wind investment, as power retailers scramble to meet a federal government requirement to obtain 20% of their power from renewable sources by 2020. Mr George also said it would consider floating its US wind business in years ahead, after an attempt this year failed to attract a high enough bid. With a growing focus on Australia. Infigen Energy expects to turn a profit in its underlying business in the "medium term" of about three years, as its interest costs start to decline and its production increases. It expects to pay a dividend of at least 2(G, and leave dividends at a similar level until it is consistently posting profits. Mr George's total remuneration rose 44% to $1.44 million over the year, up from $997,000 the previous year.
Tuesday 31/8/2010 Page: 4
INFIGEN Energy says wind farm investment is suffering a "bust" due to complex policy changes and uncertainty over government responses to climate change. But the company whose shares have lost a quarter of their value since June is confident this will become a "boom" within a few years, as power retailers are forced to obtain a growing share of their electricity from renewable sources. The country's biggest specialist wind developer yesterday reported a $73.5 million full-year loss, after asset sales delivered it a $192.9 million profit the year before.The result comes after Infigen Energy this year abandoned plans to sell wind farms in Germany and the US, underlining the difficult conditions for asset sales in the industry. Amid unconfirmed reports some big investors in the former Babcock and Brown offshoot have been selling down their stakes in the company. Infigen Energy explained its share price fall by pointing to a global decline in renewable energy share prices. "The sentiment towards renewable energy businesses generally has weakened in the last 12 months", said chief executive Miles George. "There's been a reduced interest in climate-change measures and therefore an associated reduced interest in renewable energy stocks generally over the last year, and we haven't been immune to that".
Investor confidence in renewable power was shaken after the lack of progress at last year's Copenhagen Convention, and the deferral of emissions trading in the US. Domestically, smaller players in wind have also been stung by a plunge in the value of Renewable Energy Certificates (REC), issued to wind farm investors, after a boom in small-scale solar power investment flooded the market. Although the federal government moved to increase REC market confidence in June. Mr George said the complex changes were taking time to filter through.
Infigen Energy is banking on a future boom in wind investment, as power retailers scramble to meet a federal government requirement to obtain 20% of their power from renewable sources by 2020. Mr George also said it would consider floating its US wind business in years ahead, after an attempt this year failed to attract a high enough bid. With a growing focus on Australia. Infigen Energy expects to turn a profit in its underlying business in the "medium term" of about three years, as its interest costs start to decline and its production increases. It expects to pay a dividend of at least 2(G, and leave dividends at a similar level until it is consistently posting profits. Mr George's total remuneration rose 44% to $1.44 million over the year, up from $997,000 the previous year.
'Sceptical environmentalist' in from the cold
Sydney Morning Herald
Wednesday 1/9/2010 Page: 7
THE world's most high-profile climate change sceptic is to declare that global warming is "undoubtedly one of the chief concerns facing the world today" and "a challenge humanity must confront", in an apparent U-turn that will give a huge boost to the embattled environmental lobby. Bjorn Lomborg, the self-styled "sceptical environmentalist" once compared to Adolf Hitler by the United Nations' climate chief, is famous for attacking climate scientists, campaigners, the media and others for exaggerating global warming and its effects on humans, and the costly waste of policies to stop the problem.
But in a new book to be published this month. Lomborg will call for tens of billions of dollars a year to be invested in tackling climate change. "Investing $US100 billion ($112 billion) annually would mean that we could essentially resolve the climate change problem by the end of this century", the book concludes.
Examining eight methods to reduce or stop global warming. Lomborg and his fellow economists recommend pouring money into researching and developing clean energy sources such as wind, wave, solar and nuclear power, and more work on climate engineering ideas such as "cloud whitening" to reflect the sun's heat back into the outer atmosphere. Lomborg said he would finance this investment through a tax on carbon. His declaration comes at a crucial point in the debate, with international efforts to agree a global deal on emissions stalled amid a resurgence in scepticism over the reliability of the scientific evidence for global warming.
Wednesday 1/9/2010 Page: 7
THE world's most high-profile climate change sceptic is to declare that global warming is "undoubtedly one of the chief concerns facing the world today" and "a challenge humanity must confront", in an apparent U-turn that will give a huge boost to the embattled environmental lobby. Bjorn Lomborg, the self-styled "sceptical environmentalist" once compared to Adolf Hitler by the United Nations' climate chief, is famous for attacking climate scientists, campaigners, the media and others for exaggerating global warming and its effects on humans, and the costly waste of policies to stop the problem.
But in a new book to be published this month. Lomborg will call for tens of billions of dollars a year to be invested in tackling climate change. "Investing $US100 billion ($112 billion) annually would mean that we could essentially resolve the climate change problem by the end of this century", the book concludes.
Examining eight methods to reduce or stop global warming. Lomborg and his fellow economists recommend pouring money into researching and developing clean energy sources such as wind, wave, solar and nuclear power, and more work on climate engineering ideas such as "cloud whitening" to reflect the sun's heat back into the outer atmosphere. Lomborg said he would finance this investment through a tax on carbon. His declaration comes at a crucial point in the debate, with international efforts to agree a global deal on emissions stalled amid a resurgence in scepticism over the reliability of the scientific evidence for global warming.
Solar PV's false dawn
Business Spectator
Monday 30/8/2010 Page: 1
Michael Fraser has put his finger on a point that is central to planning future electricity supply - and it raises yet another one of those leadership issues that our political types seem to find so hard to handle. In his Climate Spectator interview with Giles Parkinson, the AGL Energy chief executive referred to the "really interesting thing about solar power" - the "almost love affair" the Australian public has with the technology.
The big question is whether governments should pander to public sentiment, as most around Australia (with the exception of Martin Ferguson at the federal level) have done in the past few years, or whether they should ensure the love-struck voters have a proper understanding of what is involved? The "big picture" issue - that's an authentic Paul Keating saying - is the economic cost of giving in to the public solar sentiment. The federal Department of Climate Change has pointed out repeatedly that installing a 1.5kW solar PV system on every household rooftop in Australia will involve a capital outlay, at today's costs, of around $200 billion. That's five times the cost of the controversial broadband project.
What will we get in return? DCC has estimated that the carbon abatement in 2020 from doing this would be 16 million tonnes a year, extraordinarily expensive. Even if one assumes that the capital cost could be halved, the department has pointed out, this is still very costly. State government owned distributor Energex has politely made another point about PVs to the Queensland parliament's environment and resources committee, which is currently undertaking an inquiry in to growing the renewable energy sector. It says that it has been "significantly affected" by the state's solar bonus scheme, which has seen a "dramatic uptake" of PVs in southeast Queensland, resulting in extra network costs and additional expenses from feed-in tariffs that are passed on to all customers.
Its twin, Ergon Energy, also government-owned that delivers electricity across the rest of the state, reveals that as of May it had seen 6,500 solar PV systems connected to its network under the bonus scheme, providing feed-in credits worth $1.68 million over a year for a generation capacity of 10MWs. What's more Ergon Energy says smart-alec residential solar PV owners have spotted that they can maximise the value of their feed-in tariff earnings by minimising their use of washing machines, dishwashers and clothes driers during the peak solar generation daytime period, ensuring the highest benefit for their output to the grid.
There is very little overall network savings benefit to be had from the subsidy-driven PV boom, it adds. And it poses the question that, shouldn't the current and future power price rises be sufficient incentive to customers to invest in solar PVs as well as other energy conservation measures? Brisbane City Council presses the point harder. Customers voluntarily taking up GreenPower schemes, it asserts, face costs out of their own pocket of about $50 perMW hour, while the whole community bears the $400 to $600 per MWh cost of PVs through the feed-in tariff.
This situation is the more peculiar when you consider that, for any regions that have good access to gas. Australians now have an alternative to solar PVs in the shape of the BlueGen fuel-cell system, a dishwasher-sized generator which requires far less installation hassle and delivers six times as much carbon abatement as PVs - but has no government support whatsoever because it uses a fossil fuel.
It seems to me that the solar love affair is a classic example of the modern political idiom, encapsulated in the Yes Prime Minister television comedy series in a line pinched from a real-life 19th century French socialist leader: "There go the people. I am their leader. I must follow them". To which one might add that the road to economic hell is paved with venal political intentions (sooled on by an increasing number of pigs with their noses in public troughs).
Monday 30/8/2010 Page: 1
Michael Fraser has put his finger on a point that is central to planning future electricity supply - and it raises yet another one of those leadership issues that our political types seem to find so hard to handle. In his Climate Spectator interview with Giles Parkinson, the AGL Energy chief executive referred to the "really interesting thing about solar power" - the "almost love affair" the Australian public has with the technology.
The big question is whether governments should pander to public sentiment, as most around Australia (with the exception of Martin Ferguson at the federal level) have done in the past few years, or whether they should ensure the love-struck voters have a proper understanding of what is involved? The "big picture" issue - that's an authentic Paul Keating saying - is the economic cost of giving in to the public solar sentiment. The federal Department of Climate Change has pointed out repeatedly that installing a 1.5kW solar PV system on every household rooftop in Australia will involve a capital outlay, at today's costs, of around $200 billion. That's five times the cost of the controversial broadband project.
What will we get in return? DCC has estimated that the carbon abatement in 2020 from doing this would be 16 million tonnes a year, extraordinarily expensive. Even if one assumes that the capital cost could be halved, the department has pointed out, this is still very costly. State government owned distributor Energex has politely made another point about PVs to the Queensland parliament's environment and resources committee, which is currently undertaking an inquiry in to growing the renewable energy sector. It says that it has been "significantly affected" by the state's solar bonus scheme, which has seen a "dramatic uptake" of PVs in southeast Queensland, resulting in extra network costs and additional expenses from feed-in tariffs that are passed on to all customers.
Its twin, Ergon Energy, also government-owned that delivers electricity across the rest of the state, reveals that as of May it had seen 6,500 solar PV systems connected to its network under the bonus scheme, providing feed-in credits worth $1.68 million over a year for a generation capacity of 10MWs. What's more Ergon Energy says smart-alec residential solar PV owners have spotted that they can maximise the value of their feed-in tariff earnings by minimising their use of washing machines, dishwashers and clothes driers during the peak solar generation daytime period, ensuring the highest benefit for their output to the grid.
There is very little overall network savings benefit to be had from the subsidy-driven PV boom, it adds. And it poses the question that, shouldn't the current and future power price rises be sufficient incentive to customers to invest in solar PVs as well as other energy conservation measures? Brisbane City Council presses the point harder. Customers voluntarily taking up GreenPower schemes, it asserts, face costs out of their own pocket of about $50 perMW hour, while the whole community bears the $400 to $600 per MWh cost of PVs through the feed-in tariff.
This situation is the more peculiar when you consider that, for any regions that have good access to gas. Australians now have an alternative to solar PVs in the shape of the BlueGen fuel-cell system, a dishwasher-sized generator which requires far less installation hassle and delivers six times as much carbon abatement as PVs - but has no government support whatsoever because it uses a fossil fuel.
It seems to me that the solar love affair is a classic example of the modern political idiom, encapsulated in the Yes Prime Minister television comedy series in a line pinched from a real-life 19th century French socialist leader: "There go the people. I am their leader. I must follow them". To which one might add that the road to economic hell is paved with venal political intentions (sooled on by an increasing number of pigs with their noses in public troughs).
Solar bonus generates a mega-load of energy
Sydney Morning Herald
Saturday 28/8/2010 Page: 11
THE NSW Government's solar bonus scheme, which pays householders for the electricity they generate from their rooftop panels, has proved so popular it has reached a 50-MW milestone 18 months before expected. But experts have warned that it is too generous and too short term to encourage the industry investment in solar that is vital for a renewable energy future. They argue the scheme must be expanded to include commercial customers, not just small scale residential properties.
The solar panel program was established in January, offering households 60¢, a kWh for all the electricity generated until 2017. It is the most generous scheme in the country and one of only two that pay a tariff on all energy generated (the other being in the ACT, which pays 45¢ a kWh. All other states and territories offer net tariffs, which pay only for the excess power householders return to the grid after using what they require.
The NSW scheme was inundated with applications, and an estimated 30,000 householders are being paid to feed renewable energy into the grid. It was to have been reviewed in 2012 or when 50MWs capacity was reached, whichever came first. But the capacity point was reached this week, eight months into the program, triggering a review announced by the Energy Minister, Paul Lynch. It was the right time to evaluate the scheme, he said.
He reiterated that the length and the tariff rate of the scheme were locked into legislation. "If any changes are to be proposed, the legislation would need to be amended and we are on the record stating that any changes would not be applied retrospectively". But Dr Mark Diesendorf, of the institute of environmental studies at the University of New South Wales, said the current tariff was too high and the seven-year period too short. "They should have given a lower tariff for a longer period to ensure more stable growth of the industry". "The short burst... isn't going to give enough support for industry to come back [from overseas] and manufacture [solar panels] in Australia".
He nominated 40¢ a kWh as adequate and over 15 years. "You wouldn't have got this mad rush and you would have got stimulus for investment". The opposition spokeswoman on the environment, Catherine Cusack, said the scheme risked producing a boom and bust situation, where there was high demand in the short term and then nothing. "For the people who went in early [including herself], they are going to do extremely well out of it".
But just as important was long-term certainty for manufacturers in the solar industry. The scheme should be open to big energy users, she said. A climate campaigner for Greenpeace, John Hepburn, agreed the scheme should be extended. "If we are serious... we need a feed-in tariff for large scale as well... We need incentives for the warehouse owners, for Coles and Woolworths". Dr Diesendorf said schemes such as the solar bonus had long-term potential but "bang for buck, energy efficiency is the cheapest and fastest".
Saturday 28/8/2010 Page: 11
THE NSW Government's solar bonus scheme, which pays householders for the electricity they generate from their rooftop panels, has proved so popular it has reached a 50-MW milestone 18 months before expected. But experts have warned that it is too generous and too short term to encourage the industry investment in solar that is vital for a renewable energy future. They argue the scheme must be expanded to include commercial customers, not just small scale residential properties.
The solar panel program was established in January, offering households 60¢, a kWh for all the electricity generated until 2017. It is the most generous scheme in the country and one of only two that pay a tariff on all energy generated (the other being in the ACT, which pays 45¢ a kWh. All other states and territories offer net tariffs, which pay only for the excess power householders return to the grid after using what they require.
The NSW scheme was inundated with applications, and an estimated 30,000 householders are being paid to feed renewable energy into the grid. It was to have been reviewed in 2012 or when 50MWs capacity was reached, whichever came first. But the capacity point was reached this week, eight months into the program, triggering a review announced by the Energy Minister, Paul Lynch. It was the right time to evaluate the scheme, he said.
He reiterated that the length and the tariff rate of the scheme were locked into legislation. "If any changes are to be proposed, the legislation would need to be amended and we are on the record stating that any changes would not be applied retrospectively". But Dr Mark Diesendorf, of the institute of environmental studies at the University of New South Wales, said the current tariff was too high and the seven-year period too short. "They should have given a lower tariff for a longer period to ensure more stable growth of the industry". "The short burst... isn't going to give enough support for industry to come back [from overseas] and manufacture [solar panels] in Australia".
He nominated 40¢ a kWh as adequate and over 15 years. "You wouldn't have got this mad rush and you would have got stimulus for investment". The opposition spokeswoman on the environment, Catherine Cusack, said the scheme risked producing a boom and bust situation, where there was high demand in the short term and then nothing. "For the people who went in early [including herself], they are going to do extremely well out of it".
But just as important was long-term certainty for manufacturers in the solar industry. The scheme should be open to big energy users, she said. A climate campaigner for Greenpeace, John Hepburn, agreed the scheme should be extended. "If we are serious... we need a feed-in tariff for large scale as well... We need incentives for the warehouse owners, for Coles and Woolworths". Dr Diesendorf said schemes such as the solar bonus had long-term potential but "bang for buck, energy efficiency is the cheapest and fastest".
Weather powers digital services
Hobart Mercury
Friday 27/8/2010 Page: 11
Solar and wind power now helps Queenstown and Zeehan residents receive new services, such as digital television. Broadcast Australia, the company that owns and operates the transmission station near Queenstown, recently upgraded the site to be primarily powered by renewable energy. The Mt Owen site broadcasts a range of national and commercial analogue/digital radio and television services to the Queenstown and Zeehan region. The site also supports critical radio communications for emergency services.
Broadcast Australia Energy Systems engineer Gary Cafe, said the power demands of new services such as digital television were starting to exceed the capacity of the existing mains feed. The site's remote location and position made it an ideal candidate for renewable energy. "At 980 metres above sea level. Mt Owen benefits from a strong prevailing southwesterly wind, making it ideal for wind turbine power generation", Mr Cafe said.
The new wind and solar infrastructure includes a single wind turbine on a 15m mast and 36m² of solar panels. Together, the technologies are expected to meet the site's power needs for 80 to 90% of the time. The system is backed up by batteries, which store generated power and mains power during periods of limited on-site wind or solar generation.
Friday 27/8/2010 Page: 11
Solar and wind power now helps Queenstown and Zeehan residents receive new services, such as digital television. Broadcast Australia, the company that owns and operates the transmission station near Queenstown, recently upgraded the site to be primarily powered by renewable energy. The Mt Owen site broadcasts a range of national and commercial analogue/digital radio and television services to the Queenstown and Zeehan region. The site also supports critical radio communications for emergency services.Broadcast Australia Energy Systems engineer Gary Cafe, said the power demands of new services such as digital television were starting to exceed the capacity of the existing mains feed. The site's remote location and position made it an ideal candidate for renewable energy. "At 980 metres above sea level. Mt Owen benefits from a strong prevailing southwesterly wind, making it ideal for wind turbine power generation", Mr Cafe said.
The new wind and solar infrastructure includes a single wind turbine on a 15m mast and 36m² of solar panels. Together, the technologies are expected to meet the site's power needs for 80 to 90% of the time. The system is backed up by batteries, which store generated power and mains power during periods of limited on-site wind or solar generation.
Renewable energy key to emissions reduction
Summaries - Australian Financial Review
Monday 30/8/2010 Page: 9
The three federal independent MPs have all supported greater investment in renewable power, with the Clean Energy Council noting that such investments can help farmers and rural communities. The Australian Geothermal Energy Association has called for similar government support for geothermal as for solar power, which the government has supported through the establishment of the Australian Solar Institute.
Monday 30/8/2010 Page: 9
The three federal independent MPs have all supported greater investment in renewable power, with the Clean Energy Council noting that such investments can help farmers and rural communities. The Australian Geothermal Energy Association has called for similar government support for geothermal as for solar power, which the government has supported through the establishment of the Australian Solar Institute.
Victoria to hasten renewables plan
Summaries - Australian Financial Review
Wednesday 25/8/2010 Page: 6
To lower reliance on coal, Victorian Energy Minister Peter Batchelor revealed planning changes to approval procedures for renewable energy projects. Approval for the $484 million Union Fenosa Berrybank wind farm was announced with Mr Batchelor's statement.
The state Labor government set a 20% greenhouse emissions target by 2020, which has been supported by legislation currently before the state Parliament. To meet the target, the government have introduced a phased shutdown of the Hazelwood power station. Mr Batchelor and Victorian Premier John Brumby are hoping other projects will fill the capacity void created by the closing of the state's highest polluting power station.
Shah Mohajerani, engineering manager at Union Fenosa said decisions on five projects in Victoria were yet to be made. The Crookwell 292MW project was the closest venture to proceeding, but was delayed by the over saturation of Renewable Energy Certificates which made it commercially unviable for now, according to Mr Mohajerani.
Wednesday 25/8/2010 Page: 6
To lower reliance on coal, Victorian Energy Minister Peter Batchelor revealed planning changes to approval procedures for renewable energy projects. Approval for the $484 million Union Fenosa Berrybank wind farm was announced with Mr Batchelor's statement.
The state Labor government set a 20% greenhouse emissions target by 2020, which has been supported by legislation currently before the state Parliament. To meet the target, the government have introduced a phased shutdown of the Hazelwood power station. Mr Batchelor and Victorian Premier John Brumby are hoping other projects will fill the capacity void created by the closing of the state's highest polluting power station.
Shah Mohajerani, engineering manager at Union Fenosa said decisions on five projects in Victoria were yet to be made. The Crookwell 292MW project was the closest venture to proceeding, but was delayed by the over saturation of Renewable Energy Certificates which made it commercially unviable for now, according to Mr Mohajerani.
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