The power plays of the future

The Saturday Age
16 July 2011, Page: 6

ASSUMING the government's climate legislation gets the parliamentary green light, it promises more than just forcing large industries to pay for their carbon dioxide emissions. The plan includes a Clean Energy Finance Corporation, with about $10 billion to spend over five years on seed loans, loan guarantees and equity funding for new technologies that may not otherwise get off the ground.

There will also be $1.7 billion in unspent grants handed over to a separate new body, the Australian Renewable EnergyAgency. And there will be money to improve energy efficiency, which some experts say can yield the biggest emissions cuts and financial savings in the early years. What might the energy supply of the future look like? The Saturday Age profiles six emerging technologies.

Biogas
Melbourne Water was thinking odour pollution, not climate change, when it began capturing the gas released from massive lagoons of sewage at its Western Treatment Plant. It was not until it gained a clearer picture of the amount of gas emitted from the Werribee plant mostly methane, a greenhouse gas 20 times more potent than CO₂ that it realised its broader potential.

Partnering with energy company AGL Energy, it built a biogas fired power plant on site. Methane is captured by air tight lagoon covers, funnelled in the bio gas plant and used to generate about 95% of the energy needed on site. "People would probably be surprised to know that sewage is effectively powering one of Australia's biggest sewage treatment facilities. It's the ultimate feedback loop", said Melbourne Water spokesman Paul Pretto.

While cutting odour has been the main driver, the organisation estimates the biogas program has cut the plant's emissions by 330,000 tonnes since 2005, and reduced its annual energy bill by about $3 million Another $2 million a year has been saved at its Eastern Treatment Plant at Bangholme.

Melbourne Water is one of about 500 companies facing the carbon price its two treatment plants emit about 180,000 tonnes a year, equating to a $4.1 million bill but it says its liability has already been dramatically reduced. It is still evaluating the impact of the carbon price, but expects investment in biogas to become more attractive. Technology for converting methane to biogas is also being explored by landfill sites and coalmines.

Large scale solar
Has a project had more false dawns in the public mind than the large scale solar power plant planned for north west Victoria? Promised in 2006 to employ world leading photovoltaic solar technology, the 154 MW proposal hit a roadblock in September 2009, when developer Solar Systems went into administration. The technology was eventually bought by Sydney based Silex Systems, Australia's only solar panel manufacturer.

Nearly 18 months on, work is about to start on a two MW demonstration plant near Mildura. Subject to the pilot's success, Silex Systems plans to start work on the full station at a reduced capacity of 100 MWs next year. Generation is expected to start in 2014. The company says the power generated through its unique technology, using giant parabolic mirrors to concentrate the sun's rays, will be enough to run 40,000 homes.

Despite its delays, the Silex Systems plan is ahead of the curve, and already has $125 million in government support. Two other plants using different technology one at Moree in outback NSW, the other at Chinchilla in Queensland last month won a combined $770 million from the now defunct solar flagships scheme. Silex Systems chief executive Michael Goldsworthy said the carbon price package should help other solar plants get developed. "It's the first step in closing the gap between renewables and coal fired power", he said. "But ultimately the costs are coming down anyway, and we expect solar to reach grid parity [in price] within five years".

Geothermal energy
Melbourne consultants Hot Dry Rocks built a business locating good geothermal energy sites places where the heat of the Earth could be tapped and used to, one day, power the grid. Usually, it helps others identify the best site for drilling and then moves on. It is now branching out, looking to generate a different type of energy in the coal rich Latrobe Valley. It plans geothermal on a small scale, starting with a 500 kW pilot plant that would draw enough heat from about 600 metres beneath the surface to power about 500 houses. If successful, the vision is of tiny geothermal plants dotted across the valley.

Hot Dry Rocks technical director Graeme Beardsmore said the company had $217,000 from the Victorian Department of Primary Industries and had applied for another $997,000. It would need another $3.5 million to start drilling. As with larger geothermal projects, the challenge in winning financial backing has been the lack of a precedent, and uncertainty over whether the technology can develop to compete with fossil fuels. "That's one of the big barriers we have found in getting investment for our clients. Investors say, 'Show us one working on scale,'" Dr Beardsmore said.

While the Clean Energy Finance Corporation would not offer immediate help for the Hot Dry Rocks pilot, he said it could prove vital to give the industry a kick start later in the decade. "I think this is what the geothermal industry has been waiting for from the federal government a bit of direction and a bit of steel in their spine".

Wave energy
For Carnegie Corporation Wave Energy, a big injection of cash into Australia's renewable s industry couldn't have come at a better time. In two years, the WA based company hopes to build a five MW power project in the waters near Garden Island, south of Perth, enough to power 3000 homes a year.

Carnegie Corporation managing director Michael Ottaviano said it would be the largest wave energy project in the world. Electricity would be generated through 20 or so pumps submerged 25 metres in the ocean, driven by the ocean's swell. They would send a stream of pressurised water to shore via a pipe, turning a standard hydropower electricity turbine.

"Effectively it is a hydroelectric project, but instead the pressure is not caused by a dam or mountain, it is created by a novel pumping technology", Dr Ottaviano said. Carnegie Corporation has just finished a trial using one pump with positive results. Dr Ottaviano said it had given the company confidence to push ahead with the full scale project.

The company is now seeking $50 million to bring the project to scale. It has attracted $12 5 million from the WA government and is looking to the Commonwealth for the rest. "What we've got is a project that is ready to go, and in fact is already underway, so the money can be put to use immediately" Dr Ottaviano said.

He said the new independent grants authority would be the first stop to fund the project. If successful in Perth, Carnegie Corporation could then look to the $10 billion clean energy Financing corporation or the private market to develop other projects around the country, including at three sites in Victoria: Portland, Warrnambool and Phillip Island.

Nano solar
It is technology that could revolutionise the solar industry and do away with bulky rooftop panels: tiny solar cells one millionth of a millimetre in diameter that can be printed on surfaces such as glass, steel and plastic and used for powering homes or as part of large scale stations.

The technology is being perfected by researchers at University of Melbourne, in partnership with CSIRO, who hope they can make it commercially available in five to 10 years. Before it can be be commercialised the efficiency of the new technology which currently generates just half the power of standard solar panel technology will need to be improved.

The researchers are seeking a corporate partner or venture capital, potentially through the new funding bodies, to help build more panels to refine the technology. The tiny panels are made from crystals called nanoparticles. Nano crystal panels are suspended in a liquid such as ink and then printed onto fiat surfaces. The ink dries and the panels are connected to the electricity grid.

"They could be used for either smaller scale uses like households generation, but also largescale power generation where you set up in a field, or somewhere in the desert, large arrays of these types of solar panels", said researcher Brandon Mac Donald.

Mr MacDonald envisages long strips of thin metal or plastic 75 centimetres wide and several kilometres long painted with the panels, rolled out over vast stretches of land and hooked up to the energy grid. For households, the panels could be painted onto windows and rooftops, removing the need to install chunky solar systems.

Trigeneration
About 70% of the electricity generated at the large, remote power plants in the Latrobe Valley does not reach the final destination. Most of the energy is lost into the atmosphere, either in the generation process or during transmission. To tackle this, City of Sydney is bringing its energy generation on site. Using a complex system of small generators and pipes, it plans to capture the energy lost during generation and use it to heat and cool major buildings in the city. The process is known as trigeneration.

While the Sydney project will be funded through partnerships with energy companies the first tenders are being worked through now some of the money from the Clean Energy Finance Corporation is expect to help finance other trigeneration schemes.

Leading the project for the Sydney Council is Allan Jones a UK born engineer, not the shock jock. He said the project would cut emissions from city buildings by 40 to 60% by 2030.A series of small, natural gas fuelled power generators, potentially generating 360 MWs, will be built around the city on and in council buildings.

The heat created by the generators that would otherwise be lost will be captured and put through a network of underground pipes to warm buildings and provide hot water. A thermal cooler will be used to chill the same water through the pipe network for refrigeration and air conditioning. Mr Jones said the project would both deliver emissions cuts and shield landlords from electricity price hikes due to a carbon price.