System sheds light on renewable forecasts

Australian
Tuesday 30/11/2010 Page: 39

A hybrid forecasting system that integrates solar and wind power sources could make predictions for renewable energy schemes more accurate. Being developed at Central Queensland University, the system could overcome the unpredictable nature and dependence on weather changes of solar and wind power systems.

By integrating and forecasting the two power sources in a hybrid forecasting system, many of the problems could be resolved, according to CQU researcher Rahat Hossain. Mr Hossain has been working to develop a more robust hybrid forecasting system, which can provide accurate renewable energy predictions. "If you use these two things (wind and solar) in an integrated way, then it is a consistent and more correct prediction", he said.

Australia and, in particular, the subtropical regions are considered to be in one of the best positions to use a hybrid forecasting system, which would be unique in predicting energy from wind and solar sources combined. It is hoped the system could lead to a more sustainable future with less reliance on coal-fired energy.

Mr Hossain, a PhD student at CQU's Power Engineering Research Group within the Institute for Resource Industries and Sustainability (IRIS), is using historical solar and wind data from the CSIRO collected over the past 10 years. The initial stages had involved smaller-scale tests to predict wind speed and solar radiation individually, and these tests had almost 95% accuracy.

"The next target will be energy conversion from the wind speed and also energy conversion from the solar radiation", he said. "Then we will merge those things in a single system". The model would be developed in such a way that, with minor modifications in the coding, it would be able to perform the hybrid forecasting, ranging from hourly to daily within the same platform. A trial energy station is being planned in Central Queensland as part of the project.

Australia has committed to sourcing renewable energy for 20% of its energy by 2020. Many other nations, such as Germany and Denmark, are further advanced in renewable energy. Wind energy is one of the lowest priced renewable energy technologies.

The cost of producing energy from solar is also becoming cheaper following advances in solar panel technology. "You find when wind is blowing normally there is no sun and when there is a huge amount of sun, there is no wind", Mr Hossain said. "If you can merge these two things, what will happen is a consistent or continuous supply."

Farmers who lack rain turn to wind

West Australian
Monday 29/11/2010 Page: 18

Spattered across the coffee coloured landscape in a seemingly random pattern, 111 neat piles of blades, engines and 80m-high turbine stands are waiting to be constructed. Across 18,000ha on 14 farms near Merredin, the $750 million Collgar wind farm, which is understood to be WAs biggest wind farm and the second biggest in Australia, is in the final stages of completion. Amid one of the driest years on record, farmers are turning to farming of a different kind, where money is made without starting the harvester.

While grain yields have been low across WA's increasingly drying wheat-belt, wind strength never abates across the flat escarpment. With three turbines already put up this week and another each day for the next 108 days, the wind farm will start generating enough carbon-free electricity to supply milling projects, businesses and homes in Kalgoorlie, Yilgarn and Southern Cross by April.

Each 44m-long blade looks like a giant surf board fin. They were transported one by one by truck to Merredin, 260km east of Perth. Collgar wind farm executive officer Alistair Craib said 12 farmers across 14 properties had signed a 30-year lease receiving an annual rent and compensation for disturbed crop land. He said the carbon emissions expended to create the wind farm would be repaid 40 times during its life.

Farming brothers Glenn and Mark Crees run a 8000ha wheat and sheep farm and are reaping a "substantial" windfall. "It's well worth our effort to do it. The only drawback is loss of land but we don't lose much land, maybe 20-30 hectares, and it's mostly unproductive land", Glenn said. Mr Crees said the town had also benefited, with the employment of at least 100 local men.

Sun and wind leave coal power out in the cold

Canberra Times
Saturday 27/11/2010 Page: 7

A combination of solar, thermal and wind energies could power Australia as cheaply as coal-fired power and generate more jobs, says one of the world's top solar researchers. Australian solar technology pioneer Professor David Mills said this new, flexible energy system would also eliminate the need to rely on large power infrastructure to generate baseload power, or daily electricity needs. "Baseload doesn't need to be part of this system, it's out of the equation", he said.

At a three-day national solar conference in Canberra next week. Professor Mills will present the results of a three-year energy study analysing hourly data for energy use across the United States. The breakthrough study shows wind and solar combined could provide 100% of the country's electricity needs, with wind acting as a back-up to solar power shortfalls during winter and at night.

Professor Mills, one of three scientists working on the US study, is keynote speaker at the Australian Solar Energy Society conference dinner at Parliament House next week. "I think what we've found will blow a lot of people away", he said. "Everyone says you need baseload capacity, which they assume somehow makes coal-fired electricity cheaper, and other forms of energy more expensive.

"What we are suggesting is a new paradigm. Baseload does not exist in this new scenario, but it hasn't simply been replaced by a another form of renewable energy-generated baseload. What we're talking about is a completely new model a new system of energy combinations with some storage capacity".

Professor Mills said the technologies required to build and run this system already existed. "They're not future technologies, they're already here, so we can do this", he said. The former Sydney University solar power engineer left Australia four years ago to set up a solar power company in California after failing to attract support from the Howard government for his world-first solar thermal technology.

Professor Mills has since sold his successful US start-up company to French energy conglomerate Areva as its new solar division. He recently returned to live in Sydney, "more or less in retirement mode". Professor Mills has spent more than 30 years developing solar technologies which are now in use throughout the world. He said Australia's governments seemed unable to comprehend the enormous potential of solar technologies to provide thousands of new jobs in installation and maintenance. "These are big enterprises and potentially big employers, providing cleaner and safer jobs than coal", he said.

Following yesterday's first meeting of the Gillard Government's business roundtable on climate change, Climate Change and Energy Efficiency minister Greg Combet said energy security remained "a very important consideration in establishing a carbon price mechanism". He reaffirmed the Government's commitment to provide financial compensation to the electricity generation sector when a carbon tax or trading scheme was adopted.

$750m power station to meet summer demand

Adelaide Advertiser
Friday 26/11/2010 Page: 8

A GAS-FIRED electricity power station will be built near Mannum to help meet peak demand over summer months. The State Government today will approve construction of the Cherokee Power Station at Tepko. The $750 million project would create 400 jobs, Industry and Trade Minister Tom Koutsantonis said.

"This is a major infrastructure project with enormous benefit not just for the Mid Murray, but for the whole state", he said yesterday. "South Australia's electrical loads are increasing in line with the state's economic growth and prosperity. "Cherokee Power Station will deliver a cleaner source of power to cater for the increased demands this will place on the electricity grid, which is currently reliant on coal".

The power station will be built by the Tungkillo Power Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of asset management company Investec Bank. Tepko was chosen as the site so power could be fed into the Tungkillo sub-station and the existing Tungkillo-Tailem Bend electricity transmission line. Energy Minister Patrick Conlon said the power station would reach a maximum generating capacity of 1000MWs by 2021.

"Cherokee Power Station will be a peaking station - which means it will kick in at times of peak demand", he said. "On the completion of its final stage, the facility will be capable of meeting up to 25% of the state's peak demand "The first stage of the project will create 250MW of generating capacity at an estimated cost of $200 million and is scheduled to come on line in 2013".

Investec Bank's head of project and infrastructure investment Mark Schneider said the company had found South Australia "an ideal place in which to invest". "We have undertaken extensive consultation and negotiation with landholders surrounding the proposed development site", Mr Schneider said yesterday. "We are confident the local community is right behind the (power) project".