Gippsland Friends of Future Generations - Renewable Energy Today

Wind works power sells German wind energy project

2012-01-26T09:57:00.002+11:00

wind.energy-business-review.com
20 Jan 2012

Wind Works Power has completed the sale of its remaining 50% stake in the 4 MW Wind Park Burg 1 project in Germany. The wind power project is currently under construction by the company's wholly-owned affiliate, Wind Works Development, and is expected to commence operation in 2012. Wind Works president and CEO Ingo Stuckmann said the sale re-enforces the company's strategy of acquiring advanced-stage projects in Germany, adding value by arranging project financing, finalising permitting, organising construction, and then selling for a gain. "We have three other projects in Germany with PPAs totalling 27 MW, and we look forward to repeating this success with these projects over the course of 2012/13", Stuckmann said. The turnkey sales price inclusive of all construction and equipment costs for 100% of the Wind Park Burg 1 project is $12m.

Radioactive material said stolen from egyptian plant

2012-01-26T09:56:00.002+11:00

www.nytimes.com
19 Jan 2012

CAIRO (Reuters)-radioactive material has been stolen from a nuclear power station on Egypt's Mediterranean coast that was the scene of violent protests last week, the state-run al-Ahram newspaper reported on Thursday. A safe containing radioactive material at the Dabaa nuclear power plant, which is still under construction, was seized while another also containing radioactive material was broken open and part of its contents taken, the newspaper said.

In Vienna, an official of the UN nuclear agency described the items missing as "low-level radioactive sources" which had been taken from a laboratory at the construction site. He could not give any details on the nature of the stolen items. "We are in touch with the Egyptian authorities", the official from the International Atomic Energy Agency said. Al-Ahram said the government has alerted security authorities and asked that specialized teams help in the search for the stolen material.

More than a dozen people were wounded last week when military police tried to disperse hundreds of Egyptian protesters demanding the relocation of the Dabaa plant. Plant staff have refused to go to the site because of the deterioration in the security situation there, al-Ahram said. About 500 Egyptians rallied in front of the plant last week to demand that the project be terminated, with some saying they had lost their land on the site. Soldiers and the demonstrators threw stones at each other and exchanged gunfire after the protesters demolished a wall surrounding the site, a security source and witnesses said.

UK hits 6GW wind power capacity

2012-01-26T09:51:00.002+11:00

www.energymatters.com.au
20 Jan 2012

The UK is celebrating reaching a renewable energy target milestone with the completion of a Cumbrian wind farm pushing the nation's installed wind power capacity beyond 6,000 MW-enough to supply electricity to 3,354,893 homes. According to RenewableUK*, a trade body representing the British renewable energy sector, the 6 GW ( GW) mark was reached when 120 MW Ormonde offshore wind farm, off the coast of Cumbria, was recently brought online.

The achievement was toasted by UK Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander MP, at RenewableUK's gala Annual Parliamentary Reception. Mr Alexander called for a further expansion of both onshore and offshore wind power projects across the country. "This is a significant milestone for the wind industry which demonstrates the increasingly important role that renewable energy is playing in the UK's energy mix", he said. "We are eager to ensure that the UK becomes the natural home for the most innovative, ambitious and inspiring renewable energy companies in the world, and we will continue to work with the industry to drive down costs and encourage even stronger growth in the years to come".

The UK government's Renewable Energy Roadmap calls for an ambitious 31 GW of installed onshore and offshore wind power capacity by 2020, which RenewableUK chief executive Maria McCaffery says is possible if the industry continues to receive the right level of government support. "This is a landmark achievement. There's a great feeling of pride throughout the industry that we've reached a record high of 6 GWs, and there's a further 19.5 GW of capacity under construction, consented, or in planning".

Representatives of the Scottish parliament-which has a bold plan to generate 100% of its equivalent electricity needs from renewable energy by 2020 and has £750 million in new renewable electricity projects starting over the past year-were also on hand to celebrate the announcement. "We are working closely with the UK Government to ensure electricity market reforms continue to maximise opportunities to capitalise on Scotland's unique natural resources", Scottish Energy Minister Fergus Ewing said.

Creating electricity at home

2012-01-25T17:36:00.000+11:00

smh.domain.com.au
17 Jan 2012

It may appear counter-intuitive, but getting millions of solar panels onto rooftops saves more money than it costs. feed-in tariffs enacted by state governments have enabled ordinary Australians using their savings to build a solar power station at home benefiting the community.

When those solar households who had saved to get their panels installed under the solar feed-in tariff programs export their solar production to the grid, which occurs mostly during higher demand daytime periods, they are given a slightly higher than average retail rate for the electricity they are selling. The prices they have been paid are relatively meagre when compared with the ridiculously high rates paid to big coal or gas power plants.

At the same time that little solar households who have invested their money in a rooftop power station are being paid between 44¢ and 60¢ per kW, the old power companies with their dirty belching coal and gas plants are receiving as much as $12.50. In other words, the coal and gas guys are being paid as much as $11.90 more than a home solar generator for just one unit of electricity.

A home solar system installed in NSW sized at 10 kilowatts, which was the limit for feed-in tariff eligibility under the now-defunct state scheme, would export roughly 9kWh and reduce line losses by more than 10% during a very hot sunny day when everyone was running their air conditioners. That meant a coal or gas plant would not need to generate 10kWh for every 9kWh a solar household produces at home during that period. During these high-price events, which account for more than 30% of the cost of electricity, we can buy our power from a gas or coal plant at the inflated price of $125 or we can buy it from a home solar generator for just $5.40. To buy the full 10 kW equivalent output from the home solar generator saves everyone $120 each hour in power costs alone.

This is not the full story. At other times when your home solar system is generating, the coal plant may receive 6¢, 8¢, $1, $3 or $5 but you're still getting a steady 44¢ to 60¢. The reason customers were getting an average price under the state programs is because it's too difficult for ordinary home owners to set up a trading desk and participate in the national electricity market. So the 44¢ to 60¢ range is much more reasonable when you take into account the wild fluctuations that occur daily as power generators use their market power to game the electricity market, which ultimately is costing consumers.

All that said, the most important contribution from rooftop solar is through the ''merit order effect'', explained in a recent paper by the University of Melbourne's energy research institute, which showed electricity production from rooftop solar is brilliantly timed for when we're inside and running our air conditioners and can substantially reduce the wealth transfer from ordinary electricity consumers to big power generators. Eighty-five% of the time, during peak demand periods when the highest prices occur in the electricity market, rooftop solar is there to dampen, reduce and keep a lid on extreme prices.

At just 3000 MWs of solar, which is what Germany installed in December during the Christmas holiday break, we would be paying at least a billion dollars less for our electricity, amounting to a more significant saving on bills than if we choose not to encourage people to put more solar on their roofs.

Today, the government, through IPART (the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal), is performing a review into feed-in tariffs to find a ''fair and reasonable'' price to pay enterprising householders for the solar electricity they produce. In the government's terms of reference they were asked to recommend a price with ''no resulting increase in electricity prices in NSW'' and to make the scheme so that ''the government would not pay''.

They also asked for it to support a competitive electricity market. The University of Melbourne paper showed that a net feed-in tariff price of 35¢ to 40¢ a kW, handled by the distribution companies, would lower electricity prices by more than it would cost to fund it and that the government's existing low-income household rebate could be increased slightly to accommodate any shifting in network costs from solar to non-solar households.

The reward from the merit order effect should not be handed to dirty fossil fuel generators as they are able to withdraw their service, choosing whether to supply and game the electricity market, sending electricity prices spiralling, while on the whole solar households will reliably generate, day in, day out.

Matthew Wright is executive director of think tank Beyond Zero Emissions.

Strong support for wind farms obscured, says CSIRO report

2012-01-25T17:32:00.002+11:00

www.smh.com.au
18 Jan 2012

THERE is much stronger public support for wind farms than media coverage of the issue would suggest, because a ''vocal minority'' who oppose wind farms secure the majority of media and political attention, according to new CSIRO research.

A peer-reviewed study by Brisbane researchers investigated attitudes to nine wind farms in various stages of development in NSW, Victoria and South Australia, concluding there was a strong level of support ''from rural residents who do not seek media attention or political engagement to express their views''. By contrast, more than half of all wind farm proposals had been opposed by members of the Landscape Guardian group, the report noted. The CSIRO's deputy director, energy technology, Jim Smitham, one of the reviewers of the report, said it showed a disconnect between negative and conflict-oriented media coverage about wind farms and the attitude of a majority in the communities where wind farms were proposed or already operating.

''You find more media stories supporting the case against wind farms than those for it,'' he said. ''Whereas, going into the field and doing interviews at community level, they have different reasons but many of them support the wind farm; it just isn't as apparent as the people who are able to find a short sharp reason to reject it.'' Dr Smitham said wind farm developers that proactively consulted with communities and responded to their concerns had achieved far higher local acceptance of their projects.

The report, Acceptance of rural wind farms in Australia: A snapshot, by CSIRO's social research team, comes as the draft guidelines on wind farm development in this state are open for public comment. The researchers conducted interviews with wind farm developers, councils, turbine hosts, community opponents and supporters of the projects in each of the nine locations. wind farm opponents cited negatives including poor consultation, visual amenity and noise, while supporters cited benefits including improved infrastructure such as roads and firebreaks, clean energy and better local job prospects, the report found.

The debate over noise and health impacts has been a key issue raised by opponents. A series of peer-reviewed studies have found no evidence that low-level sound from wind farms has made people sick, but some international studies included self-selected surveys in which people living near wind farms reported annoyance and interrupted sleep as a result of vibrations from the turbine blades. The CSIRO report noted wind farms can create stress which affects wellbeing. The Landscape Guardians could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Wide support found for wind farms

2012-01-23T13:16:00.001+11:00

www.theage.com.au
18 Jan 2012

THERE is much stronger public support for wind farms than media coverage of the issue would suggest, because a ''vocal minority'' who oppose wind farms secure the majority of media and political attention, according to CSIRO research. A peer-reviewed study by Brisbane researchers investigated attitudes to nine wind farms in various stages of development in New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia and concluded there was strong support ''from rural residents who do not seek media attention or political engagement to express their views''.

By contrast, more than half of all wind farm proposals had been opposed by members of the Landscape Guardian group, the report noted. CSIRO deputy director (energy technology) Jim Smitham, one of the reviewers of the report, said there was a disconnection between negative and conflict-oriented media coverage about wind farms and the attitude of a majority in the communities where wind farms were proposed or already operating.

''You find more media stories supporting the case against wind farms than those for it,'' he said. ''Whereas, going into the field and doing interviews at community level, they have different reasons but many of them support the wind farm. It just isn't as apparent as the people who are able to find a short sharp reason to reject it.'' Dr Smitham said wind farm developers who consulted with communities and responded to their concerns had achieved far higher acceptance of projects.

The report, Acceptance of Rural Wind Farms in Australia: A Snapshot, was written by CSIRO's social research team. Researchers interviewed wind farm developers, councils, turbine hosts, community opponents and supporters of the projects in the nine locations. wind farm opponents cited negatives such as poor consultation, visual amenity and noise, and supporters cited benefits such as improved roads and firebreaks, clean energy and better local job prospects, the report found.

The debate over noise and health impacts has been a key issue raised by opponents. Several peer-reviewed studies have found no evidence that low-level sound from wind farms makes people sick, but some international studies include self-selected surveys in which people living near wind farms report annoyance and interrupted sleep because of vibrations from the turbine blades.

The CSIRO report noted proposed wind farms can create harmful stress. Landscape Guardians could not be reached for comment yesterday. Anti-wind farm senator John Madigan, of Victoria, said he had received complaints from many who claimed the turbines caused insomnia and other illnesses. He said he would host a series of public forums to air people's concerns.

Some opponents of wind farms claim the noise and vibrations can cause sleep disturbance, migraines, panic attacks and raise the risk of heart disease, though there is little peer-reviewed scientific research to back up the claims.

French power prices may rise 30% by 2016, energy regulator says

2012-01-23T13:13:00.002+11:00

www.bloomberg.com
18 Jan 2012

French state-regulated power rates charged by Electricite de France SA could jump about 30% by 2016, according to the energy regulator. The increase would reflect inflation, higher wholesale rates at which EDF Energy sells nuclear power to rivals, a subsidy for renewable energy, and transport and distribution costs, Philippe de Ladoucette, head of the Commission de Regulation de l'Energie, told a conference today in Paris.

With an election due later in the year, the government is under pressure to keep down energy costs for consumers. Prime Minister Francois Fillon pushed up power prices last July and said the increase would be limited to 2.9% until the middle of this year. France's nuclear watchdog this month ordered EDF Energy to improve safety at nuclear plants following last year's Fukushima disaster. EDF Energy Chief Executive Officer Henri Proglio has said the work would cost less than 10 billion euros ($13 billion). The price at which EDF Energy sells wholesale nuclear power to rivals is sufficient to allow the utility to pay for work to improve safety at nuclear reactors, Industry Minister Eric Besson said in November.

Siemens exiting the nuclear energy business to focus on renewables

2012-01-23T13:11:00.002+11:00

oilprice.com
21 Sep 2011

"The chapter is closed", says Siemens CEO Peter Loescher in regard to the company's nuclear power business. In response to the world's growing concern over the safety of nuclear power, German-based Siemens will exit the nuclear sector in greater pursuit of renewable energy.

Loescher attributes the company's decision not only to the Fukushima incident, but more to the German response. The country, led by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, has banned nuclear power, strategically closing various reactors with a goal of a nuclear free Germany by 2022. The country will instead look to renewable sources of energy to fill the power gap.

Considering that Siemens is a German company that has had a hand in developing all of Germany's 17 nuclear reactors, it only makes sense to follow suit and ditch nuclear for renewables. "The chapter is closed for us", Loescher said. "We will no longer be involved in managing the building or financing of nuclear plants". He adds that the decision is in response to "German society and politics' clear position on ending nuclear power".

Siemens has had a difficult time in the nuclear power sector this year following an order by an international tribunal demanding the company pay France's Areva--the world leader in nuclear technology--€648 million ($927 million) for failing to meet contractual obligations in a joint venture that Siemens backed out of earlier this year.

The announcement will inevitably terminate a long-planned joint venture between Siemens and Russian nuclear firm Rosatom to construct 400 nuclear plants by 2030. However, Loescher did express that he wishes to continue working with the firm in other market areas. Loescher seems hopeful for the future of renewables and Siemens' role in bringing these technologies to the forefront. He states, "Germany's shift towards renewable energies is the project of the century".

Solar power takes giant strides

2012-01-23T13:09:00.001+11:00

www.thenational.ae
18 Jan 2012

No one can accuse the renewables industry of lacking creative impetus. Solar-powered aircraft, cars and boats have featured at this year's World Future Energy Summit (WFES) in Abu Dhabi, and in the MS Turanor PlanetSolar, the event hosts the largest solar-powered boat to brave the oceans. The futuristic, 100-foot-long vessel travelled 48,000km over two years to anchor finally next to the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre, where WFES is held. And the solar industry will feel that it has come a long way over the past couple of years.

Last year alone, as much as 29 GWs of solar panels were installed, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance. Solar technology was driven initially by environmental concerns in Europe, which led to generous financial incentives for power producers, and China's decision to make renewables a pillar of its energy policy has given the industry its latest impetus for growth.

China already has an installed solar capacity of 3 GWs, a number dwarfed by the 200 GWs it derives from hydropower. The Asian powerhouse has recently upped its targets, now aiming to generate 11.4% of its electricity from green sources by 2015. "To achieve these goals, we face many difficulties and will have to pay a big price", Wen Jiabao, the Chinese premier, said in his keynote speech at WFES on Monday. In an ironic twist, solar photovoltaic (PV) panel producers are also paying a heavy price for those targets. The cost of their product has dropped through the floor as the application of Chinese industrial might to panel production led to a halving of panel costs last year.

This price decline has combined with a reduction in tariffs received in key markets such as Germany to turn once-healthy balance sheets into a sea of red. In the second half of last year, notable US names such as Solyndra, Evergreen Solar and SpectraWatt filed for bankruptcy. BP Solar stopped producing panels earlier last year and was dissolved by its parent company last month. Players in the industry expect the cull to continue this year. "We think there's going to be consolidation in 2012, there's going to be liquidation, there's going to be capitulation-companies just getting out of the business", said Andrew Beebe, the chief commercial officer at Suntech Power, the largest Chinese producer of PV panels.

As more panel producers hit the wall, pessimists might assume that the solar industry as a whole is suffering. Not so, counter industry players. Falling prices are bringing the costs of solar power closer to grid parity, the level at which electricity coming out of solar arrays is as cheap as that flowing out of conventional power plants. "I think people are talking about a crisis in the industry because prices have come down so fast, and companies are losing money", said David Eaglesham, the chief technology officer at FirstSolar, a US panel producer. "But it's also a turning point because prices have come down so fast".

A study released by the Emirates Solar Industry Association confirms what many already suspected: compared with diesel-fired power plants, solar-generated electricity is already cost-competitive in the region. Cheap panels will only make solar more attractive, especially in markets such as the Middle East, India and much of Asia, where the rampant increase in demand calls for creative solutions on the supply side.

"Over the longer term, the trend bodes favourably for the big markets that are going to be consuming a lot of energy", said James Brown, the president at Utility Systems Business Group at FirstSolar. With more players leaving the market, the basic principle of economics-that decreasing supply increases the price-should have a soothing effect on the balance sheet of the survivors.

"There are first indications that prices will be a little bit higher by the end of this year", said Hannes Behacker, the senior vice president for Asia Pacific and the Middle East at the German panel producer Q-Cells.

Power to the people: FNQ to India

2012-01-19T10:29:00.000+11:00

www.cairns.com.au
18 Jan 2012

A PILOT project electrifying remote villages in India is tipped to expand into a multi-million dollar deal involving a Cairns electrical engineer. Grant Behrendorff, a director of Evolve Energy in Cairns, was a member of the team which developed and built a high quality model for electrifying remote Indian villages using solar power. The Bushlight India project, managed by Alice Springs based engineering firm CAT Projects, has received the highest accolade in the engineering profession in Australia, the Engineers Australia Sir William Hudson Engineering Excellence award.

The project was a $2 million Australian Government funded initiative. The model, based on more than 10 years of experience working in remote Aboriginal communities in Australia, was unique in India for its service philosophy of providing an agreed, assured amount of energy available all day and all night to all consumers. Mr Behrendorff was engaged by CAT Projects to develop and lead the Bushlight India project and was project director for the two year project. He is also an independent director on CAT Projects's board.

He said the project had led to CAT applying for funding from the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank to expand the solar power systems to other parts of India. "We've got quite a good chance of obtaining the funding", Mr Behrendorff said. He said the aim was to electrify 1000 villages in India but they might have to lower their sights and gradually build up over the next few years. Mr Behrendorff said he hoped initial funding might be approved in the next six months with an estimate of up to $20 million as the project developed.

He said the Bushlight India project was able to successfully develop and demonstrate an approach to rural electrification that had the potential to benefit millions of people, both in India and developing countries around the world. An important outcome of the project was the construction and commissioning of two centralised solar power stations in remote villages in the states of West Bengal and Orissa of about 100 houses and a further 15 small shops and community buildings for about 500 people.

Suzlon plans 3,000 MW wind power projects in A.P.

2012-01-19T10:27:00.003+11:00

www.thehindu.com
17 Jan 2012

Suzlon Energy, a leading wind turbine manufacturer, will develop wind power projects totalling 3,000 MW in Andhra Pradesh over the next four years, involving potential investment of up to Rs.18,000 crore.

The company has signed a memorandum of understanding with the State Government as a part of the CII's Partnership Summit that concluded here on Friday in the presence of Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy. As part of the MoU, the State Government would facilitate Suzlon Energy obtain necessary permissions, registrations, approvals and clearances for the development of the wind farms.

According to Suzlon Energy Group Chairman Tulasi Tanti, the MoU covered development of wind farms with development planned in Tallimadugula, Alankarayanipeta, Gandikota, Vajrakarur, Tirumalayapalli and other places. Andhra Pradesh was a key emerging market for wind power with medium to low wind sites suited to Suzlon Energy's new suite of turbines, he said.

Geothermal projects may make it in 2012

2012-01-19T10:27:00.000+11:00

www.adelaidenow.com.au
17 Jan 2012

DELAYED geothermal projects could make it across the line this year as two SA-focused companies move further toward producing power, the industry association says. Geothermal company GeoDynamics plans to drill its Habanero-4 well in the first financial quarter, taking it toward producing power to Innamincka. Australian Geothermal Energy Association chief executive Susan Jeanes said "this is the year the industry can prove itself"'.

She said the GeoDynamics project, that suffered a major setback with a well blowout at Habanero 3 well in 2009, would also work toward fracturing rocks to achieve circulation of super hot water for its 1 MW plant. SA geothermal company Petratherm has drilled a deep well at its Paralana project north of the Flinders Ranges and completed a successful fracture. This year it could manage to drill the second well needed to produce energy, but the company lost one of its joint venture partners, TRUEnergy, last year. Beach Energy remains a JV partner and operator of the project.

Ms Jeanes was upbeat about the industry saying if the drilling work was successful this year it could help lead the whole sector forward. "We expect, that given (GeoDynamics) successfully proved the concept with Habanero one and three that they will be successful with Habanero one and four because they are drilling into the same geological structure", she said. "That success at Innamincka will provide a huge boost of confidence in the sector, then the sector hopes that will be followed by a successful well at Paralana".

Petratherm managing director Terry Kallis said plans to begin drilling on a second deep well in the Paralana project were still on track for later this year despite TRUEnergy's exit. "We haven't changed our plans, we're still on track to look to drill later this year", Mr Kallis said. "There are a range of options that we will look for in terms of funding it (markets, government grants or joint venture partners)", he said. Research institutions had also banded together nationally, including University of Adelaide, to collaborate on research that could help geothermal companies de-risk exploration and project work.

"These institutions have the capabilities to support the development of geothermal projects, they have all banded together through a memorandum of understanding and are investigating options for significant funding support", Ms Jeanes said. "That can help take the risk out of identifying resources that can support commercially viable projects, if they can understand more about the resource, then that can help dramatically reduce exploration costs and also make sure areas aren't drilled where it's not a commercially viable resource".

Global investment in clean energy hits record levels

2012-01-18T13:22:00.002+11:00

www.theage.com.au
14 Jan 2012

DESPITE the turbulence in the global economy, the world invested a record $251 billion in clean energy last year, with the US streaking ahead of China in green spending and boosting confidence among climate action advocates. New figures from Bloomberg New Energy Finance showed the US spent $54 billion on clean energy, retaking the No. 1 spot it lost to China in 2009 and defying assumptions that the world's largest economy is flagging on greenhouse gas reductions. Australia also hit a record, spending $4.7 billion on clean energy in 2011, a jump of 11% on the previous year, mostly from increases in rooftop solar.

''Despite financial crisis, and even though carbon pricing schemes haven't developed quite the way they were expected to,.. investment keeps growing, which reflects the world view of many major economists that clean energy is going to be the major industrial driver of economic growth this century,'' said Kobad Bhavnagri, Bloomberg New Energy Finance's lead clean energy analyst in Australia.

He said Australia's investment was on track to rise to $6.8 billion next year and $45 billion by 2020, meeting the target of renewable sources such as solar, wind and geothermal making up 20% of energy supply. The indications of a rise in global investment in clean energy follows the pact by major greenhouse-emitting countries in Durban last month on a road map that would lead to a global climate change deal by 2015.

Erwin Jackson, deputy CEO of the Climate Institute, said: ''There are all these myths of the world not acting on climate change. All you have to do is follow the money.'' A spokeswoman for Climate Change Minister Greg Combet said the government's clean energy package was meant to ensure Australia ''does not miss out on the benefits of clean energy investments''.

''US President Barack Obama has committed to a Clean Energy Standard, which will double the share of clean energy sources in the electricity supply mix to 80% by 2035, and individual states across the US are also taking action,.. US investment in renewable energy grew 33% to $55.9 billion in 2011. This level of investment is likely to grow as California introduces its own emissions trading scheme.'' Coalition climate action spokesman Greg Hunt said Australia would reach its target of 20% renewable energy even without the carbon tax.

''With the carbon tax, we will still only achieve 20% renewable energy by 2020 but, along the way, the ALP will impose over $100 billion of additional taxes on electricity, gas and groceries.''

Child leukaemia doubles near French nuclear plants-study

2012-01-18T13:21:00.001+11:00

www.reuters.com
11 Jan 2012

Jan 11 (Reuters)-The incidence of leukaemia is twice as high in children living close to French nuclear power plants as in those living elsewhere in the country, a study by French health and nuclear safety experts has found. But the study, to be published soon in the International Journal of Cancer, fell short of establishing a causal link between the higher incidence of leukaemia, a type of blood cancer, and living near nuclear power plants. France has used nuclear power for three decades and is the most nuclear-reliant country in the world, with 75% of its electricity produced by 58 reactors.

The study, conducted by the French health research body INSERM, found that between 2002 and 2007, 14 children under the age of 15 living in a 5-km radius of France's 19 nuclear power plants had been diagnosed with leukaemia. This is double the rate of the rest of the country, where a total of 2,753 cases were diagnosed in the same period. "This is a result which has been checked thoroughly and which is statistically significant", said Dominique Laurier, head of the epidemiology research laboratory at France's nuclear safety research body (IRSN).

INSERM has carried out similar research with the IRSN since 1990, but has never before found a higher incidence of leukaemia in children living near nuclear power plants. "But we are working on numbers which are very small and results have to be analysed with a lot of care", said Laurier, one of the authors of the study. Laurier said the findings indicated no difference in risk between sites located by the sea or by rivers, nor according to the power capacity of the plant. The IRSN said it recommended a more thorough study of the causes of the leukaemia cases found near nuclear power stations and hoped to set up international research collaboration.

"It's a rare disease and working on a bigger scale would allow more stable results", said Laurier. A 35-year British study published last year found no evidence that young children living near nuclear power plants had an increased risk of developing leukaemia. The research, conducted by scientists on the Committee of the Medical Aspects of Radiation in the Environment (COMARE), found only 20 cases of childhood leukaemia within 5 km (3.1 miles) of nuclear power stations between 1969 and 2004.

The scientists said the rate was virtually the same as in areas where there were no nuclear plants. Studies have been conducted around the world into possible links between the risk of childhood blood cancers and living near nuclear plants. A study on Germany, published in 2007, did find a significantly increased risk, but the COMARE team said these findings were probably influenced by an unexplained leukaemia cluster near a nuclear plant in Krummel, north Germany, that lasted from 1990 to 2005. Excluding Krummel, evidence for an increased leukaemia risk among young children living close to German nuclear power plants was "extremely weak", it said.

Wind Power closes NY Hydrogen fuel loop

2012-01-15T10:24:00.002+11:00

www.earthtechling.com
11 Jan 2012

Hempstead, N.Y., launched the first hydrogen fueling station on Long Island more than two years ago, but it turns out that was just an initial step toward sustainably powering fuel-cell vehicles in its fleet. Now Hempstead has added a 100 kW ( kW) capacity wind turbine to the mix, giving it the ability to create hydrogen fuel without sucking power from the grid.

According to the US Department of Energy (DOE)-which funded the $615,000, 121-foot-tall turbine through a Recovery Act grant-Hempstead had been using about 200,000 kW-hours of grid electricity, most of which comes from fossil fuel sources, to run an electrolyzer to generate hydrogen for the fuel station. In its assessment of the project, the DOE said the turbine should be able to generate enough electricity to replace that grid-purchased power. And that possibility had the town's political leadership waxing poetic.

"The answer to clean and renewable energy is 'blowin' in the wind,'" town Supervisor Kate Murray said in a statement. "This wind turbine is creating renewable energy, saving money, conserving natural resources and building an environmentally responsible legacy for our children and our children's children".

Hempstead calls itself a town, but it's no small burg; it has a population around 750,000. And it has green ambitions that are every bit as large. The wind-to-hydrogen system is just one part of a larger Clean Energy Project at Point Lookout, 35 miles southeast of Midtown Manhattan. There's also a shellfish nursery powered by a 2.4 kW wind turbine and two 5- kW solar arrays; a 10- kW solar array on the roof of the Administration Building; and a zero-energy solar home built by the New York Institute of Technology.

The fuel station itself has several elements, as well, providing pure hydrogen, compressed natural gas (CNG) or a blend of hydrogen and compressed natural gas (HCNG). Toyota has provided two fuel-cell hybrid vehicles valued at around $100,000 for use by the town. The blended hydrogen/compressed natural gas fuels a new shuttle bus that's used for a senior program, and a Ford E450 shuttle bus, supplied by CNG company Clean Vehicle Solutions, has been "upfitted to run on natural gas and calibrated to run on the HCNG fuel", according to the town.

All that, and Hempstead isn't done: The town received a total of $4.6 million in grants from the DOE, and has further renewable energy plans unfolding, with the money financing the construction of a "60K (we assume they mean kW) solar field, two solar trackers, a solar-powered carport and a geothermal energy project that will address heating and cooling needs at the town's Conservation and Waterways facility".

And while Hempstead seems to be doing just fine on the clean energy front already, it could be in for more support from the state. According to the state's League of Conservation Voters, Gov. Andrew Cuomo's recent State of the State speech put new emphasis on clean energy and the environment.

"For too long, New York has sat idly by as its sustainability challenges mounted", Marcia Bystryn, president of the New York League of Conservation Voters, said in a statement. "Governor Cuomo made a serious commitment to caring for our natural resources, rebuilding vital infrastructure and transitioning to a clean-energy future".

The league said it was particularly heartened by the governor's vow to facilitate the growth of wind power through a new "Energy Highway" that will connect wind farms with population centers, and his commitment to double the amount of solar power capacity in New York by the end of the year and quadrupling it by 2013 through the NY-Sun Program.

Gamesa opens wind power blade-manufacturing factory in India

2012-01-15T10:22:00.000+11:00

www.bloomberg.com
11 Jan 2012

Gamesa Corp. Tecnologica SA (GAM), Europe's second-largest wind turbine maker, opened a turbine blade-manufacturing plant in India as part of a plan to boost production in the wind power market. The company, with about 30 factories worldwide, started production at Vadodara in the western state of Gujarat after an investment of 25 million euros ($32 million), it said today in a statement. The facility, which created 157 jobs, will primarily supply India's northern states.

The factory is part of a 60 million-euro investment plan announced by Zamudio, Spain-based Gamesa in March to strengthen its manufacturing base in India to tap rising demand in the country's wind market. India now accounts for 20% of the MWs it sells around the world after almost tripling in a year, it said. Gamesa has been manufacturing in India since early 2010, when it opened a facility to assemble nacelles. Last year, it opened a wind tower factory in a joint venture and plans to start another nacelle plant in Tamil Nadu.

France eyes gateway to wind energy market

2012-01-15T10:20:00.004+11:00

www.reuters.com
11 Jan 2012

France to run first offshore wind farms from 2015
Bidding consortiums have handed offers to regulator CRE
First phase for 3 GW, to double to 6 GW by 2020
Project seen as opportunity to create new French industry

PARIS, Jan 11 (Reuters)-Three consortiums of mainly French groups are bidding to build France's first offshore wind parks in a massive project to lessen the country's reliance on nuclear power and establish it as a leading player in the booming market for wind power. GDF Suez, EDF Energy unit EDF Energies Nouvelles and Spain's Iberdrola are eyeing slices of five wind parks with as many as 600 turbines and 3 GWs ( GW) of capacity in a 10 billion-euro ($12.8 billion) first phase off the Normandy and Brittany coasts. At stake is the chance to develop French clout and expertise and close the gap with other European countries as demand soars for offshore wind farms in Europe. The industry could also take off in emerging markets such as China.

France's contribution to offshore wind power is limited to Areva Wind's 5 MW ( MW) M5000 turbines being used in the North Sea. French engineering company Alstom hopes to launch a rival 6 MW turbine-know as the Haliade-in 2014. Alstom is part of the group led by EDF Energies Nouvelles, which is betting on the Haliade turbine, which with a diameter of 153 metres-roughly half the height of the Eiffel tower-is the world's largest offshore wind turbine. "When you look at the European market, there is space for many more than two new French turbines", said Philippe Kavafyan, vice president of Areva Wind in France, a unit of French nuclear group Areva.

France has lagged behind in developing a market for solar power as well as onshore wind turbines, compared with countries like Germany, Spain or Denmark. Even with its new offshore wind project it has a lot of catching up to do, according to the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) report published in November. The report showed that total installed offshore wind capacity in Europe in 2020 would be 40 GW, compared with less than 3 GW at the end of 2010. Britain already has current and planned projects for 47 GW with Germany on 31 GW. The EWEA estimates that between 2021 and 2030, the offshore market for wind turbines annually could grow from 7.8 GW to 13.7 GW in 2030.

New Player
France launched the tender last July under plans to meet 23% of energy demand from renewable sources by 2020. A second phase, for which the tender opens in April before French presidential elections, would double capacity to 6 GW by 2020 and lift total investment to 20 billion euros. "Obtaimng a critical mass to develop abroad is hard when there's no domestic market", EDF Energies Nouvelles Chief Executive David Corchia said. France's goal of doubling capacity by 2020 would lay the basis for the industry to grow, Corchia said.

But the euro zone crisis could raise questions about the timing of such investments. Areva Wind's Kavafyan said that whereas typically in the past loans would be shouldered by groups of around 10 banks, that figure had risen to 25-30. "There is still a lot of appetite despite the economic situation", Corchia said, adding that many banks had expressed interest in projects due to start construction in 2016-18.

French Jobs
EDF Energies is bidding for four out of five parks in the first phase in a consortium with Denmark's DONG Energy, a leading developer of offshore wind parks. Areva Wind is eyeing all five as part of one consortium led by Spain's largest power utility, Iberdrola, and another led by French utility GDF Suez. GDF will make four bids, including one with German engineering group Siemens. Areva and Alstom said they plan to build factories creating thousands of jobs if they win two or three of the five offers, and ultimately hope they can export to the UK, the biggest offshore wind market,

PricewaterhouseCoopers analyst Alexis Chauffert-Yvart said the European market for offshore wind power could reach 40 GW by 2020, up from an estimated 3 GW in 2010. "If France misses this boat, it would have an impact on the possibilities of taking part in the development of marine renewable energy technologies, which is an important market", he said. "So this is an important phase". ($1 = 0.7826 euros)

Fukushima nuclear cleanup could create its own environmental disaster

2012-01-14T15:48:00.000+11:00

www.guardian.co.uk
9 Jan 2012

Decontaminating the Fukushima region to remove radioactive particles will not be possible without removing large amounts of soil, leaves and plants

Following the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl 25 years ago, the Soviet government chose long-term evacuation over extensive decontamination; as a result, the plants and animals near Chernobyl inhabit an environment that is both largely devoid of humans and severely contaminated by radioactive fallout.

The meltdown last March of three nuclear reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan also contaminated large areas of farmland and forests, albeit not as severely or extensively as at Chernobyl. But lacking land for resettlement and facing public outrage over the accident, the Japanese government has chosen a very different path, embarking on a decontamination effort of unprecedented scale.

Beginning this month, at least 1,000km² of land--much of it forest and farms--will be cleaned up as workers power-spray buildings, scrape soil off fields, and remove fallen leaves and undergrowth from woods near houses. The goal is to make all of Fukushima livable again. But as scientists, engineers, and ordinary residents begin this massive task, they face the possibility that their efforts will create new environmental problems in direct proportion to their success in remediating the radioactive contamination.

"Decontamination can be really effective, [but] what you have is a tradeoff between dose reduction and environmental impact", says Kathryn Higley, a radioecologist at Oregon State University who has studied several decontamination sites in the United States. That's because the radioactive particles the Japanese are trying to get rid of can be quite "sticky". Removing them without removing large amounts of soil, leaves, and living plants is nearly impossible. The Ministry of Environment estimates that Fukushima will have to dispose of 15 to 31m cubic metres of contaminated soil and debris by the time the decontamination projects end. Costs are predicted to exceed a trillion yuan.

Read more…

ABB wins $50M Power Systems order to increase wind power use in Texas

2012-01-14T15:46:00.002+11:00

www.electricnet.com
8 Jan 2012

ABB, the leading power and automation technology group, has won an order worth over $50M from Electric Transmission Texas LLC (ETT), to provide electrical equipment that will improve reliability, strengthen the existing transmission grid and facilitate the integration of wind power. The order was booked in the fourth quarter of 2011. The project, to be completed by 2013, is part of the Competitive Renewable Energy Zones (CREZ) program, aimed at increasing the contribution of renewable energy in Texas by up to 18 GWs, making it one of the world's largest land-based wind initiatives.

ABB will design, supply, install and commission four static var compensators (SVCs) at two sites. SVCs are part of ABB's family of FACTS (flexible alternating current transmission systems) technologies, which help enhance the capacity, and flexibility of power transmission systems and also contribute to the development of smarter grids. FACTS technologies allow more power to reach consumers with minimal environmental impact, lower investment costs and shorter implementation times than the traditional alternative of building new power plants and transmission lines. They also help address voltage and frequency stability issues and enable the transmission system to run more efficiently.

Wind power hits record levels over New Year period

2012-01-14T15:45:00.002+11:00

www.businessgreen.com
9 Jan 2012

Industry welcomes news that wind farms supplied 5.3% of UK electricity from December 1 to January 5.

Can you can remember where you were on 28 December? Perhaps you were visiting relatives, or maybe you were back at work secretly wishing you were hiding under your new slanket and watching another re-run of Only Fools and Horses. Wherever you were, chances are that you were not working quite as hard as the country's wind turbine fleet, which was spinning enough to set a new record for green electricity supplies. According to trade association RenewableUK, wind farms met an average of 5.3% of the UK's electricity demand between 1 December and 5 January, hitting a record share of 12.2% on 28 December.

The trade association estimated the high yield cut more than 750,000 tonnes of carbon emissions from the UK's electricity generators over the festive period, the equivalent of taking more than 300,000 cars off the roads. In fact, RenewableUK reckons the figures could be almost 50% higher than those stated as they are derived from Elexon's Balancing Mechanism Reports, which ignores many onsite generators and only monitors turbines connected to the National Grid.

Dr Gordon Edge, RenewableUK director of policy, hailed the National Grid's ability to cope with the increased levels of wind power, as it is responsible for balancing the output of the UK's electricity generators with demand from consumers and businesses on a minute-by-minute basis. Integrating the intermittency of wind turbines involves taking a range of balancing actions, including reducing the rate at which fossil fuel power stations consume fuel when wind output is higher. "As we're generating increasingly large amounts of electricity from wind, feeding those large volumes of power into the system represents an engineering challenge to the National Grid-a challenge we are pleased to see they met over Christmas", said Edge

NaturEner set to proceed on Rim Rock wind power project

2012-01-14T15:44:00.001+11:00

www.krtv.com
10 Jan 2012

NaturEner USA, a renewable energy company, announced on Tuesday that is is set to proceed with construction on the 189 MW Rim Rock wind power project in Glacier County and Toole County. NaturEner says it expects to achieve commercial operation on the Rim Rock project by the end of 2012.

In a press release, NaturEner said that it is ready to proceed with the project after securing a construction loan and the promise of a $285 million tax-equity capital contribution from San Diego Gas & Electric Company once the project has reached commercial operation. Rim Rock will have access to transmission via the Montana AlbertaTie Line (MATL).

Governor Brian Schweitzer said in a press release, "This is big news for Montana and the Hi-Line with another $605 million of investment in wind energy development. It will create hundreds of good paying construction jobs and be a sustainable property tax base for local governments".

RWE seeks to triple Polish wind power capacity to 300 MWs

2012-01-13T16:48:00.002+11:00

www.bloomberg.com
10 Jan 2012

RWE AG (RWE), Germany's second-largest utility, said it plans to almost triple its wind power capacity in Poland to 300 MWs. RWE is targeting annual growth of 50 MWs in Poland by developing its own farms and purchasing external projects, Fritz Vahrenholt, chief executive officer of its Innogy renewable energy unit, said today in Essen, Germany. The Taciewo and Krzecin wind farms, with a combined capacity of 44 MWs, are due to start operating in the first and second quarter, he said. RWE Innogy had about 2,480 MWs of renewable capacity in operation at the end of last year, including 108 MWs of wind turbines in Poland.

Japan wind power installations to drop 68% as subsidies halted

2012-01-13T16:47:00.005+11:00

www.bloomberg.com
10 Jan 2012

Japan's wind power installations for the year ending in March will decline 68% after the government halted a program that provided subsidies for clean energy projects, an industry association said. The country will add 33 turbines generating 82 MWs of wind power for the year ending March, according to an estimate by the Japan Wind Power Association released today. For the year ended March 2011, Japan installed 256 MWs.

Japan stopped direct subsidies in 2010 that paid for a third of the cost of renewable energy projects as the country planned a shift to an incentive payment program, Takao Hanaoka, a spokesman for the association, said by phone today. The preferential tariffs, due to start in July, have yet to be set and that may have contributed to the decline, Hanaoka said.

Japan is targeting an increase in renewable energy generation as most of the country's atomic reactors are shut for checks following the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl last March. Before the accident, atomic power provided about 30% of Japan's electricity supply. The country's cumulative wind power capacity may reach 2,600 MWs by March 2014 from the current 2,522 MWs, the association said, urging the government to make an early decision on the tariffs and wind power generation targets.

Sempra, BP to build two new large wind power farms

2012-01-13T16:47:00.002+11:00

www.reuters.com
10 Jan 2012

(Reuters)-Sempra Energy and BP Plc will spend $1 billion to build new wind power farms this year in Pennsylvania and Kansas with a total output capacity of 560 MWs, the companies said on Tuesday. Wind power developers are racing to build new plants ahead of the expected expiration of a tax credit at the end of 2012, an incentive the industry is seeking to have extended to help make the renewable power source competitive against fossil fuel power stations.

The wind farms, to be owned by BP Wind Energy and Sempra US Gas and Power, will be the biggest in each state and will expand the partnership between the two companies which together own wind farms in Indiana and Colorado. The Mehoopany wind farm in Wyoming County, Pennsylvania, will have a capacity of 141 MW and has a contract to sell the power to Old Dominion Electric Cooperative and Southern Maryland Electric Cooperative. One MW of electricity capacity is enough to supply about 1,000 homes.

The Flat Ridge 2 wind farm will be located near Wichita, Kansas, have a capacity of 419 MW and deliver power to Associated Electric Cooperative and Southwestern Electric Power Co. It also expects to sign one additional customer, the companies said. Both plants will use wind turbines built by General Electric Co.

Dubai announces 1000 MW solar energy project

2012-01-13T16:46:00.001+11:00

www.energymatters.com.au
10 Jan 2012

Dubai is embarking on a lengthy solar project of gargantuan proportions, with a similarly lengthy name to accompany it. UAE Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum has launched the Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park. The multi-billion dollar project will cover 48 km² and be situated in Dubai's Sieh Al Dahl area.

At an event announcing the project, Chairman of the Dubai's Supreme Energy Council, Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, stated the solar park will be constructed in a number of stages. The first stage of the project will see the solar farm's capacity reaching 10 MWs by 2013, with a total capacity of 1000 MWs being in place by 2030.

The initiative is part of Dubai Integrated Energy Strategy 2030, which aims to achieve a 30% reduction in energy consumption. In 2010, Dubai consumed around 33,000 GWs ( GW) of electricity and without intervention, energy demand is expected to increase by 5% annually. In the Strategy, solar will still only play a minor role in the sun-soaked region-1% of overall energy production by 2020, increasing to 5% by 2030. By that year, 12% of electricity generation will come from nuclear power and 12% from so-called "clean coal"-a suite of technologies that require more energy and therefore more coal to be mined and burned. The balance will be sourced from gas-fired electricity generation.

Although Dubai's economy was built on fossil fuel production, oil and natural gas now make up for less than 6% of the emirate's revenues according to an entry on Wikipedia. Dubai's oil reserves are rapidly being depleted and are expected to be exhausted in 20 years. Part of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Dubai is located south of the Persian Gulf on the Arabian Peninsula. Covering just over 4,400 km², the emirate is home to a population of 1.2 million people. Collectively, the emirates have one of the largest carbon footprints per capita in the world.

Thornton: Winds of change for farmers

2012-01-12T12:18:00.000+11:00

www.adelaidenow.com.au
11 Jan 2012

Wind turbines can help save struggling farms, argues Kane Thornton.

LIFE on the land has only become tougher. The cruel effects of drought, fires and floods, along with the strong Aussie dollar and challenging global markets, have pushed farming families to the limit. In many cases, diversification has been the key to their survival. Responding to changing market dynamics, consumer demands and weather conditions by moving into different crops, livestock and land uses, is helping save the family farm.

It would be a brave outsider who demanded the removal of the farmer's right to make those choices for themselves. Yet that is what the activists opposed to wind farms are doing. They are saying that individual farmers should not have the right to choose wind farming to help them drought-proof their properties, make better use of marginal farming land, or insure against market downturns. But for those farmers fortunate enough to live in some of the windiest places in the world, farming wind can be the best option.

And those farmers are not the only ones who benefit. wind farms are also providing jobs for local communities and contractors and an economic boost for struggling regional areas. At the Capital wind farm near Canberra, about $10 million went straight into the pockets of local people during construction. It went into the corner store, the local restaurant, motels and more.

Of course, appropriate regulations and community consultation should apply to any wind farm, as they do to any new farm infrastructure, be it an extra shed, a tourist development, a road, a dam or a mine. wind farms in Australia face the toughest guidelines in the world in relation to their siting, operation and permissible noise levels.

The wind power industry is working hard to improve its process of consultation with local communities and the quality of information that it shares with them. A lack of information-or the wrong information-can understandably create anxiety for people who are not familiar with our new ways of producing electricity.

However, opponents of renewable energy seem determined to use wind farms as political footballs, fuelling community divisions they claim they want to avoid. They make inflammatory claims about noise-when a wealth of scientific research shows that noise from wind farms does not have a harmful effect on people. These disingenuous claims increase anxiety within the community. And, like any form of anxiety, this can have an impact on a person's health. Those opponents also ignore the impact that wind farms have on reducing our carbon emissions, and say wind power is expensive.

Consider this. Over the first six months of last year, Australia's 1188 wind turbines generated enough electricity to power more than 725,000 homes. If we are to move away from coal (which itself can create health issues) then wind power is one of the cheapest alternative sources we can introduce on a large scale. Farmers should have the right to farm the wind and the right to secure the future of their livelihoods and their families.

* Kane Thornton is Clean Energy Council's acting CEO

Ramsay's wind farm backflip

2012-01-12T12:15:00.000+11:00

www.weeklytimesnow.com.au
12 Jan 2012

THE about-face of State Liberal Simon Ramsay over his attitude to wind farms is hard to swallow, writes Greg Barber

Six years ago, Simon Ramsay wanted to be part of the wind industry, to diversify and drought-proof his farm. It was smart because while the price of agricultural commodities seems to move downwards, the demand for zero-emissions electricity grows.

Mr Ramsay is now one of the most rabidly anti-wind MPs (Weekly Times, November 30) in a government that has all but killed off new wind farm proposals in Victoria. He derides subsidies to wind farms, by which he means the Renewable Energy Target, a target his Liberal colleague Greg Hunt wants to claim credit for. He says all the jobs are in China, where the turbines are made.

So are the major components for coal-fired power plants. So are Mr Ramsay's underpants, quite likely. Most of the thousands of Australian jobs in the design, construction and operation of wind farms are outside Victoria. That will continue if Mr Ramsay has any say in it. He spreads all the voodoo on the health effects of wind farms. So why hasn't his government made dramatically tougher noise rules for turbines? Because the current 35-dB limit is the right one.

I've stood underneath an operating wind turbine carrying on a perfectly normal conversation. Interestingly, we are yet to see someone suffering ill effects when they are getting paid to host turbines on their property, and those people live closer to turbines than just about anyone. Once upon a time, Mr Ramsay wanted some of that action for himself.

Despite what he tells you, his government has not introduced a buffer between wind turbines and homes. They have required a developer to get a sign-off from every resident within 2km before they can even apply for a permit. If you want to farm the wind, any one of your neighbours within 2km has a right to say no and Mr Ramsay thinks this policy will stop wind projects from dividing communities.

Under the State Government's new policy, approved wind farms not built in the next few years will lose their permits and will be back to square one. Nine wind farms face this test by the end of March. Mr Ramsay talks about the "visual immensity of these monstrosities" he once applauded. But picture this: for every two turbines you see up on the hillside, there is a full-time, highly paid, locally based job. There's also a $10,000 annual payment to the landholder. A couple thousand more paid in council rates. Green electricity for 1600 homes.

South Australia now has more than 1000 MWs of wind power. Late last year, there were times when more than 90% of its electricity came from the wind. The fuel is free so the electricity is cheap. Bad news if you are a coal-fired power station. Good news for regional communities. But it requires a consistent and coherent government policy and with Mr Ramsay, you get a political weathervane.

* Greg Barber is the Leader of the Victorian Greens

Construction starts on demonstration solar power station in Mildura

2012-01-12T12:11:00.001+11:00

www.electronicsnews.com.au

Silex Systems subsidiary Solar Systems has started construction on the first stage of Australia's largest solar power station in Mildura, Victoria. The Mildura power station will be the first full-scale commercial deployment of a grid connected solar power station using Solar Systems' Dense Array concentrating photovoltaic (CPV) technology.

According to Solar Systems, its technology uses advanced 'triple junction' solar cells currently capable of approximately 40% conversion efficiency, which is approximately double the efficiency of today's best silicon-based cells. It also benefits from the use of active cooling to maximise power output and lifetime performance from the solar cells. The first stage of the project, which started in December 2011, involves the construction of a demonstration facility of up to 2 MW capacity. This is scheduled to be completed in late 2012.

Subject to satisfactory performance of the demonstration facility, grid interconnect and planning activities, a much larger 100 MW solar power station (enough to power up to 40,000 average homes) will be constructed on the same site. This is expected to start in 2013, for a 2016 completion. The Mildura solar power station project has received financial support of up to $120 million from the Victorian State Government and Australian Federal Government.

Solar Systems says its technology is suited to large utility-scale electrical power generation using the proprietary Dense Array CPV solar conversion system. The technology is being prepared for commercial deployment in the global utility-scale solar power station market which is forecast to grow rapidly over the next decade.

SA Opposition wind policy threatens $3 billion investment

2012-01-11T13:10:00.003+11:00

Clean Energy Council
6 Jan 2012

The South Australian Opposition's policy on wind farms would threaten more than $3 billion of investment and push up power prices for South Australian householders if implemented in its current form, the renewable energy industry's peak body said today.

It would also place in doubt the creation of nearly 1,000 direct jobs, Clean Energy Council Acting CEO, Kane Thornton, said. "It is unfortunate the wind industry was not consulted on this policy", Mr Thornton said. "But we now look forward to working with the South Australian Liberal Party to ensure they understand the value of the wind industry to the state, and to provide them with a more complete understanding of wind farms and associated issues".

Mr Thornton said South Australia was currently leading the nation in using wind power to generate electricity. "South Australia now gets over 20% of its electricity from wind power; one of the reasons the state's carbon emissions fell by 18% over the past five years". Mr Thornton said Australian wind farms were already subject to the toughest planning guidelines in the world in relation to their siting, operation and permissible noise levels. Wind energy also currently enjoyed strong support from over 80% of Australians.

"While the Australian wind industry is keen to work with the community to address any legitimate concerns that may arise with regard to specific projects, the proposed blanket two-km no-go zones for wind farms are likely to drive future wind investment to other states", Mr Thornton said. "Guidelines currently in place ensure the proper balance between wind farm developments and community is reached throughout South Australia".

South Australian wind farms currently generate enough energy to power 482,836 homes annually. Capital investment of $2.792 billion has so far been made in South Australian wind farms, creating 806 direct jobs and 2417 indirect jobs. "Projects worth a further $3.078 billion are currently proposed for South Australia that would power more than 567,000 homes and create 948 direct jobs", Mr Thornton said. "But measures like two-km setbacks would place all this under threat.

"The proposed two-km setbacks have no precedent in other infrastructure developments-be it roads, power lines or factories-and are likely to create insurmountable challenges for wind projects. "As we've seen in Victoria, such measures would effectively make South Australia a 'no-go' zone for wind farms, driving billions of dollars of investment from the state. "In addition, South Australians would see higher electricity prices as future renewable energy will need to come from higher cost sources.

"Unnecessary restrictions on where renewable energy projects can be built will only serve to drive up the cost of electricity to South Australian consumers. "South Australia has created an investment-friendly environment through an efficient and transparent planning regime, and we're really keen to work with future governments to see that retained".

Wind power to shipyard: Release the kraken

2012-01-11T13:08:00.000+11:00

www.bloomberg.com
7 Jan 2012

Like arms of a steel kraken, cranes stretch skyward behind run-down brick warehouses in the Polish shipyard of Gdynia. This is where Hochtief AG, Germany's biggest builder, is spending 200 million euros ($268 million) erecting the world's most powerful ship that builds wind farms at sea.

The unfinished 147-meter-long beast, dubbed "Innovation", looks like an aircraft carrier sitting in dry dock. Instead of fighter jets, though, its deck will load windmills. Germany plans to install as much as 10,000 MWs of sea-based turbines by the end of this decade, up from about 200 MWs today, and Hochtief AG may build as many as many as three more ships to meet demand, said Ulrich Reinke, who heads the company's energy division.

Germany's offshore wind targets "will result in investments of more than 30 billion euros over the next years", Reinke said. "Demand for ships to build and service offshore wind farms remains very high".

The Innovation is what's known in the industry as a jack-up vessel. Its four steel feet can elevate the ship above water depths up to 50 meters, protecting it from waves and current. Fully jacked up, the ship will reach a height of 200 meters from its feet to the tip of the extended crane--about twice the height of the "Big Ben" Clock Tower of London's Westminster Palace. The crane, built by Germany's Liebherr-International Deutschland at a cost of 23 million euros, can lift 1,500 metric tons.

"It's the biggest and most modern ship of its kind", said Christian Bauer, who oversees construction for Hochtief AG, as he guided a tour of the vessel. Bauer, wearing a white hard hat, climbed up a narrow steel ladder about 33 meters above ground to reach the top of the ship's main structure, which will house a cinema, a gym and cabins for about 100 sailors.

Innovation is the biggest project for the Gdynia shipyard, which once employed 15,000 people but gradually lost significance after the collapse of the Soviet Union and fell into insolvency in 2009. The shipyard is a few miles north of Gdansk, where Lech Walesa, a former dock worker, in 1980 led the shipyard strike that launched the Solidarity pro-democracy movement and helped bring down communism. Poland's Crist shipyard bought part of the Gdynia docks and secured the contract for Innovation.

From the view atop the vessel, workers rush to and from the main deck amid flying sparks and the clamor of hammers. The ship, cut out of about 30,000 tons of steel, is to be finished by the end of May and will in the ensuing weeks begin installing the Global Tech 1 wind farm in the German North Sea.

Storms produce record UK wind power output

2012-01-11T13:07:00.001+11:00

www.reuters.com
6 Jan 2012

(Reuters)-British wind power production reached a record high just before the New Year as storms hit the British Isles and powered onshore and offshore wind turbines, beating the previous high by nearly 20%, generation data showed on Friday. wind farms produced a record 12.2% of UK energy demand on December 28, statistics provided by green energy association RenewableUK showed, displacing the previous record of 10%. "Wind energy represents a new paradigm in electricity generation, allowing us to harness the power of the weather when it's available, cutting our fossil fuel bills and lowering our carbon emissions", said Gordon Edge, director of policy at RenewableUK.

Storms hit Britain over the New Year, which helped power wind farms but also cut off power supply to more than 100,000 households as uprooted trees and debris damaged electricity cables and poles. Average wind power production between December 1, 2011 and January 5, 2012 covered 5.3% of UK power demand, RenewableUK data showed. Wind power is considered a key energy resource to help Britain meet its legally-binding target of cutting carbon emissions by 34% below 1990 levels by the end of this decade. UK wind power capacity is expected to grow by one third this year, bringing total installed wind capacity to around 8,000 MWs ( MW), the association said.

Govt plans offshore facility to tap wind energy

2012-01-10T11:22:00.002+11:00

timesofindia.indiatimes.com
6 Jan 2012

CHENNAI: The Centre for Wind Energy Technology (CWET) plans to conduct a feasibility study in Dhanushkodi near Rameswaram to set up offshore windmills, following problems of land acquisition for onshore wind power projects. Sources said wind velocity at 100 metres from ground level would be measured and data collected. "It will be set up in a lagoon. If there is enough wind flow, we will set up a wind farm and start power generation", said a CWET source.

A machine will be installed at the erected tower and the velocity, direction and duration of wind recorded. The data will then be sent to the CWET. "At least one acre of land will be required to erect the tower in Dhanushkodi", the source said. It would take at least two years to study and gather data on the potential for offshore wind power.

The study will take some years to complete. "We conducted a study in Rameswaram too, but that was not for offshore windmills. We studied the velocity at 20 metres from ground level", said the source. Many countries have started opting for offshore windmills. Many European countries, the US and China have started setting up such windmills. But in India the concept is yet to catch on.

The country's wind power generation capacity is around 14,000 MW, of which Tamil Nadu accounts for 6,547 MW. Between April and October last year, nearly 660 MW was added. However, a major problem in both onshore and offshore windmills is the evacuation problem. "There is a need for proper evacuation facilities. The ministry of new and renewable energy (MNRE) said an exclusive corridor for renewable energy will be set up soon", said Tamil Nadu Energy Development Agency (TEDA) chairman and managing director Sudeep Jain.

He said there were no offshore windmills in the country. "Tamil Nadu has a huge potential and it would be good if some are set up in the state", said Jain. TNEB officials on the other hand said laying transmission lines for evacuating wind power would not happen in a short time. "Wind energy producers claim the state has a capacity to produce an additional 10,000 MW. This would need a strong transmission network", said a TNEB official.

He said they sought funds from the MNRE for an exclusive corridor for evacuating wind power. "We will need at least Rs 5,000 crore", said the official.

Kenya wind power project to start by April: official

2012-01-10T11:20:00.002+11:00

www.reuters.com
5 Jan 2012

(Reuters)-Construction of a 310 MW wind power project in Kenya is expected to start in April after its financiers complete due diligence on the project, a senior company official said on Thursday. Most of Kenya's power is generated by hydroelectric plants, which are prone to the vagaries of frequent droughts, which cut water levels in dams, lead to power outages and force east Africa's biggest economy to rely on diesel-powered generators. Work on the 617 million euro ($873.7 million) Lake Turkana Wind Power (LTWP) project was initially expected to have started by last month.

Carlo Van Wageningen, chairman of LTWP, said its financiers were going through the due diligence process, which was expected to culminate in finalizing the funding. "We don't expect any further delays. We are looking at financial close at the end of March, beginning of April and therefore groundbreaking as soon as possible after that", Van Wageningen told Reuters by phone. The LTWP power project is expected to start production after 2013. It involves building a wind farm within Loiyangalani, a remote region in the northwest part of the country and near the Lake Turkana basin.

Van Wageningen said the World Bank is one of the project's guarantors on behalf of the Kenyan government and that the bank required the project to undergo an environmental impact assessment study. He said the study was complete and was posted on the World Bank Web site from November 15 for a statutory 120 days for the public to comment and would thereafter be taken before the bank's board for approval. "The pushback is really due to the fact that we have done some more studies on environmental impact. The World Bank will now be providing certain guarantees and credit enhancements on behalf of the government", Van Wageningen said.

LTWP is a subsidiary of KP&P, a Dutch firm which sets up wind power projects. The Kenyan venture will be the biggest in the country, consisting of 365 wind turbines, each with a capacity of 850 kilowatts. LTWP has an agreement with Denmark's Vestas Wind Systems to supply 365 Vestas V52 turbines. "We don't expect any delays. We're sure and foresee production of these turbines will not be delayed", Van Wageningen said. LTWP will transmit its power to the national grid through a 428 km (266 mile) overhead line it will build for the government and offload the electricity to the state-run Kenya Power Company. The country hopes to add 2,000 MW of environmentally friendly energy sources by 2013.

Anger at guidelines for wind power

2012-01-10T11:19:00.004+11:00

www.dailyexaminer.com.au
5 Jan 2012

NORTHERN NSW residents could have more power to oppose wind farm developments than coal seam gas wells and coal mines under new draft planning guidelines. Under the draft wind farm guidelines announced before Christmas, residents who live within 2km of a proposed wind farm will have the right to veto the project. Anti-coal seam gas campaigners have said the guidelines create double standards because coal seam gas developments are allowed within 200m of occupied houses.

Northern Rivers Guardian spokesperson and Lock the Gate Alliance management committee member Michael McNamara said wind farms were more sustainable than coal seam gas wells. "It is outrageous that the 2km veto does not apply to coal seam gas exploration activities", he said. "Restrictions on different activities should relate to the relative risks posed by those activities. On any reckoning the risks associated with coal seam gas exploration and extraction are far more serious and long lasting than even the worst reports of risks associated with wind farms".

Mr McNamara said local MPs should work to ensure coal seam gas wells weren't drilled near houses. "I call on local state MPs Geoff Provest and Thomas George to pressure the Premier to extend this right of veto to proposed coal seam gas activities within a 2km radius of any residence". Ballina MP Don Page said people should not compare guidelines on coal seam gas wells to the tough new restrictions on wind farm developments.

"They are different things. wind farms are created on the surface of a property owned by farmers or landowners. That's not the case with coal seam gas which is a resource that is underground and owned by everyone, so they are different sorts of issues really", he said. Lismore MP Thomas George was not available for comment. People wishing to write submissions to the NSW Department of Planning and Infrastructure about the wind farm guidelines have until March 14.

More proof that the Liberal party has turned its back on science and is being influenced by the fossil fuel and nuclear industries.

SA Libs move on wind farms

2012-01-07T16:48:00.002+11:00

www.skynews.com.au
6 Jan 2012

The South Australian opposition has backed more wind farm development but doesn't want the turbines close to homes. Opposition Leader Isobel Redmond said a future Liberal government would ban new wind turbines being located within two km of existing homes. She said her government would also protect nearby landowners from economic losses caused by restrictions on aerial spraying and crop-dusting and would help develop national guidelines on wind farm locations and noise emissions.

'The South Australian Liberals believe wind farms must not be approved on sites where they create negative economic and social effects,' Ms Redmond said. 'We will protect residents by banning new wind turbines from being built closer than two km from an existing home. 'We have more wind generation of any other state, with more than half of Australia's installed wind power in SA and it is time we started looking after the communities that live near wind farms.'

The policy puts it at odds with the state government which last year unveiled a renewable energy plan it said would unlock more investment in the sector. Under the plan, no wind turbines will be allowed within one km of any home, unless both the home owner and the developer agree to a shorter distance. Local councils will also become the key authority for assessing planning applications for new wind farms.

'These policies and the processes for implementing them will skew investment away from populated areas, while giving greater certainty and consistency to wind farm investors,' Urban Development Minister John Rau said at the time. So far about $2.8 billion has been invested in wind power in South Australia, creating more than 3000 direct and indirect jobs.

Wind power now accounts for 21% of all electricity generated across the state, compared to just one% in 2004. The government said a further $1.8 billion in wind farm investment was on hold, waiting for the release of the government's revised renewable energy guidelines. The Clean Energy Council said the government's changes would encourage a closer working relationship between the wind industry, local councils and regional communities.

Mongolia's renewables belittle world's nuclear supply

2012-01-07T16:47:00.001+11:00

www.bloomberg.com
6 Jan 2012

Untapped mineral riches are fueling Mongolia's ambition to compete with Australia and Brazil in Asia. The nation's resource-based economy grew 21% last quarter alone. This largesse obscures a potential aboveground treasure also awaiting investors. The world's most sparsely populated nation has the potential to generate 2.6 million MWs of wind, solar, geothermal and hydropower, based on data collected by the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory and the Mongolian National Renewable Energy Center.

That's a fantastic figure. It's seven times the capacity of all the world's operable nuclear reactors combined, according to world nuclear association data. In contrast, Mongolia's current power capacity is less than that of one large coal plant, just 878 MWs. That's what Newcom Group's acting Chief Executive Office Byambasaikhan Bayanjargal recently told investors in Hong Kong. Of that, close to 40% of the potential is in wind, and Bayanjargal is eager to harness it. The problem in Mongolia is that with abundant coal resources, it may choose to turn to the quick and dirty solution, following in the footsteps of the U.S, and China, among others.

Newcom, a cross-industry investment group that owns part of Mongolia's biggest mobile phone network, is investing in a renewable future. The group has six wind-power plant projects that are due to bring 1,000 MWs online in the country by 2020. In the US, that would be enough to power about 800,000 homes. In Mongolia's economy, it would stretch much further.

Winds blow on average at least 25 feet a second in parts of the Gobi desert, which also ranks third globally in terms of solar generation potential. Newcom and its partners expect to commission a 50- MW wind park next year. This plant will be Mongolia's first independent power producer and the first private investment in the industry.

The project will annually save the burning of 160,500 metric tons of coal and thus 200,000 tons of CO₂ emissions, and--most importantly for a desert country--preserve about 370 million gallons of clean water. Some of those wind-blown electrons may be transmitted the same place as Mongolia's coal, iron and other minerals, south, to China. That would be one way for Mongolia to diversify its resource-based economy while retaining ties with its biggest trading partner.

The self-healing zinc-air deep cycle battery

2012-01-06T11:06:00.002+11:00

www.energymatters.com.au
5 Jan 2012

A US company states it has developed a self-healing rechargeable zinc-air battery system capable of 10,000 cycles-a 30 year working life. With applications including utility-scale energy storage; the argument regarding wind and solar power's intermittency will continue to weaken if the technology delivers.

Created by Eos Energy Storage, the Aurora Energy zinc-air battery is based on similar chemistry used in alkaline batteries that contain zinc and manganese dioxide; but in the Aurora Energy, the manganese dioxide has been replaced with a "thin air electrode". Oxygen from ambient air is utilized as a cathode reactant the company says, saving space and cost. Eos Energy Storage states the technology and components used in the Aurora Energy are safe, stable and recyclable. Zinc is also a plentiful metal and Australia is one of the world's top zinc producers.

The concept of a zinc-air battery isn't new, they are already in use as non-rechargeable batteries for appliances such as hearing aids and watches. However, many challenges have prevented the technology from being used in deep cycle energy storage applications. One of the issues has been electrolyte drying out over time as oxygen enters the battery. Eos Energy Storage says it has developed an electrolyte management and self-filling/healing system operation to address the issue.

Testing to date by the company has seen the Aurora Energy rechargeable zinc-air battery cycled over 2,000 times with no physical degradation observed. Eos Energy Storage says it is currently scaling up prototypes of its Eos Energy Storage Aurora Energy 1000 | 6000 Battery for initial manufacturing this year and delivery of MW scale systems in 2013. The Eos Energy Storage Aurora Energy will initially cost $1000/ kW/$160/ kW. For renewable energy integration and load shifting applications, Eos Energy Storage says the levelized energy cost will be among the lowest; comparable to pumped hydropower and combined cycle gas turbines.

Eos Energy Storage is also developing developing a zinc-air flow battery for use in electric vehicles, which combined with a lead acid battery system also created by the company will extend EV range to over 500 km and can be recharged for less than 2¢ per km.

VCAT trumps Moyne windfarm rejection

2012-01-06T11:05:00.001+11:00

www.standard.net.au
5 Jan 2012

CONSTRUCTION of a wind farm at Woorndoo will begin in March despite Moyne Shire Council denying its extension application in November. The Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) granted NewEn Australia the extension permit at a hearing last month, after councillors told the proponent it needed to resubmit its application to meet the shire's policy for major energy projects. The Salt Creek wind farm, 25 km north of Mortlake, now has until March 15 to break soil and until 2015 to finish construction, with regular meetings taking place with the Moyne Shire.

Cr James Purcell said while VCAT had the authority to make a binding decision and validate the construction permit, the council remained the deciding authority for the project. "We have ongoing discussions with NewEn Australia in regard to such things as traffic management", Cr Purcell said. "The permit is still valid but council is the deciding authority for this because it's under 30 MWs. "If NewEn Australia can get the project under way by the end of March they have two years to complete it. "We can expect to see works on the ground by that expiry date".

Cr Purcell said the council's revised policy stated turbines were not to be located within two km of a dwelling on an adjoining landowner's land unless an agreement was made. "The size of the towers is bigger since the original application and each tower has more MWs, so to get to 29.9 MWs it could mean they'll need less turbines than they originally applied for", Cr Purcell said. "There's just one family who are quite opposed to it, but other than that there's very few houses in that area".

Victorian Greens leader Greg Barber said the VCAT approval was a positive step forward for the state's energy projects facing similar hold-ups. "I'm glad it's going ahead because wind farms make sense environmentally and economically", Mr Barber said. "There are at least eight other previously approved wind farms that could lose their permits if they don't get a similar extension by March under the state government's new anti-wind farm policy".

BYD, China state grid complete construction of large battery energy storage station

2012-01-05T09:21:00.001+11:00

www.azocleantech.com
2 Jan 2012

China's State Grid together with BYD has completed the construction work of a battery energy storage station which may probably be the largest globally. This station is situated at Zhangbei, the project is a combination of 140 MW of both solar and wind renewable energy generation, a smart power transmission system and 36 MW of energy storage. The renewable energy sources are both wind and solar. The transmission system is a smart system. The unique distinction of this unit is the culmination of a renewable energy system and a battery storage unit.

With the completion of the system, the State Grid presents a stable solution that will enable transfer of huge amounts of renewable electricity to the grid, ensuring highest degree of safety during the energy transfer. BYD manufactures solar panels with capacity of 1 GW annually; however, in case of this storage station their role was to provide energy storage battery arrays. The iron-phosphate battery from BYD was chosen for energy storage mainly due to its long lasting service life.

Peak Shaving, a load levelling charge and discharge method from BYD was also implemented for building the system. BYD has been associated with a number of MW level cooperative projects with China's Southern Power Grid since September 30, 2011. The recently completed storage project was the largest that they have ever worked on so far with China's Southern Power Grid. The battery storage system is capable of enhancing the efficiency of renewable energy by 5 to 10%.

A small price to pay

2012-01-05T09:19:00.002+11:00

www.goulburnpost.com.au
4 Jan 2012

A RENEWABLE energy company has responded to calls from NSW Landscape Guardians president Humphrey Price Jones that electricity retailers itemise the cost of wind farms on every electricity bill. Recent data from the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART) puts the cost of wind farms-which make up part of the federal Large Scale Renewable Energy scheme-at around $19 per customer per year for NSW' customers, or around $1.50 per month.

"It is no coincidence that with the explosion of wind farms over the past few years, the cost of electricity has soared", Mr Price-Jones told the Post last month. "And for what benefit?,.. They will make no difference to climate change, assuming of course that there is climate change due to humans. "The only real significant contribution wind farms make is the enormous impost they have on people living nearby to them", he said.

But wind farm company Infigen Energy said the IPART data showed Mr Price Jones' claim to be "ridiculous". "IPART reports... that Mr Price-Jones' 'frightening extent to which wind farms are contributing to the exorbitant rise in power costs' is only $19/year for the average customer", Infigen Energy government affairs manager Jonathon Upson said. "That's right, according to the NSW Government regulator who sets electricity prices, the Large Scale Renewable Energy Target (LRET) scheme, which funds wind farms, is costing electricity customers in NSW far less than the cost of a cup of coffee each month. "Mr Price Jones' later comment in the article, 'It is no coincidence that... the cost of electricity has soared,' is clearly ridiculous.

"The Landscape Guardians have made Mt Kosciusko out of an ant hill", Mr Upson said. IPART sets the maximum price retailers can charge households and small business for electricity and in July last year increased by 18% what retailers could charge consumers for their power use.

Approximately two thirds of the increase was due to network maintenance (wires and poles), while the other third was due to the Federal Government's Renewable Energy Target (RET), which aims to ensure 20% of Australia's electricity supply will come from renewable energy sources by 2020. However, wind power currently makes up only 1.5pc of installed electricity generation capacity in NSW, with coal contributing around 65%, hydroelectricity 22%, and gas 11%.

But the federal Bureau of Resources and Energy Economics announced recently that it expected wind power to keep growing in Australia, predicting that renewables would reach up to 24% of total electricity generation by 2035. wind farms would be a major part of that figure, the Bureau said.

Germany generates 60% more solar electricity in 2011

2012-01-05T09:16:00.001+11:00

www.energymatters.com.au
2 Jan 2012

According to German's Solar Industry Association, the nation's solar power systems collectively generated 18 billion kW hours of clean electricity during 2011. The Association says this represented enough power to supply the electricity needs of around 5.1 million households-over half the number of households in Australia and an incredible achievement given Germany's solar resources are far less than Australia.

The major driver of the jump in solar generation was a combination of price increases for oil and gas in Germany and the sharply falling cost of solar components. The Association says the cost of a solar power system has dropped by more than half since 2007, even though solar rebates have reduced by the same amount.

Solar energy currently accounts for around three% of German electricity consumption. By 2020, its share is expected to grow to around ten%. However, the Association warns this will only occur in a politically stable environment in terms of incentives and support for the industry.

Solar's role in Germany's energy future appeared to become even more important in the middle of 2011 after the German government announced an end to nuclear power in the nation by 2022. Even so, the nation's solar manufacturing industry faces an uncertain future. While cheap solar components have benefited the end user, competition in Germany from imported solar panels and inverters has seen some of its manufacturers shutter operations and the threat of more cutbacks to incentives is having a further dampening effect.

Nuclear safety panel given donations

2012-01-04T16:09:00.003+11:00

news.ninemsn.com.au
1 Jan 2012

Almost one-third of commissioners and examiners at Japan's nuclear safety commission received donations from the country's nuclear power industry, the Asahi Shimbun reported on Sunday. The daily said the governmental commission's neutrality could be brought into question at a time when the safety of nuclear reactors in Japan was in doubt after a March 11 earthquake and tsunami disaster. The quake-tsunami disaster has left more than 19,000 people dead or missing and a nuclear power plant in meltdown, which has been since leaking radiation into the environment.

Two of the organisation's five permanent commissioners and 22 of its 84 outside examiners received donations from companies and industrial organisations related to nuclear power, in five years to March 2011, Asahi said. The donations totalled about Y85 million ($1.08 million), the daily said. Of them, 11 received donations from nuclear reactor manufacturers and, or, power utilities and nuclear fuel companies which are examined by the commission, Asahi said.

The commission is authorised to guide the state and power utilities from a neutral position. Haruki Madarame, chairman of the commissioners, received four million yen from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries between 2006 and 2009 when he was a professor at the University of Tokyo before assuming the commission's post last April, Asahi said. Madarame denied he had given any favours to the company at all in return for the donations.

More than half of nuclear radiation zone evacuees in Japan have yet to return home

2012-01-04T16:09:00.000+11:00

www.theaustralianeye.com
31 Dec 2011

FUKUSHIMA, Japan 54% of evacuees from areas between 20 and 30 km (12.5 and 18.6 miles) of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant in Japan have yet to return home, three months after the government lifted its emergency evacuation preparation zones.

Due to slow progress in decontamination operations and a lack of job opportunities in the five municipalities in Fukushima Prefecture, 31,600, or 54%, out of a total 59,049 evacuees from the areas near the crippled generating plant continued to live in shelters instead of returning home as of last week.

In Minami-Soma City alone, 22,983, or about 50% of 46,744 evacuees from the city, still remain outside the city. Masahiro Igawa, 33, whose house in the city's Haramachi Ward was swept away by the March 11 tsunami that followed the major earthquake, evacuated to Fukushima City with his wife and four children. "Though decontamination operations have started, areas around schools still show high radiation levels, and hospitals have not been restored to original conditions. We can't go home even if we want to, out of consideration for our children", he said.

At Omika Primary School in Minami-Soma, 204 students had been expected to register this academic year. But most of the school's district was designated as an emergency evacuation preparation zone, which decreased the number of students to 81 as of Dec. 19. According to a survey conducted by the city's board of education at the end of November, about 40% of parents of the school's students still living outside the city said they will not return for the next academic year. About 30% said they were undecided as to whether to return.

Katsushige Hirama, the school's principal, said an unstable employment situation is one of the factors delaying people's return to the city. "In addition to the radiation fears, (children's) parents are facing employment problems", Hirama said. According to the Hello Work Soso job placement center, which serves Minami-Soma, the ratio of job seekers to jobs in October was 3,194 to 2,870. The number of people who actually obtained a job was 317. "There are many one-year contract jobs for decontamination or debris removal, but there are few long-term jobs", said Masahiro Kikuchi, a career counselor at the office.

A 37-year-old housewife who along with her family took refuge in Fukuchiyama City, Kyoto Prefecture, from the Minami-Soma's Haramachi Ward, said: "There are no jobs for us if we return home. I also have fears about radiation. Although my parents and relatives are staying in Minami-Soma, we're not going back there".

Many residents from other municipalities also have yet to return home, as decontamination operations have progressed slowly, and schools have not reopened since the disaster. In the village of Kawauchi in the prefecture, none of 2,675 evacuees have returned home. "Unless there is progress in decontamination work, there's nothing we can do", an official of the village office said.

India to build 400 megawatts of solar, two-thirds less than plan

2012-01-04T16:08:00.002+11:00

www.bloomberg.com
31 Dec 2011

India will complete 400 MWs of solar power connected to the grid this fiscal year, two-thirds less than previously forecast by state and central governments. India has so far built 180 MWs during the year ending March 31, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy said in an e-mailed statement today. Gujarat had planned to build more than 900 MWs during the fiscal year as part of a regional solar program, according to documents obtained from the state government. In addition, the central government's Solar Mission had a forecast of 302 MWs, according to a list of plans from the ministry. The mission involved 150 MWs of operations awarded by auction, 98 MWs of rooftop developments and 54 MWs of capacity under a program to consolidate state-level projects. India's renewable energy capacity has grown 20% in 2011 to 22,447 MWs, according to the statement. wind farms made up most of the increase, adding a total of 2,827 MWs.

Photovoltaics in Ukraine: Activ Solar commissions final phase of 100 MW Perovo Solar Power Station

2012-01-04T16:07:00.001+11:00

www.solarserver.com
29 Dec 2011

On December 28th, 2011 Activ Solar GmbH (Vienna, Austria) announced the completion and start of commissioning of the fifth and final phase of the 100 MW Perovo Solar Power Station, a solar photovoltaic (PV) plant in Perovo in Ukraine's Crimea. The plant is composed of 440,000 crystalline silicon PV modules connected by 1,500 km of cable and installed over an area of 200 hectares.

"The completion of the Perovo project is a major achievement for Activ Solar as our largest to-date and is a testament to our structuring and execution capabilities in a challenging global economic environment", stated Activ Solar Founder & CEO Kaveh Ertefai. "We are proud of the quality of the work accomplished and the dedication of our team to deliver this successful outcome within a short period of time".

Perovo is Activ's second record-setting PV plant in Crimea Activ Solar estimates that the Perovo project has stimulated the local economy with the creation of over 800 "green" jobs. The company further estimates that the plant will provide enough electricity to provide for the entire peak-load requirements of Simferopol, the capital city of Crimea. In October 2011, Activ Solar commissioned the final phase of the 80 MW Ohotnikovo Solar Power Station, also in Crimea, which was the largest PV plant in Central and Eastern Europe at the time.

Gamesa to supply wind turbines for Egypt wind farms

2012-01-03T10:13:00.000+11:00

www.energymatters.com.au
29 Dec 2011

Spanish wind farm builder and turbine manufacturer, Gamesa, has won an international public tender to supply Egypt with 200 MW of turbines for use in wind power projects in El-Zayt, located along the environmentally sensitive Gulf of Suez. The company was awarded the contract after a lengthy Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) that found the potential hazards posed by wind turbines to the large number of migratory birds flying through the wind farm site were minimal. The EIA study concluded that although collisions with turbines could occur, most migrating birds, including pelicans, storks and rare desert steppe eagles, fly above the critical low altitude point.

Gamesa will supply a total of 100 of its G80-2.0 MW turbines for the project, which the company claims are perfect for withstanding corrosive desert conditions. Each G80-2.0 turbine stands up to 100 metres tall when installed and comes equipped with rotors of up to 97m in diameter. Gamesa will also perform turbine assembly, erection and start-up services and provide operation and maintenance services for a period of five years. Manufacturing for the El Zayt farm is set to begin in 2012, with delivery scheduled over the course of 2013.

The project was facilitated by Egypt's New and Renewable Energy Authority (NREA), the organisation behind the EIA and will receive funding from various European investment funds, including Germany's Development Bank, the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the European Union via the Neighbourhood Investment Facility. According to the NREA, the El-Zayt region of the Red Sea coastline boasts wealth of wind power resources and the nation is determined to put it to use. The Gamesa wind farm, occupying an area of 10km by 3.5km, will abut two German and Japanese wind power projects. The Egyptian government has mandated a renewable energy target of 20% by 2020; 12% from wind power sources and a further eight% from solar power and hydropower energy.

Enel green power launches two wind farms in Romania

2012-01-03T10:11:00.004+11:00

www.power-eng.com
30 Dec 2011

BUCHAREST (Romania), Enel Green Power, part of Italy's Enel Green Power Group, said that earlier this month it put into operation its Corugea wind farm and the first 25 MW of its 48 MW Moldova Noua wind farm in Romania. The Corugea plant, located in southeastern Romania, consists of 35 V-90 wind turbines of 2.0 MWs ( MW) each, for a total installed capacity of 70 MW, Enel Green Power said in a statement on Thursday.

The plant is able to generate around 190 million kW hours ( kW) annually, enough to meet the energy needs of approximately 70,000 households and avoid the atmospheric emission of more than 130,000 metric tonnes of CO₂ annually. Enel Green Power has connected to the Romanian grid the Moldova Noua wind farm in the northeast. Following the completion of the plant, Enel Green Power's total installed capacity in Romania will reach 292 MW. Such capacity will be able to generate around 620 million kW each year, meeting the energy needs of approximately 230,000 households and avoiding the annual atmospheric emission of more than 430,000 tonnes of CO₂, the company said.

China 2012 rare-earth export quota unchanged as sales slump

2012-01-03T10:11:00.001+11:00

news.businessweek.com
28 Dec 2011

Dec. 28 (Bloomberg) -- China, the biggest supplier of rare earths, will keep 2012 overseas sales quotas virtually unchanged after exporters used only half the amount allotted for this year as buyers sought to cut usage and amid complaints over restrictions from trading partners.

The full-year quota may be about 31,130 metric tons, according to Bloomberg News calculations based on first-round quota figures given by the ministry in a statement yesterday. The quota was 30,184 tons in 2011 and 30,258 tons in 2010. China supplies more than 90% of the global market.

Prices of rare earths, used in Boeing Co. helicopter blades and Toyota Motor Corp. hybrid cars, have tumbled 46% from the third quarter as makers of electric cars and wind turbines sought to reduce use of the metals and slow global economic growth sapped demand. China has curbed output and exports since 2009, when quotas were set at 50,145 tons, to conserve resources and protect the environment.

"After slashing sharply in 2010, China may not be able to cut further because of trade issues with other countries," said Kim Gyung Jung, an analyst at Eugene Investment & Securities Co. in Seoul. "The 2012 quota will lend support for the prices of some rare earths which are heavily dependent on China's supplies." China has also set export limits on a range of mining products including silver, minor metals and coke to conserve resources and protect the environment.

‘Under Pressure'
"China is under pressure from the international community in controlling rare earth exports, and a further cut of quota could fuel more complaints," Peng Bo, an analyst at Guosen Securities Co., said by phone from Shenzhen. Still, "the government really doesn't want to export the minerals too much as Chinese development also needs it."

Complaints against China by the US, the European Union and Mexico were bolstered by a World Trade Organisation ruling, which found in July that quotas, export duties and license requirements on industrial ingredients such as coke, zinc and bauxite violate global rules. China, the world's fastest growing major economy, exported only 14,750 tons of rare earths in the first 11 months of this year, or 49% of the full-year limit, "leaving a huge amount of export quota unutilized," the ministry said.

"The quota has become pointless if export demand falls short of the limits," said Wei Chishan, a Shanghai-based analyst at SMM Information & Technology Co., a data provider. "Rare-earth users are under great pressure to pass on surging costs, while the global slowdown has slashed demand."

‘Supply Sufficient'
"It shows supply is sufficient," SMM's Wei said. Shares in Lynas Corporation., an Australian rare earths developer, dropped 3.4% to A$1.125 at 12:54 p.m. Shanghai time. The Bloomberg rare earth Mineral Resources Index dropped 54% this year, led by a 90% decline in Perth-based Navigator Resources Ltd.

The Chinese government allocated 10,546 tons of first-round export quotas to nine companies, including China Minmetals Corp. and Sinosteel Corp., that have met the government's environment protection standards, the ministry said. Another 14,358 tons may be granted to 17 other companies, including Baotou Iron & Steel Group, China's biggest producer, if they meet the standards by the end of July, the statement said. The first-round quotas will account for about 80% of the full-year volume for 2012, the ministry said.

rare earths are 17 chemically similar elements including neodymium, cerium and lanthanum. The export prices from China for eight rare earths found at the Mount Weld project in Western Australia surged to $193.21 a kilogram on average in the third quarter, compared with $31.35 in 2010, according to figures on Lynas Corporation.'s website. The price has since fallen to $103.76 a kilogram today, the company said.

Prices should stabilise next year after soaring in the first half of this year, and then collapsing, Guosen Securities' Peng said. "As economic growth slows down, the market will become more rational."

UK taxpayers face extra £250m bill for nuclear waste clean-up

2012-01-03T10:09:00.001+11:00

www.guardian.co.uk
25 Dec 2011

The taxpayer will have to stump up almost £250m more to bail out the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority in the next financial year after falling asset sales and rising expenditure cut its income by 17.5%. The shortfall is revealed in the NDA's just-published draft business plan for 2012-15, which shows the impact of being unable to offload land to the private sector for new nuclear plants and the end of the contracts to supply Japan with mixed-oxide fuel.

The setback will give more ammunition to environmentalists and other critics who argue that the wider nuclear industry is infamous for cost overruns and calls on public funds. NDA income for 2012-13 is shown dropping from £867m to £717m, while expenditure is expected to rise from £2.88bn to £2.96bn, leaving the government needing to increase its total grant to the organisation, which oversees the dismantling of the UK's atomic legacy.

A spokesman for the NDA said the figures should not surprise ministers. "We have been spelling out to government every step of the way and there is no question of any slowdown of our programme", he added. The figures for the current financial year were flattered by a £157m one-off sale of land near Wylfa, on Anglesey, but the NDA has also been affected by the Japanese decision to announce the end to its future nuclear programme following the Fukushima nuclear crisis. This in turn persuaded the NDA to shut down the Sellafield mixed-oxide reprocessing plant (SMP) in Cumbria, with the loss of contracts worth £78m a year.

The NDA declined to say how much the SMP plant had cost to run, citing commercial confidentiality, but ministers admitted its failure to work properly meant operating losses of £626m had been accumulated by 2009 and it was said to be costing £90m a year to operate. There is now talk of the plant, which cost an additional £500m to build and will cost at least £100m to dismantle, being used as a temporary store for fissile materials.

There will also be a loss of income next year from the Oldbury nuclear plant in south Gloucestershire, which is now scheduled for closure in February. Greenpeace said the latest cost overrun proved that the nuclear power industry's financial viability was fundamentally flawed. Doug Parr, chief scientific officer at Greenpeace, said: "For all the claims of the government that it will be the power giants like EDF Energy that will foot the cost of the next generation of nuclear, the reality yet again is that the hard-pressed taxpayer will end up footing the bill".

China buys Tasmanian wind farm

2012-01-02T13:26:00.000+11:00

www.upi.com
23 Dec 2011

HOBART, Australia, Dec. 23 (UPI) -- A Chinese company has bought a majority share in a Tasmanian wind farm.

The deal, worth more than $88 million, saw Hydro Tasmania sell 75% of its stake in the Woolnorth wind farm to Chinese company Guohua Energy Investment. Six months ago the government-owned Hydro Tasmania company and China Light and Power dissolved their Roaring 40s joint venture, leaving Hydro Tasmania with full ownership of its Tasmanian wind farms. The Woolnorth wind farm sale is intended to provide capital for the $400 million Musselroe wind farm project being built in northeastern Tasmania, The Tasmanian government said in a release.

Australian Energy Minister Bryan Green said that Guohua Energy Investment as a result of the sale have a six-month exclusive option to negotiate involvement in the Musselroe wind farm's expansion as well. "The Musselroe wind farm will have greater capacity than the combined generation of the Buff Point and Studland Bay wind farms at Woolnorth". Under the terms of the agreement with Guohua Energy Investment, Hydro Tasmania will continue to manage and run Woolnorth Bluff Point's 37 wind turbines as well as Studland Bay's 27 installations.

Wodonga employs environmentalist for energy job

2012-01-02T13:24:00.004+11:00

www.bordermail.com.au
27 Dec 2011

BORDER environmentalist Karen Retra is now the "go-to" person for Wodonga Council's solar power scheme. She says her job is to help people understand the "gobbledygook" of solar costs and systems. "Despite the decline of tariffs, solar is still good value and only going to get better with increases in electricity charges", she said. "My job is to help people's literacy around solar panels, costs and details, so they know what they will and won't get. "It is about understanding their options".

The Solar North East Project operates across seven North East council areas and each has its own part-time ambassador to help people make the shift to solar power. Ms Retra, who studied environmental science at Charles Sturt University, said people could still sign up for the bulk-buy solar project. "It is a high-quality system that comes with the support of solar professionals and the council", she said.

"Zen Home Energy Systems was selected from 16 solar providers through a competitive tender process which looked at price, performance, quality, service, warranty and other factors. "The result is a range of solar power systems that represent great value for money for what is a long-term investment in renewable energy. "There was some confusion about what was available and whether people can still sign up to the program. "But whether you participated in the first stage of the process, submitted an expression of interest, you can still be part of the project".

Ms Retra's background includes working on the Bill Busters campaign, Cleanaway's education officer and teaching sustainability. The project will also offer tips to residents and businesses on ways to maximise the return on solar power systems and ways to save energy through case studies and other means.

For information on a low-interest loan through WAW Credit Union or to speak with Karen Retra, email solarnortheast@wodonga.vic.gov.au or phone the council on (02) 6022 9300.

Why the EU is winning the clean energy race

2012-01-02T13:20:00.001+11:00

www.tgdaily.com
24 Dec 2011

The EU signed Kyoto in 1997, and passed laws to lower emissions by 2005. Five years later it had double the wind power of the US, and ten times the solar power. I know that it has been customary to compare the metrics on renewable energy development within the US as a whole to just one nation within the European Union, but it is misleading, as a comparison of our relative progress, because the US has a bigger economy than any one EU nation such as Germany or Spain, that it is typically compared to.

So it is time for us to compare the US with the EU as a whole to get an accurate picture, because it is easier for a larger economy to beat a smaller one in anything. This applies in any metric, but especially when comparing things like numbers of wind farms or solar farms, because how many people there are in a given area, and how much electricity they need (to produce and consume what percentage of the global GDP) needs to be comparable, or the comparison is nonsensical. For a real comparison, the US with its fractious collection of very different red states and blue states held together in something of a union is much more comparable in these ways to the similarly varied states of the EU as a whole, rather than to any one of the nations within it.
A comparison of the size of the two economies, the population and geographic size suggests that we should be comparing US progress as a whole, not to a single country within the union, but to the whole European Union. Our total economies are similar in size. According to the IMF, the EU's economy is $16 trillion and the US' $14 trillion. The EU and the US combined represent about half the global economy. Each puts out between 20% and 25% of the global GDP.

Our geographic spread is similar. The European Union is about 3.8 million square miles, and the US is a similar 3.6 million square miles. And our numbers are comparable. Although the EU now includes new members Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Monaco, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Switzerland, the EU 15 (that signed Kyoto, and implemented the renewable legislation) or the core of the EU, (Germany, France, the UK, the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Belgium, Luxembourg, Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain) is 384 million people, and the US population is 313 million.
These three similarities mean that comparing progress between the two unions-one of states, and one of nations-makes a lot more sense in comparing the US progress on solar, for example, than comparing it with that of one EU nation. There are only 46 million people in Spain, which has a GDP of $1 trillion, so its economy is hardly comparable with the entire $14 trillion US economy. How does US progress look when compared to the entire EU? Not good.

The EU as a whole is far further along the clean economy road than the US, since signing Kyoto in 1997, and implementing feed-in tariffs and cap-and-trade by 2005 to lower emissions. Five years later it had double the wind power of the US, and ten times the solar power. The EU has 84 GW of wind power capacity installed as of 2010, according to the AWEA. The US has about half that, at 43 GW. EU solar power capacity totalled 29 GW through 2010; ten times the cumulative grid-connected PV in the US of 3 GW as of 2010, according to a GTW report quoted by EarthTechling, or to be precise only 2.6 GW confirmed by SEIA figures-which includes all types of solar, not just PV, and counts residential, commercial, industrial and utility-scale installations.

While the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) made a huge investment in utility-scale solar that is now beginning to break through the lengthy review process-so that there is at least 17 GW in the pipeline now as of mid-2011-even this 'Manhattan Project' jump in the level of investment will only bring the US up to two thirds of what the EU had installed as of 2010.

This one-time heroic lift for renewables and climate action was accomplished in the rare few months of 2009 (before Kennedy died) when the US had functional Democratic majorities big enough to overcome Republican obstruction. It is sad that voters in the US are not aware that that represents what could be accomplished again, and added to, if they could get those majorities in the House and Senate once more.
But US voters are increasingly so dismayed and baffled by what the media tells them is simply "congress" that now only 48% of US voters even bother to vote, far below the rates of the 1960s and 1970s, when the US passed the Clean Air Act. By contrast, most EU countries have over 80% voting participation, and their EU-wide energy legislation is much more 99%-friendly as a result. But just how far ahead they are was a shock to me in researching this. Comparing wind and solar capacity as of the end of 2010, the EU had between twice and ten times the US amount. That is pretty sobering.

Saudis kicking off major move into solar

2012-01-01T10:42:00.002+11:00

www.thenational.ae
23 Dec 2011

Saudi Arabia will take the first step to becoming a large-scale producer of solar power next year as it uses the private sector to build a first batch of solar parks. A steep increase in demand for electricity and rapidly falling prices for photovoltaic panels have convinced decision-makers in the kingdom to reduce their reliance on fossil fuel-based power generation, setting the scene for sustained investment in alternative energy. "I am utterly convinced we will see the first procurements of solar [independent power producers] in the first quarter of next year", said Paddy Padmanathan, the chief executive of Acwa Power, the largest private Saudi power provider.

King Abdullah City for Atomic and Renewable Energy (Kacare), the government body responsible for alternative-energy policy, is working on a renewables strategy and is expected to finalise this in next year's first quarter. Analysts at Bloomberg New Energy Finance believe that an initial target could be up to 5 GWs. The first tenders to the private sector will amount to about 500 MWs, with contracted capacity set to rise rapidly, said Mr Padmanathan. By 2103, Saudi commitment to solar power could reach 20 GWs, he said.

The rise of solar power will proceed in tandem with a move into nuclear power, and by 2013 the kingdom could have signed off on nuclear power projects with a generating capacity equal to its solar power capacity, Mr Padmanathan said. Whereas the government will farm out responsibility for building and maintaining solar projects to private operators as so-called independent power projects, it will initially maintain control over nuclear projects, with public-private partnerships coming in at a later stage.

"So as I look to the future in Saudi, I progressively see more and more base load being filled with nuclear and more and more peak load being filled with renewables, and the middle bit being oil and gas, and more of it being gas than oil", said Mr Padmanathan, whose company will participate in the bidding for future solar and nuclear independent power projects.

Saudi Arabia is paying a heavy price for its continued reliance on oil to generate electricity. Its power plants consume 800,000 barrels a day of oil equivalent, Ziyad Al Shiha, the executive director of Saudi Aramco Power Systems, told reporters in May. With the price of crude above US$100 a barrel on international markets, the opportunity cost is high, making investments in alternative sources of power more attractive.

In addition, the cost of solar power has come down; a supply glut arising from China's input of cheap solar power panels into the market has halved prices within a year. Saudi solar plants will be able to take advantage of the country's long hours of strong sunshine. "If you compare a medium-sized fuel oil or diesel plant, we are already practically at parity", says Jose Alberich, a partner at AT Kearney.

Saudi Arabia's need for energy diversification is born of the rising demand for electricity, as an increasingly urbanised society clamours for a higher standard of living. Kacare estimates that peak capacity needed in 2030 will amount to 120 GWs. Of this, 35 GWs will be generated by solar arrays, says the research centre. "If demand continues to grow at this pace, without changes to the generation mix, the domestic consumption of oil will be unaffordable by 2030", says Mr Alberich.

Kacare is not alone in predicting huge investment in solar power. Ali Al Naimi, the Saudi oil minister, said in June that Saudi Arabia planned to equal the energy created by its crude exports with solar power, adding that by 2020 the country would have the potential to satisfy the world's electricity needs four times over.

Tidal energy turbine set up in sea

2012-01-01T10:41:00.002+11:00

www.google.com
26 Dec 2011

A 100ft underwater turbine destined to form part of a major tidal energy project has been installed in the sea around Orkney. The one MW ( MW) device, which can power the annual electricity needs of 500 homes, will now undergo a series of tests to check its performance and reliability. It will eventually be used in the world's largest tidal stream energy development, in the Sound of Islay in the west of Scotland.

Those behind the project said the installation of the device at Orkney signalled a "major step forward for the global marine renewable energy industry". The HS1000 tidal turbine has been developed by the company Hammerfest Strom and was installed at the European Marine Energy Centre in Orkney. It will now enter a test period in preparation for larger-scale production.

It is the same machine that will be used by ScottishPower Renewables (SPR) as part of the world's first tidal turbine array in Islay. The £40 million project, aimed at harnessing the power of the sea to generate enough electricity for more than 5,000 homes, received planning consent from the Scottish Government in March.

Officials hope the Orkney tests will help them to finalise the timetable for the Islay project, with machines being installed as early as possible between 2013 and 2015. SPR chief executive Keith Anderson said: "We are delighted that the HS1000 turbine has been successfully installed in Orkney and Hammerfest engineers deserve huge credit for carrying out this difficult operation in very testing weather conditions. We look forward to monitoring its progress when fully operational next year.

"This is a major milestone in the development of tidal power technology in Scotland, and for the tidal power industry across the world. We anticipate using this turbine as part of our project in Islay, which will be the first of its kind in the world, and remains the only consented tidal array project in Scotland".

Strom Stein Atle Andersen, managing director of Hammerfest, said: "The device was installed in one of Europe's most challenging waters, during the roughest time of the year, which shows the extreme conditions the technology and the team is capable of handling".

Wind farm output exceeds expectations

2012-01-01T10:39:00.000+11:00

www.odt.co.nz
21 Dec 2011

Otago's largest wind farm Mahinerangi has produced 9% more electricity than expected in its first eight months of operation, delighting its owners. Twelve turbines were commissioned in March and, to the end of November, had "exceeded all expectations" and generated 82 GW, TrustPower community relations manager Graeme Purches said yesterday.

"We had expected to produce 103 GW per year based on our modelling, so it is staggering to have produced 82 GW in eight months. Our previous estimate was that Mahinerangi would produce enough electricity annually to power 13,000 average Dunedin homes. Based on its first eight months' performance we would have to revise that figure to 15,228".

July was the best month for electricity generation, 15 GW having been produced. Since the Danish-manufactured Vesta turbines began turning, wind speeds had been higher than expected and the turbines had been "very, very reliable", Mr Purches said. "The Vesta maintenance team at the site have done a great job of making sure the turbines are well placed to deliver when needed".

Steady winds within a good working range were required for best results from wind farms, Mr Purches said. TrustPower's research had shown the Mahinerangi site, on the northern side of Lake Mahinerangi about 50km west of Dunedin, would have steadier winds than another potential site nearby. The research had proved correct: the strongest wind gust recorded at Mahinerangi since March was "a little over 150kmh", and average wind gusts during July were 43kmh.. "This is good, because it means the site produces mostly steady winds with good oomph in them to power the turbines, without too many strong gusts... "Part of the reason for the lack of gusts is due to the gently undulating nature of the site.

This is one of the reasons we were keen on it, because rugged undulations can produce big gusts that cause machines to shut themselves down for safety reasons, or cause excessive wear and tear on the turbines", he said. The 12 turbines were constructed in seven months at cost of about $75 million and are stage 1 of the Mahinerangi wind farm. TrustPower has consent for a further 88 turbines at the site, a project which might cost $325 million. The company is also poised to begin stage 1 of the $450 million 120-turbine wind farm at Kaiwera Downs, 15km southeast of Gore.

However, Mr Purches said it was unable to proceed with either development until the question of who would pay for a planned upgrade of the HVDC electricity cable beneath Cook Strait was resolved. South Island generators carry the full operational cost of the cable because it was laid to take electricity to North Island consumers. They pay a charge per MW produced but want that changed because they say the charge makes it uneconomic for them to build hydropower-power stations or wind farms.

In a report released in June, an advisory group established by the Electricity Authority to look at the issue acknowledged changes were warranted and recommended costs be shared across all consumers in both Islands. No decision had yet been made, something Mr Purches said was "a shame". "The issue of the HVDC is still frustrating those of us who want to get on and build stuff in the South Island,.. Kaiwera in particular is currently sitting right on the cusp of being viable, with only HVDC holding it back. Until we have some certainty around these costs, the [TrustPower] board is unlikely to approve any capital expenditure on either project".

Japan says nuclear power cost may be 50% higher than estimated

2012-01-01T10:37:00.002+11:00

www.bloomberg.com
19 Dec 2011

nuclear power generation in Japan is about 50% more expensive than estimated after factoring in the cost of paying for an accident like the Fukushima disaster, a government panel said. nuclear power costs at least 8.9 yen (11¢) per kW, compared with a government estimate of 5.9 yen in 2004, the panel said in a draft report today. Coal is estimated to cost 9.5 yen per kW, while liquefied natural gas and oil cost 10.7 yen and 36 yen respectively.

Japan's government is reviewing its energy policy after the disaster at Tokyo Electric Power Co. (9501)'s Fukushima Dai-Ichi atomic station. The government will use the panel's findings to draw up a new energy policy that may call for reducing reliance on nuclear power. The committee estimated a catastrophe like Fukushima would cost a minimum of about 6 trillion yen ($77 billion), the report said. Each 1 trillion yen increase raises the cost of generation by 0.1 yen per kW, it said. The panel is headed by Katsuyuki Ishida, a senior vice-minister in the Cabinet Office.

By 2030, the cost of coal, LNG and oil power generation are estimated to rise to 10.3 yen, 10.9 yen and 38.9 yen per kW because of carbon emission costs and rising fuel prices, the report said. Wind power from turbines on land may fall to as low as 8.8 yen an hour by 2030 from 9.9 yen in 2010 as technological innovations make it cheaper, the panel said. Residential solar power generation is forecast to be 9.9 yen by 2030 from 33.4 yen last year.

E.ON makes multi-billion green energy investment

2011-12-29T12:09:00.001+11:00

www.maritimejournal.com
21 Dec 2011

E.ON is making another huge leap into green energy with a multi-billion investment of EUR7 billion for three new wind farms in the North and Baltic Seas. In the Baltic Sea, off Sweden's southern coast, E.ON is building Kårehamn wind farm which will become operational in 2013. Kårehamn will have a capacity of 48 MW and is costing around EUR120 million to build.

In the German North Sea, the energy giant is building Amrumbank West – a deepwater wind farm of 80 turbines costing EUR1 billion. It will have a total capacity of 288 MW. The farm will supply green energy to around 300,000 households and enter into service in 2015. Off the UK coast, the Humber Gateway wind farm is costing EUR850 million: this will have 219 MW capacity and enter into service in 2015. Both Kårehamn and Humber Gateway will use the new Vestas 3 MW V112 turbine.

Johannes Teyssen chief executive and chairman at E.ON said: "Renewables are a cornerstone of our strategy, and offshore wind is one of E.ON's growth areas. Going forward, we intend to commission a new offshore wind farm every 18 months. We have invested EUR7 billion in renewables during the past five years, and we will invest further EUR7 billion over the next five years as a substitute for other power generation."

Australian government is 'overstating renewables costs'

2011-12-29T12:02:00.000+11:00

www.rechargenews.com
22 Dec 2011

The Australian government's draft energy white paper overestimates both the current and future cost of major renewables technologies, claims a new study.

Using data gathered from local and international wind turbine and solar module buyers and sellers, Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) claims the official figures overstate the costs of solar power by up to a factor of three and wind power by 50%. The government's errors provide a "distorted view" of the contribution from individual technologies, says lead clean energy analyst Kobad Bhavnagri, author of the study. For example, BNEF estimates the capital costs of large-scale solar PV to have averaged $2.7m/ MW in 2011, and to be declining rapidly as a result of manufacturing economies of scale and technological innovation.

Adjusting for foreign exchange rates and the cost of labour in Australia, this translates to A$2.9m/ MW in the local market in 2011-up to about three times lower than the figures in the white paper, which was released last week. The main reason claimed for the discrepancy is that solar PV prices have been falling consistently for a number of years, and by some 34% since 2009. Using data points that are even a year out-of-date can result in cost assumptions that are too high. "Remarkably, it seems large-scale PV was not considered as a generation option in some white paper scenarios, despite the fact it is already widely used across the world with 11 GW in total installed capacity", adds Bhavnagri.

BNEF's study also suggests that the government modelling may not have taken into account the effects of increasing wind turbine efficiency. "Our expectation is that wind will be one of the least-cost generation options from 2030-50 and that wind power's share of generation will be higher than the white paper projections", BNEF says. A spokesperson for the Australian department of energy would not comment on the veracity of data contained in the white paper.

However, a government source says the draft has been released for "consultation and to encourage discussion", and does not determine Australia's energy policy. "Australia is a market economy, and ultimately it will be the interaction of the energy, carbon and Renewable Energy Certificate markets that will determine the composition of our electricity generation mix. The government does not prescribe specific technology outcomes", the source adds.

In the white paper-open for public consultation until March-the government says it wants to accelerate cleaner energy technologies through market-based mechanisms. But Australian Solar Energy Society chief executive John Grimes has accused it of "seriously underplaying" the importance of solar. Australia risks missing the international boom in small-scale solar, the industry claims, noting that China thinks PV will be as cheap as coal by 2021. In contrast, Australia's draft white paper predicts small-scale PV will cease to grow after 2030.

Wind farm opponents 'aided and abetted' by climate sceptic groups

2011-12-29T12:00:00.002+11:00

www.smh.com.au
20 Dec 2011

THE anti-wind farm movement that is gaining influence in the NSW Parliament is being ''aided and abetted'' by climate sceptic groups and some mining figures. The cabinet debated new wind farm guidelines yesterday, with division over whether NSW should follow Victoria and order wind turbines to be set further back from houses. The Shooters and Fishers Party, which shares the balance of power in the upper house with the Christian Democrats, said yesterday it wanted a moratorium on new wind farms.

Industry sources said a US Tea Party-style ''astroturf'' campaign, which mimics grassroots local opposition but is at least partly directed from elsewhere, was being waged against wind power in NSW, which was expected to bring up to $10 billion in investment this decade as it accelerated to meet the national 20% renewable energy target.

Wind farm opponents include a coalition of local groups under the banner ''landscape guardians'', and the Australian Environment Foundation, which sprang up seven years ago from a conference run by the right-wing think-tank the Institute of Public Affairs, but is now a separate group. ''Our role is, if you like, aiding and abetting what local communities are doing and helping them voice their disapproval over wind farms,'' said the foundation's executive director, Max Rheese.

While local groups say they believe the inaudible noise and vibration from wind farms affect human health, the foundation does not think humans have a role in causing climate change and therefore believes wind farms are an expensive extravagance. It hosted the British climate sceptic Lord Monckton last year and says it ''questions the whole science behind anthropogenic global warming''. Mr Rheese said the foundation had paid for anti-wind signs at public meetings and lobbied the Shooters and Fishers Party, and the National and Liberal parties in NSW.

The Shooters and Fishers MP Robert Borsak said yesterday the party would wait for the cabinet decision but would use its critical position in the upper house to oppose any pro-wind farm legislation that came to Parliament. The party had discussed wind farms with the foundation but had come up with its own policy calling for a moratorium and public inquiry into wind turbines, Mr Borsak said.

''We do probably see eye to eye with them on this and many issues, but this is a party position that we have finalised internally.'' The Premier, Barry O'Farrell, said in August it was his opinion that no new wind farms should be built in NSW, but it is understood there are divisions in cabinet about the issue.

The Nationals MP and Roads Minister, Duncan Gay, said yesterday his anti-wind farm views were well known and he hoped yesterday's cabinet meeting ''addresses the sins of the past''.

''I live at Crookwell; we've certainly come under the brunt of poor planning and lack of community consultation of wind farms in the past,.. It puts friends against friends, neighbours against neighbours.'' The Waubra Foundation is a national group arguing wind farms can cause illness because of the vibrations from turbines. It lodged a submission based on perceived health concerns with the government yesterday.

The chairman, Peter Mitchell, said his opposition to wind farms was based on health concerns and nothing to do with his background as a former director of oil and gas companies. ''The critics here are really playing shoot the messenger, which I find ridiculous,'' he said. The British equivalent of landscape guardians, ''country guardians'', was funded and supported by elements of the British nuclear power industry.

Labor's environment spokesman, Luke Foley, said ''flat earthers'' were running a scare campaign against wind power.

Much angst over wind turbines is just hot air

2011-12-29T11:59:00.000+11:00

www.brisbanetimes.com.au
21 Dec 2011

This year South Australia drew more than 20% of its electricity from wind turbines, while in Victoria the Baillieu government all but gutted the industry by requiring two-km set-backs from houses, ruling out new turbines in vast tracts of the state. As the O'Farrell government considers whether to follow Victoria or South Australia, it is timely to look at the culture of complaint that is hell-bent on demonising wind power.

The British Acoustics Bulletin has just published what is now the 10th independent review of the evidence on wind farms causing annoyance and ill health in people. And for the 10th time it has emphasised that annoyance has far more to do with social and psychological factors in those complaining than any direct effect from sound or inaudible infrasound emanating from wind turbines.

A few extracts give the flavour: "the degree of annoyance is only slightly related to noise level"; "the fact that someone was complaining was mainly determined by the personality of the individual"; "fear of the noise source can increase annoyance"; and "adverse feelings... were influenced by feelings of lacking control, being subjected to injustice, lacking influence, and not being believed".

Two factors repeatedly stand out. The first is being able to see wind turbines, which increases annoyance particularly in those who dislike or fear them. The second factor is whether people derive income from hosting turbines, which miraculously appears to be a highly effective antidote to feelings of annoyance and symptoms.

Wind companies don't publicise what they pay landowners each year to host turbines, as it varies with topographical conditions and the amount of energy that can be generated. So each price is negotiated. I have heard amounts from $7000 to $18,000. A landowner with ideal topography, such as accessible windy ridges, can drought-proof the farm by turning generally useless land into a major earner requiring zero labour and investment.

Meanwhile, neighbours with unfavourable topography look on with envy and worry about the relative re-sale value of their land. Some worry themselves sick. But this is a story no different to those who envy neighbours with the good luck to have mineral deposits, some tourism advantage or who sell to a developer.

Anti-wind farm groups argue that there are many angry turbine hosts who have signed gag clauses preventing them from speaking out. I've collected blank contract forms from Australian companies and none that I've seen contains such clauses. No contract would indemnify any person being harmed from a claim of negligence, so the silence is telling.

Other indications of the sociogenic nature of "wind turbine syndrome" are the recency and the anglophone nature of the complaints. There are an estimated 120,000-plus turbines globally, with major construction now occurring in India and China. I have lived and holidayed in France where turbines can be seen in many parts of the country. Public health colleagues and neighbours there looked blank when I asked about negative public opinion or health problems. Three friends who recently walked northern Spain's pilgrims trail reported the same mystified conversations.

Complaining about wind farms appears confined largely to parts of Australia, Canada, the US, Britain and New Zealand. And these complaints have accelerated in the past five years, despite turbines having been operational in many locations for more than 20 years. This contagious "wind turbine syndrome" - a condition not recognised by any international disease classification system and which appears not once in any title or abstract in the massive US National Library of Medicine's PubMed database-appears to be spread by the vector of anti-wind farm activist groups.

In Australia, the leading opponents are the Waubra Foundation and the Australian Landscape Guardians, which share a post office box with a mining investment company, Lowell Resources. Australian Landscape Guardians has been totally silent on any other intrusion on the landscape, apparently unperturbed by mining, highway construction or suburban encroachment.

Simon Chapman is professor of public health at the Sydney University. He has no financial associations with any wind power company.

Wind farm firm seeks hearing on noise rules

2011-12-27T12:25:00.001+11:00

www.smh.com.au
19 Dec 2011

THE wind farm industry has lobbied the state government to drop the contested issue of possible health impacts from guidelines that will determine the future of wind power in NSW. The draft guidelines are being finalised and may be considered by cabinet as early as today. After a briefing from state Department of Planning officials in July, the wind farm developer Infigen Energy wrote to the department, saying the proposed regulation of ''infrasound'' should be scrapped before public release.

Retaining the regulation would give ''credence to the falsehood that wind farms emit infrasound levels anywhere close to the level that can be perceived by human beings, let alone cause any detrimental health effects'', Infigen Energy wrote. Anti-wind farm advocates claim infrasound-sound emissions from wind turbines in frequencies below human hearing range-can harm the health of nearby residents. In the letter, dated July 22, Infigen Energy also said that following the Victorian government in imposing a 2km buffer between homes and wind farms would lead to ''legalised extortion'' by residents.

Wind energy has been a contentious issue for the O'Farrell government, the Planning Minister, Brad Hazzard, directing his department to seek maximum community consultation on new projects. A motion was passed at the NSW Nationals' conference in October for a moratorium on new projects. Up to 19 applications are being frozen while the government decides how to balance competing interests. Mr O'Farrell has said it is his ''personal view'' that no more wind farms should be approved.

The Greens MP John Kaye accused the government of ''frustrating'' the development of the industry, saying some projects were already subject to public exhibition periods up to three times as long as other major projects. The Sapphire Wind Farm, for example, has an exhibition period of 99 days. ''As soon as it got into office, the O'Farrell government translated the hostility of some of its senior ministers into a policy of deliberately frustrating new wind projects,'' Dr Kaye said.

Residents from the anti-wind farm Flyers Creek Wind Turbine Awareness Group will present a submission to the planning department today opposing the new Flyers Creek Wind Farm, presently on exhibition. Another anti-wind farm group, the Landscape Guardians, said the government refused to meet them until October, despite briefing the industry on the draft guidelines in July. ''The democratic process has been turned on its head here where people are subject to wind turbine development because of inappropriate siting that's causing enormous stress and concern in rural communities,'' said Humphrey Price-Jones from the Landscape Guardians.

But a spokesman for the planning department said the July briefing, attended by Infigen Energy and other companies, was to explain the impact on wind farms of the repeal of Part 3A of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act. No lobby groups had seen the draft guidelines, which would be released for public comment before being finalised, the spokesman said. Health impacts had been ''thoroughly researched and considered'' in their development.

An Infigen Energy spokesman, Richard Farrell, said regulating infrasound was nonsensical because ''the government's own acoustic expert has stated it is impossible for a wind farm to exceed the accepted infrasound limit of 85 DB(G) without seriously exceeding NSW's audible noise limit for wind farms''. ''It clearly makes no sense to add expensive regulatory testing requirements that cannot be failed,'' Mr Farrell said.

Court blow to solar power subsidy cut

2011-12-27T12:24:00.000+11:00

www.independent.co.uk
16 Dec 2011

Government plans to slash solar power subsidies were dealt a blow yesterday, after a High Court judge ordered an urgent hearing into the move. Mr Justice Mitting ordered a judicial review to be held next week into the Government's decision to halve so-called feed-in tariff solar power subsidies after hearing an application by Friends of the Earth. In a joint application with the photovoltaic companies, Solarcentury and HomeSun, Friends of the Earth argued that the Government's decision to introduce the subsidy cut on Monday-11 days before the consultation period ends on 23 December-was illegal.

On Monday, the tariff subsidy fell from 43.3p per kW to 21p, just six weeks after the proposals were announced. After a three-hour hearing yesterday, Mr Justice Mitting said the proposals had given rise to "economic risk" for those individuals and companies engaged in the solar industry, and that the challenge should be heard as a matter of urgency next Tuesday and Wednesday.

If the judge finds the Government behaved unlawfully, the consultation will need to begin again, adding weeks, or possibly months, to the date when a new tariff rate can be introduced. Daniel Green, the chief executive of HomeSun, said: "Having an 'effective date' in the middle of a consultation is not only unlawful but it could set a dangerous precedent for all future government consultations. "It's a bit like having a trial and executing the defendant halfway through", he added.

Andy Atkins, Friends of the Earth's executive director, said: "We're delighted the High Court has given the go-ahead to our legal challenge-we believe government plans to abruptly slash solar subsidies are not only unfair, but illegal. These proposals have already had a disastrous impact on the solar industry". Mr Atkins added: "Fledgling clean businesses have had the rug pulled from under their feet and a shadow hangs over thousands of jobs".

Friends of the Earth warns that between 18,000 and 29,000 of UK solar industry jobs are at risk from the subsidy cuts, along with as much as £230m of annual VAT and income tax revenues. Furthermore, opponents to the subsidy cut argue that the swift and dramatic reduction in solar tariffs has undermined confidence among potential investors across the energy industry who can no longer be sure the Government won't "move the goalposts" in other areas. The decision to hold a judicial hearing into the solar power subsidy cut comes a week after the European Commission threatened its own action over the Government's move.

CGA launches solar power system on Taiping Island

2011-12-27T12:22:00.001+11:00

www.taiwantoday.tw
14 Dec 2011

A solar power system on Taiping Island in the South China Sea has been successfully installed and begun operations, according to the ROC Coast Guard Administration Dec. 13. The system is in accordance with a plan outlined last November by ROC President Ma Ying-jeou to transform Taiping into Taiwan's southernmost low-carbon island and to reaffirm ROC sovereignty over the territory, the CGA added. Chang Te-hao, director of the CGA's Southern Coastal Patrol Office, said the electricity on Taiping Island is mostly generated by diesel.

"The solar power system can help cut diesel usage by 125,826 liters and reduce carbon emissions by 329 metric tons per year. It is expected to generate 175,920 kW-hours per year and save NT$4.73 million (US$156,106) in electricity costs annually", he said. According to the CGA, the new power system includes solar photovoltaic and solar hot water systems, as well as energy-saving electrical equipment.

"The installation of solar power system on the island will be expanded in the future", Chang said. "Energy-consuming equipment such as air conditioners, indoor lighting, refrigerators, road lamps and water heaters will all be changed into ones that save energy". Located 1,400 km off Taiwan proper, Taiping is the largest of the Nansha (Spratly) Islands. In addition to Nansha, the ROC also exercises sovereignty over the Dongsha (Pratas), Xisha (Paracel) and Zhongsha (Macclesfield) Islands in the South China Sea. (HZW)

Installing 12kW solar power system just got easier, says Soitec

2011-12-22T10:16:00.003+11:00

www.electronicsweekly.com
13 Dec 2011

Soitec has expanded its family of concentrator photovoltaic (CPV) products with a model that it claims is the first stand-alone mini-tracker for panels measuring 3m². The target solar power application for the stand-alone mini-tracker, dubbed Plug&Sun, is to supplement or replace existing power generators or other forms of renewable energy in sunny regions with no power grid or unreliable grid connections. The supplier claims efficiency close to 30%. The system uses a two-axis tracker to generate up to 2.3kWp of electricity.

The France-based supplier expects the mini-tracker to be used to bring electricity to an isolated village, to equip a school or a hospital with electrical infrastructure. It can also be used to power RF antennas. "We wanted to make it possible to use our technology in geographical regions where access to electricity is difficult to get", said Andre-Jacques Auberton-Herve, president and CEO of Soitec. "It takes just a few hours to set up three Plug&Sun mini-trackers, which can generate 12kW on a daily basis, the equivalent of the amount of electricity needed for a village", said Auberton-Herve. Soitec has begun taking prototype orders for the Plug&Sun system. Shipments of production units to customers are expected to begin in the course of 2012.

Japan says stricken nuclear power plant in cold shutdown

2011-12-22T10:15:00.002+11:00

www.reuters.co
16 Dec 2011

TOKYO, Dec 16 (Reuters)-Japan declared its tsunami-stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant to be in cold shutdown on Friday, taking a major step to resolving the world's worst nuclear crisis in 25 years but some critics questioned whether the plant was really under control. The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station, 240 km (150 miles) northeast of Tokyo, was wrecked on March 11 by a huge earthquake and a towering tsunami which knocked out its cooling systems, triggering meltdowns, radiation leaks and mass evacuations.

In making the much-anticipated announcement, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda tried to draw a line under the most acute phase of the crisis and highlighted the next challenges: the clean-up and the safe dismantling of the plant, something the government says may take more than 30 years. "The reactors have reached a state of cold shutdown", Noda told a government nuclear emergency response meeting. "A stable condition has been achieved", he added, noting radiation levels at the boundary of the plant could now be kept at low levels, even in the event of "unforeseeable incidents".

A cold shutdown is when water used to cool nuclear fuel rods remains below boiling point, preventing the fuel from reheating. One of the chief aims of the plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco), had been to bring the reactors to that state by the year-end. The declaration of a cold shutdown could have repercussions well beyond the plant. It is a government pre-condition for allowing about 80,000 residents evacuated from within a 20 km (12 mile) radius of the plant to go home.

Both Noda and his environment and nuclear crisis minister Goshi Hosono said that while the government still faced huge challenges, the situation at the plant was under control. That provoked an angry response from senior local officials, Greenpeace and some reporters even as the Vienna-based UN nuclear agency welcomed "significant progress" at the plant. "We hope that this will be a fresh step towards going back home but it does not change the fact that the path to bringing the crisis under control is long and tough", Fukushima governor Yuhei Sato said, according to the Asahi newspaper website.

Greenpeace dismissed the announcement as a publicity stunt. "By triumphantly declaring a cold shutdown, the Japanese authorities are clearly anxious to give the impression that the crisis has come to an end, which is clearly not the case", Greenpeace Japan said in a statement. Hosono acknowledged that there were some areas where it would be difficult to bring people back and said there could be small difficulties here and there, but he told a briefing: "I believe there will be absolutely no situation in which problems escalate and nearby residents are forced to evacuate".

The water temperature in all three of the affected reactors fell below boiling point by September, but Tepco had said it would declare a state of cold shutdown only once it was satisfied that the temperatures and the amount of radiation emitted from the plant remained stable. Jonathan Cobb, an expert at the British-based World Nuclear Association, said the authorities had been conservative in choosing the timing of the announcement.

"The government has delayed declaration of cold shutdown conditions, one reason being to ensure that the situation at the plant was stable", Cobb said, adding that the evacuation zone should get progressively smaller as more of it was decontaminated. Kazuhiko Kudo, professor of nuclear engineering at Kyushu University, said authorities needed to determine exactly the status of melted fuel inside the reactors and stabilise a makeshift cooling system, which handles the tens of thousands of tonnes of contaminated water accumulated on-site.

Huge Costs, Anxiety
The government and Tepco will aim to begin removing the undamaged nuclear rods from the plant's spent fuel pools next year. However, retrieval of fuel that melted down in their reactors may not begin for another decade. The enormous cost of the cleanup and compensating the victims has drained Tepco financially. The government may inject about $13 billion into the company as early as next summer in a de facto nationalisation, sources told Reuters last week.

An official advisory panel estimates Tepco may have to pay about 4.5 trillion yen ($57 billion) in compensation in the first two years after the nuclear crisis, and that it will cost 1.15 trillion yen to decommission the plant, though some experts put it at 4 trillion yen ($51 billion) or even more. Japan also faces a massive cleanup task outside the east coast plant if residents are to be allowed to go home. The Environment Ministry says about 2,400 square km (930 square miles) of land around the plant may need to be decontaminated, an area roughly the size of Luxembourg.

The crisis shook the public's faith in nuclear power and Japan is now reviewing an earlier plan to raise the proportion of electricity generated from nuclear power to 50% by 2030 from 30% in 2010. Japan may not immediately walk away from nuclear power, but few doubt that nuclear power will play a lesser role in future. Living in fear of radiation is part of life for residents both near and far from the plant. Cases of excessive radiation in vegetables, tea, milk, seafood and water have stoked anxiety despite assurances from public officials that the levels detected are not dangerous. Chernobyl's experience shows that anxiety is likely to persist for years, with residents living near the former Soviet plant still regularly checking produce for radiation before consuming it 25 years after the disaster.

EON invests $9 Billion in renewables as Germany drops nuclear

2011-12-22T10:01:00.002+11:00

www.bloomberg.com
16 Dec 2011

E.ON AG, Germany's biggest utility, said it's investing 7 billion euros ($9.1 billion) in renewable energy projects over the next five years as the country drops nuclear power generation. E.ON plans to build at least three offshore wind projects, including the 1 billion-euro Amrumbank West farm in the North Sea, Dusseldorf-based E.ON said in an e-mailed statement today. Siemens AG, Europe's biggest engineering company, will supply the the 288- MW plant with 80 of its turbines.

"Renewables are a cornerstone of our strategy, and offshore wind is one of E.ON's growth areas", Chief Executive Officer Johannes Teyssen said in the statement. "We intend to commission a new offshore wind farm every 18 months". Germany, Europe's biggest economy, seeks to install 10,000 MWs of sea-based wind turbines this decade as it raises the share of renewables and phases out atomic energy. Utilities including E.ON and RWE AG (RWE) are selling assets and cutting jobs to lower costs and boost profit margins as the nuclear exit removes revenue streams.

E.ON is cutting as many as 11,000 positions and announced a 64% slide in nine-month profit, in part because of the phase-out. The utility plans a 219- MW wind farm off the U.K, and a 48- MW facility off Sweden's southern Baltic Sea coast. Both projects, which have a combined cost of about 970 million euros, will use turbines supplied by Vestas Wind Systems AS, E.ON said. Japan's Fukushima Dai-Ichi disaster in March spurred Chancellor Angela Merkel's government to revise its nuclear power policy with a plan to shut the country's 17 reactors by 2022.

Uranium stocks looking ugly post-Fukushima as short-interest rises

2011-12-20T11:29:00.001+11:00

www.forbes.com
12 Dec 2011

Uranium markets are still on the ropes, even nine months after the terrible natural disaster that caused a partial meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan. Market sentiment has turned even more negative, as short-interest in uranium mining equities has increased substantially as of late, according to Data Explorers.

The nuclear power industry has been under fire after the Japanese disaster, with uranium markets taking much of the hit. The Global X Uranium ETF (URA), which acts as a proxy for the sector, is down more than 58% this year to $8.56, while spot uranium prices have tumbled from highs near $75 per pound to around $52, according to TradeTech and the Ux Consulting Company, which prepare the two most widespread uranium price indices.

Investors violently shorted uranium miners via the URA after the accident, with demand to borrow URA shares surging 10% since March. Short-covering in August, which happened to coincide with a global sell-off in equity markets, brought the short-interest to a nearly insignificant level, Data Explorers explained. But investor sentiment remains skewed against uranium miners. Short-interest has moved from the URA to individual stocks. Looking at the top 10 holdings of URA, "average short-interest has increased 25% over a three month period to 6% of total shares", wrote analysts at Data Explorers.

Uranium Energy Corp, and USEC have been among the most heavily shorted stocks in the group. Short-interest in USEC peaked in July at 26% of shares outstanding, falling to 16% by December, as the stock fell to yearly lows. USEC is down 79% this year despite "the highest level of institutional ownership of funds who lend" at about a third of market cap, said the Data Explorers. "Short interest and long flow in Uranium Energy Corp, has reduced at a rate of 5%", explained the analysts, even though it still stands high at 15% of shares outstanding.

Moving on to Cameco, the world's largest uranium producer, short interest appears low at 3%. But given a $7.1 billion market cap and a marked 40% increase in borrowing demand for its shares over the last three months, it appears that negative sentiment is on the rise. Short interest in Cameco stood at 3% of shares outstanding as the share price continues to bounce along the bottom of its yearly range.

Within the uranium industry, some are trying to convince themselves of a bullish long-term trend for prices. TradeTech notes that despite a 9% drop in uranium demand between now and 2025 (given the German and Swiss plans to phase out nuclear power and Italy's plans to abandon nuclear power, among other delays), a potential supply/demand gap could provide support for prices, "While the Fukushima crisis is clearly a setback for nuclear, the industry shouldn't lose sight of the fact that the overall trend in demand is moving upward, due in large part to projected nuclear power growth in China and other nations around the world", said TradeTech president Treva Klingbiel. The outlook in the short-term, though, remains very bleak.

Fire breaks out at waste facility of Tsuruga nuclear plant

2011-12-20T11:27:00.003+11:00

mdn.mainichi.jp
13 Dec 2011

TSURUGA, Japan (Kyodo) -- A fire broke out Monday evening at a waste disposal facility of a nuclear power plant in Tsuruga, Fukui Prefecture, but no one was injured and there was no environmental impact, the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said. The fire started at 7:50 p.m. on power-supply equipment of the waste disposal facility for the No. 1 reactor of Japan Atomic Power Co.'s plant, the agency said. The reactor is currently offline due to regular checkups. The incident followed similar fire accidents that occurred at the plant on the Sea of Japan coast since May.

Korean nuclear reactor stops operation

2011-12-20T11:26:00.001+11:00

www.koreaherald.com
14 Dec 2011

A nuclear reactor in South Korea stopped operating Tuesday for unknown reasons, a state-run nuclear power plant operator said. The Unit-1 reactor with a capacity of 1-million kW in Uljin, 330 km southeast of Seoul, came to a standstill at around 8 p.m., according to the Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Co. The plant operator said it is working to find the cause of the stoppage. In October this year, another nuclear reactor at the same plant stopped operations due to a malfunction of the coolant pump.

Three Gorges to invest $269 million in China Power for renewables

2011-12-19T14:27:00.000+11:00

www.bloomberg.com
12 Dec 2011

China Three Gorges Corp., operator of the nation's biggest dam, agreed to pay HK$2.1 billion ($269 million) for a 29.1% stake in renewable energy producer China Power International New Energy Development Co. (735) China Power International New Energy will issue 3.2 billion new shares at HK$0.65 each to China Three Gorges, the Hong Kong-listed company said in a statement to the city's stock exchange today. China Power International New Energy said it will use the proceeds to fund power generation projects.

China is pushing its companies to increase power generation from alternative sources including wind and hydropower as it seeks to cut reliance on coal and oil to reduce pollution. China Three Gorges, which operates the world's largest hydropower power dam, will become the biggest shareholder in China Power International New Energy. The purchase will create "opportunities for the company's further expansion through leveraging the hydropower power capabilities and expertise" of China Three Gorges, China Power International New Energy said in the statement.

New dye will lead to more efficient solar energy technology

2011-12-19T14:25:00.001+11:00

insciences.org
12 Dec 2011

A North Carolina State University invention has significant potential to improve the efficiency of solar cells and other technologies that derive energy from light. Dr. Ahmed El-Shafei's research group invented a new "sensitizer", or dye, that harvests more ambient and solar light than any dyes currently on the market for use in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs).

"A third-party solar power company compared our new dye, NCSU-10, against the state-of-the-art dye on the market. Our dye had 14% more power density", says El-Shafei, an assistant professor in the Textile Engineering, Chemistry and Science department. "In other words, NCSU-10 allows us to harvest more energy from the same amount of light".

The new dye should significantly boost the efficiency of DSSCs, which have a host of applications. Indoors, these DSSCs can be used in technology to power cellular phones, laptop computers and MP3 players using ambient light. Outdoors, they could be used in conventional solar arrays or in improved energy-driven applications for building-integrated photovoltaic products including, but not limited to, windows, facades and skylights. Compared to the state-of-the-art dye on the market, NCSU-10 can absorb more photons at lower dye concentrations, and can therefore be used to create more effective solar cells on windows and facades while still allowing the windows to be highly transparent.

DSSCs are made of inexpensive and environmentally benign materials including a dye, an electrolyte and titanium dioxide (TiO2)-the white component used in toothpaste. DSSCs work by absorbing photons, or discrete packets of light energy, from incident light (or direct light that falls on a surface) to create free electrons in nanoporous semiconductors such as TiO2, in the cell. These electrons travel to the outside circuit to generate an electric current. Owing to their independence on the angle of incident light and high response to low level of lighting conditions, DSSCs outperform conventional silicon photovoltaic by 20 to 40% under diffuse light, on cloudy and/or rainy days, and in indoor ambient light, which make DSSCs a unique class of photovoltaics.

A patent is pending on the new dye, and the university is in communication with potential industry partners about licensing use of NCSU-10, as well as funding additional research in this area.

Thousands caught out by solar panel deadline

2011-12-19T14:22:00.002+11:00

www.telegraph.co.uk
12 Dec 2011

One of Britain's largest solar panel installers, Homesun, said 2,500 of its customers who had missed today's deadline to avoid a 50pc cut in subsidy for self-generated electricity. In a sudden decision last month, the Government said it would halve the amount it would pay those who generate electricity from photovoltaic panels.

Daniel Green, chief executive of Homesun, said the company would aim to help these people, who will be significantly disadvantaged by the cut. He indicated that they could be offered free or deeply discounted panels. "We have paid a lot to have this relationship with these people and they have invested a lot of time", he said.

Consumers had rushed to register their panels before the deadline expired. The Microgeneration Certification scheme said it had provided installers with up to 9,000 certificates for the panels every day in the past week, compared to volumes of about 500 a day before that. After today, those who install and register solar panels will see a 50pc fall in the amount they receive for every kW generated, with the total per unit falling from 43.3p to 21p per kW. The "export" tariff, which is the additional 3.1p per kW for any electricity sold on to the grid, will not change.

Customers who had already signed contracts for panels have scrambled to register their installations before the date, with some fearing that they will lose out. The timing of the move has been criticised by environmental campaigners and the green energy industry. They claim that the decision will cost thousands of jobs.

Plugging into the electric-car era

2011-12-14T13:04:00.001+11:00

www.smh.com.au
12 Dec 2011

AS ELECTRIC cars trickle on to Australian roads, companies that operate recharge facilities are gearing up for big business. Electric car infrastructure company Better Place is valued at $2.25 billion and plans to create the world's largest electric car network in Australia. ''By the end of 2013 we are looking at hundreds of battery-switch stations across Australia and tens of thousands of locations where people can recharge,'' Better Place Australia head of strategy Ben Keneally said.

The next stage is the eastern seaboard, with similar infrastructure in the pipeline for Melbourne. ''We are in discussion with many property owners about where we will place the battery-swapping stations. It will start with a few dozen in Melbourne but will expand over time. We have to have enough so that they are in the locations people want to go as the cars become more commonplace,'' Mr Keneally said. ''Range anxiety''-a fear of electric cars running out of charge on a journey, is a key barrier to mass adoption of electric cars, he said.

''For most people, plugging in at night is all you need to do; that will give you 100 to 200 km of range. For those occasions when you are driving further, you need a way of quickly recharging and continuing.'' Battery-swapping stations provide the ideal solution. Motorists swipe a membership card, pass through boom gates and park on an automatic track similar to a car wash. A metal arm reaches beneath the car, removes the 280kg battery and replaces it with a recharged one. The process takes about four minutes.

The company recently secured $200 million in funding from investors and partners including General Electric and global banking group UBS. In the next few months it will launch a commercial electric car network in Israel and Denmark. Mr Keneally said Australia was an ideal location for an electric car network because petrol was expensive.

''Petrol is the single most hated purchase in people's lives. Because we live in suburbs, are very car dependent and drive larger cars than people in Europe, our average petrol bills are quite high.'' He said access to off-street parking also made Australia suitable for an electric car network. Better Place has been in talks with local, state and federal governments about regulatory issues involved in rolling out the network. ''There are a lot of laws and regulations we never anticipated,'' Mr Keneally said. The company, which will use 100% green energy, also must negotiate with councils that own kerbsides.

First atlantic floating offshore wind turbine deployed

2011-12-13T16:23:00.000+11:00

www.renewableenergyworld.com
7 Dec 2011

New Hampshire, USA--The offshore wind industry passed a milestone recently with the installation of the world's first floating offshore wind turbine off the coast of Agucadoura, Portugal. The WindFloat project consists of a 2 MW semi-submersible wind turbine that can be deployed without heavy machinery. Principle Power, Inc., a Seattle-based offshore wind developer, and Energias de Portugal, a Portuguese utility, worked with more than 60 other vendors in the WindPlus JV group. The turbine was assembled onshore in a controlled environment before it was transported to the sea and towed more than 217 miles to open water.

CEO of Principle Power Alla Weinstein said in a written statement, "In a way we are making a similar leap towards new energy resources as the Oil & Gas industry did in the 1970's when it began using floating structures". The structure will undergo trial operations, commissioning and startup procedures over the next few weeks. These procedures will include a full production capacity test. The WindFloat technology decreases wave and wind-induced motions, which allows a large turbine to be placed in waters with depths of more that 164 feet, where it is able to capture stronger winds. The platform allows for the use of any off-the-shelf turbine.

"The (deep) ocean is the next big energy frontier", said Antonio Vidigal, CEO of EDP Inovacao, in a press release. "Deep offshore wind technology, in particular the WindFloat, will allow us to harness stronger and more stable winds, and in the medium term deliver sustainable energy into our electrical system. Now is the time for extensive testing and validation, moving forward in the development of this promising technology. The WindFloat positions EDP on the leading edge of offshore wind exploration".

Brazil's wind power growth draws international investors

2011-12-13T16:21:00.002+11:00

www.upi.com
9 Dec 2011

RIO DE JANEIRO, Dec. 9 (UPI)--Brazil's burgeoning wind power industry is drawing international investors to northeastern regions of the country, the hub of most tangible growth in the sector. Wind power use is taking off worldwide and a new impetus was given to this key renewable energy sector with the emergence of new do-it-yourself turbines for running household appliances. In northeastern Brazil, industry planners said they expect industry standard wind power capacity to grow eight-fold by 2014. Current wind power capacity is estimated at 1,400 MWs.

By 2025 that installed capacity will likely rise to 31.6 GWs, industry analysts said. Brazil is Latin America's largest wind power market. Lower production prices, government incentives and Brazil's soaring electricity demand have attracted a number of significant foreign players. France's Alstom opened a wind turbine manufacturing plant in Bahia, which has attracted investors because of its high wind speeds and low incidence of storms. The rise of cheaper wind power has enabled the service providers to compete successfully for a share of Brazil's national supply of electricity.

Wobben Windpower, a subsidiary of German group Enercon GmBH, set up the first wind turbine factory in Brazil in the 1990s and the company expects to install 22 wind farms with a total capacity of 554 MW by the end of 2012. Enercon GmBH, which has headquarters Aurich, Germany, is the market leader in Germany since the mid-1990s and the fourth-largest wind turbine manufacturer in the world. The lucrative wind power market has drawn other players, including Spain's Gamesa, Argentina's Impsa, Germany's Siemens and Denmark's Vestas, the world biggest wind turbine manufacturer, GE Wind from the United States and India's Suzlon Energy.

French engineering giant Alstom inaugurated a wind turbine manufacturing plant in Bahia's industrial complex of Camacari near Salvador, Bahia's state capital. Alstom said it would try to match its 40% market share in the Brazilian hydropower plant sector, Brazil's main source of electricity generation. Meanwhile, consumer interest in wind power is growing and manufacturers are responding with products that households can use. Oklahoman firm Bergey Windpower said its best-selling BWC Excel 10 wind turbine is the first to receive full certification to a new AWEA Small Wind Turbine Performance and Safety Standard.

"This new standard is the most significant milestone in the history of the small wind industry because it provides, for the first time, third-party verification of real world performance and a highly technical review of a turbine's strength and safety", said Mike Bergey, president of Bergey Windpower and the 2011 president of the Distributed Wind Energy Association. The Bergey Excel 10 is a 23-foot diameter horizontal-axis turbine designed to provide the annual energy requirements for homes, farms and small businesses. More than 2,000 Excel turbines have been installed in 46 states and more than 50 countries. It has only three moving parts, requires no annual maintenance and was the first small wind turbine to carry a 10-year warranty. Bergey Windpower introduced a new 5- kW turbine in September and it is undergoing certification testing at the Alternative Energy Institute in Texas.

A Tougher and lighter wind turbine blade design

2011-12-13T16:20:00.004+11:00

cleantechnica.com
11 Dec 2011

A researcher from Case Western Reserve University has designed a stronger and lighter wind turbine blade design. First, a little insight into the issue of blade strength: As superior as large wind turbines are where cost and performance are concerned, the weight of their blades can cause problems. It is difficult to make such long (more than 200-feet in diameter) blades strong enough to bear their own weight, and especially at high speeds.

There is a tendency of objects in general to resist a change of speed (velocity)-called inertia. It affects everything that moves. When the wind turns a wind turbine blade, the rest of the blades are forced to move with it since they share the same hub (the rotating part at the center of the turbine). However, the weight of the blades impedes that by holding them back.

It is almost as if there is a force pulling back on the blades, and this force actually bends the blade a little, but the problem with this is the blades are not really flexible--therefore, instead of bending, they break. This force (inertia) is the same one that you have to overcome when you first start running, and when you are trying to accelerate your vehicle. This is why vehicles burn additional fuel to accelerate. Weight adds to this inertia problem, which is why heavier objects (such as vehicles) are harder to stop and harder to get moving. Typical wind turbine blades are designed to withstand the stress that normal operation would cause, so they don't break often.

This is why the same problem of inertia can be improved by making wind turbine blades both lighter, to reduce inertia itself, and stronger, to better withstand the inertia they are subjected to,.. and of course at a reasonable cost. Lighter wind turbine blades are easier to turn, and hence more efficient. So this is also important to their performance. Back to the new blade design: The researcher from Case Western Reserve University designed the 29-inch blades for a 400-watt turbine using polyurethane (a polymer) and reinforced it with carbon nanotubes.

"The idea behind all this is the need to develop stronger and lighter materials which will enable manufacturing of blades for larger rotors", Loos said. "Results of mechanical testing for the carbon nanotube reinforced polyurethane show that this material outperforms the currently used resins for wind blades applications", said Ica Manas-Zloczower, professor of macromolecular science and engineering and associate dean in the Case School of Engineering. "They will be used to emphasize the significant potential of carbon nanotube reinforced polyurethane systems for use in the next generation of wind turbine blades". Carbon nanotubes are still very expensive, but can be extremely lightweight and very strong compared to all-metal and composite materials.

Whisper on wind farm

2011-12-13T16:20:00.001+11:00

www.themercury.com.au
6 Dec 2011

THE State Government is expected to announce today that work will start immediately on the long-awaited Musselroe wind farm in the state's North-East. The Mercury can also reveal that giant Danish wind generator company Vestas has won the contract to supply the turbines for the venture. Up to 200 people will be employed during the construction of the $400 million wind farm.

Musselroe will have 56 x 3 MW turbines, which will make it the biggest wind farm in Tasmania. The Musselroe wind farm has been planned for seven years but its original proponent, Hydro-owned Roaring 40s, folded in April. Hydro Tasmania chief executive Roy Adair has repeatedly said higher electricity prices caused by a carbon tax would see the Musselroe Bay wind farm developed. Last month he said the company was committed to wind farm expansion to complement its generation assets, which made it Australia's largest renewable energy generator.

The financial partner in the Musselroe project is expected to be announced soon. In the meantime, the project will be funded on Hydro Tasmania's balance sheet pending the outcome of the divestment process of Woolnorth wind farm assets, announced by Hydro Tasmania in September. The two Woolnorth wind farms are located on the far north-west tip of the state on the Woolnorth grazing property. Vestas also built the turbines on the Woolnorth farms.

Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark toured the Macarthur wind farm with Vestas CEO Ditlev Engellate last month during his official visit to Victoria with Princess Mary. Musselroe will be eclipsed in size if the $500 million, 100-turbine Cattle Hill wind farm, near Lake Echo in the state's Central Highlands, is approved. Approval for the development is yet to be granted by the Central Highlands Council and the Federal Government.

Enel Initiates two new Spanish wind farms

2011-12-12T13:03:00.001+11:00

www.smartmeters.com
5 Dec 2011

Enel Green Power has initiated two new plants in Spain: the 38 MW Los Llanos wind farm, located in the Castilla y Leon Region, and the 24 MW Granujales wind farm, located near Cadiz, in Andalusia. The plants, with a combined capacity of 62 MW, are expected to produce over 151 GW annually, enough to power more than 55,700 households and reducing CO₂ emissions by 112,000 tons.

The Los Llanos wind farm has 19 wind turbines of 2 MW each, while the The Granujales wind farm has 12 wind turbines of 2 MW each. Enel Green Power is also adding an additional 4 MW to the Alvaiazere wind farm in Portugal, which is already operational. The expanded wind farm will have an estimated production of 50.2 GW, enough to power 18,900 households while saving 37,100 tons of CO₂.

Enel Green Power chief executive officer, Francesco Starace, explains, "The launch of new wind capacity in the Iberian peninsula reinforces Enel Green Power's commitment to the development of the Spanish and Portuguese markets. Our aim in these countries is to start operating our pre-registered projects, in line with the established timing schedule and projected sector growth".

Enel Green Power develops and manages power generation from renewable sources at the international level, as well as a presence in Europe and the Americas. Enel Green Power's installed capacity exceeds 6,100 MW, produced by more than 620 operational plants located throughout the world, with a generation mix that includes wind, solar, hydropower, geothermal and biomass.

Wind farm firm to take permits stoush to VCAT

2011-12-12T13:02:00.001+11:00

www.abc.net.au
30 Nov 2011

The proponent of a 15-turbine wind farm in the Moyne Shire will ask the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) to overturn a council decision against extending planning permits for the project. The Moyne council says NewEn Australia will have to reapply for permits for the Salt Creek wind farm, near Woorndoo, and must comply with new shire and State Government planning guidelines.

However, the company's managing director, Ernst Weyhausen, says the Government does not require projects that had already been given planning permission to comply with the new rules. "The State Government said it doesn't apply to existing permits and that existing permits can be extended through to March of next year", he said. "The council introduced its own policy back in August that also requires a two-km exclusion zone. However, that policy was never communicated to us".

Origin Energy buying electricity from Gunning Wind Farm

2011-12-11T11:50:00.001+11:00

www.energymatters.com.au
23 Nov 2011

Origin Energy has expanded its renewable energy portfolio, entering into a long-term power purchase agreement to buy electricity from ACCIONA Energy's Gunning Wind Farm. Under the deal, Origin Energy will initially purchase federal government issued Large-Scale Renewable Energy Certificates (LSREC) from ACCIONA Energy for a period of two years, beginning January 2012. From January 1st 2014, the agreement allows Origin Energy to buy both the LSRECs and the power generated by the wind farm for a further eight years; with an option to extend.

Origin Energy spokesman, Frank Calabria, said that with over half a million green energy customers, the deal would help ensure the company meet its commitment to Australia's Large-Scale Renewable Energy Target. "As an investor in the renewable energy industry, this agreement demonstrates Origin Energy's ongoing commitment to supporting a broad range of renewable energy sources and options to reach our renewable energy target while also helping to meet customer demand for GreenPower"."

The Gunning Wind Farm is located 70 km north-east of Canberra, close to Origin Energy's own Cullerin Range Wind Farm. The $147 million wind farm has been exporting clean energy to the national grid since April this year. Built on privately owned property that is predominantly cleared pastoral land, the facility consists of 31 ACCIONA Energy Windpower 1.5 MW wind turbines, capable of generating 140-150 GW of electricity each year-enough to power 23,250 households while reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 162,750 tonnes annually.

100 manufacturing and installation jobs were created during the construction phase, with nine operations and maintenance staff overseeing the operation of the wind farm currently. With a global workforce of over 30,000 employees, ACCIONA Energy is a powerful force in the sustainable infrastructure industry and has invested over $630 million in Australian renewable energy projects since 2002. ACCIONA Energy Generation Director, Brett Wickham said this strong global position allowed the company build and operate the Gunning farm without a power purchase agreement during the global financial crisis.

Wind farms supported by Bendigo conference

2011-12-11T11:49:00.001+11:00

www.bendigoadvertiser.com.au
22 Nov 2011

MORE voices are to join the protest against wind farm bans after a conference on community-owned energy projects voted to write to the state government over the issue. About 130 delegates from across Australia attended the two-day Community Power conference in Bendigo last week, to discuss community-run renewable energy projects.

City of Greater Bendigo councillor Keith Reynard said the participants voted unanimously to support the motion for conference conveners to write to the Victorian government over the wind farm policy Amendment VC82, which bans wind farms from being built within 5 km of regional centres and from land bounded by the McIvor Highway and the Calder Highway.

Among the community wind projects at the national Community Power conference was the successful Hepburn Wind co-operative, which chairman Simon Holmes a Court said would have difficulty being built under the present wind farm planning laws. Conference convener, Cr Reynard said the restrictive wind farm laws threatened regional development, as well as stopping individual landholders from putting turbines on their properties.

Cr Reynard said the City of Greater Bendigo could follow the lead of Mount Alexander shire council and write to Premier Ted Baillieu about the issue, with a motion seeking approval at the next council meeting. The so-called wind farm 'no go zones' directly impacted plans for one and two-turbine wind farms in Macedon and Castlemaine. The conveners of the conference will also push for funds from the federal government's Clean Energy Fund to be set aside for community-owned energy projects.

Giant turbine blades arrive for Macarthur farm

2011-12-06T15:56:00.001+11:00

www.standard.net.au
17 Nov 2011

ENORMOUS turbine blades are now making their way to the Macarthur wind farm. The 56-metre blades have been supplied by Danish company Vestas and imported through the Port of Portland. When assembled each turbine will have a generation capacity of three MWs. The $1 billion Macarthur project--set to be among the southern hemisphere's largest--is a joint venture between AGL Energy and Meridian Energy. A workforce of about 350 people is presently based at the project site, which extends across 5500 hectares of freehold agricultural land.

AGL Energy spokeswoman Karen Winsbury said the wind farm's first turbine was due to be assembled in coming weeks. "Construction of the Macarthur wind farm is progressing within schedule, with the first tower section being erected last Thursday", she said. "The Tarrone North Road upgrade was completed two weeks ago and the Macarthur-Hawkesdale Road is complete subject to some remedial work being required and ongoing maintenance". Portland's Keppel Prince Engineering is supplying 80 of the wind farm's towers, while the remaining 60 are being built by Adelaide-based RPG Australia. Ms Winsbury said AGL Energy appreciated the community's patience during the construction phase. The 420- MW wind farm is due to be finished by early 2013.

Win for $477m Hawkesdale, Port Fairy projects

2011-12-06T15:55:00.001+11:00

www.standard.net.au
18 Nov 2011

TWO major south-west wind farms are to become reality after a green light from the state government. Union Fenosa Wind Australia has secured planning permit extensions for projects at Hawkesdale and Ryan Corner, about 10 km north of Port Fairy. Planning Minister Matthew Guy's decision to grant the extensions goes against the wishes of Moyne Shire Council, which agreed in August the developer should not be given more time. Early construction works on the $477 million wind farms is now due to begin by next March.

Before making his decision, Mr Guy had asked Moyne councillors for their views on a permit extension. While shire mayor Jim Doukas could not be contacted for comment yesterday, in August he described the five-one vote to oppose extra time as a wake-up call for renewable energy proponents. Mr Guy granted permit extensions in line with transitional arrangements that form part of amendment VC82. The amendment, gazetted in August, established no-go zones for wind farms and prohibited turbines from being placed closer than two km to a house without permission from its owner.

Union Fenosa said the new policy also ensured that approved and advanced projects like Ryan Corner and Hawkesdale could progress to the construction stage. Company spokesman Thomas Mitchell said the wind farms would not be subject to new setback rules as they were approved before VC82 was introduced. Early construction works will include VicRoads-approved entrances to the sites from public roads, compounds for site management team offices and some internal access tracks.

Portland's GR Carr Construction is to deliver the package at both the 31-turbine Hawkesdale wind farm and the 67-turbine Ryan Corner project, which will together generate 196 MWs of electricity. Planning permits for the wind farms were first granted in 2008 and were due to expire in August. The extensions provided by Mr Guy expire in mid-March next year. Mr Mitchell said Union Fenosa's early works package would trigger a six-year window for project completion at both sites.

Coal seam gas may not help climate fight

2011-12-01T10:33:00.001+11:00

www.smh.com.au
19 Nov 2011

The federal Minister for Energy, Martin Ferguson, is often criticised but he's right about this: the coal seam gas industry has grown too fast. We have not done our homework before issuing approvals for this $50 billion-plus export industry-on the possible groundwater and land-use impact, on what to do with the millions of tonnes of salt left over, or the impact on Gladstone harbour and the Great Barrier Reef. Crucially, we have rushed to develop coal seam gas reserves as a cleaner alternative to coal, assuming it will help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and tackle climate change. But will coal seam gas reduce emissions? By how much? We don't actually know.

Recent research into fugitive emissions, including peer-reviewed articles by Cornell University's Robert Howarth and the US National Centre for Atmospheric Research's Tom Wigley, both published in Climate Change Letters, have found unconventional plays like coal seam gas or shale gas may deliver no greenhouse benefit at all, or even make things worse.

If that turns out to be right, gas may be an obstacle rather than a bridge to a decarbonised future. With the International Energy Agency warning this month that the energy infrastructure we build over the next five years will determine whether the world is able to limit global warming to 2°, it's hard to think of a more critical climate policy question-or one with more money riding on it. Early this year the oil and gas industry lobby group, the Australian Petroleum Production & Exploration Association (APPEA), commissioned research by engineering consultancy WorleyParsons on the life cycle emissions of coal seam gas versus coal when exported and burned in China.

APPEA did something strange. It only released the executive summary. Why? Because, according to some of its members, there were scenarios which showed how coal seam gas might emit more greenhouse gasses than coal. At worst, if burned in the least efficient ''peaking'' open-cycle turbines, coal seam gas was up to 44% dirtier than the newest, most efficient coal-fired plant. Some inside Worley-and the better coal seam gas companies, too-were unhappy with the association's handling of the report. There was pressure to get it out. The executive director of the think tank Beyond Zero Emissions, Matthew Wright, got wind of the industry disquiet and had an idea: commission a separate study by Worley-in fact, widen its scope-and get the results into the public domain that way. A contract was drawn up and a price agreed: $50,000. Wright believes the work was done and the report drafted. Somewhere, things went off the rails.

Cold feet at Worley, perhaps? All week, starting in Monday's Age and on ABC Radio National's Breakfast program and running from there, the accusations have flown thick and fast. Worley says it and Beyond Zero mutually agreed to drop the contract, no fee being payable. Instead, the same research would be published in a peer-reviewed journal, Energies. Wright flatly denies he ever agreed to that-he still wants the report he commissioned-and claims Worley is suppressing the report to stay on side with the coal seam gas industry which gives it contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Worley rejects that outright and says everything Beyond Zero commissioned-''the full box and dice'', a spokesman told me-will be in the Energies paper. How, asks Wright, when his report had a broader scope than the Australian Petroleum Production & Exploration Association's 80-odd page document, and what peer-reviewed journal would publish all that? As it happened, a fortnight ago APPEA did finally release its own full, original report by Worley. Some media took APPEA's line, saying it proved gas was cleaner; others focused on the previously unreleased information, including less flattering gas-versus-coal scenarios. It's now online.

On Tuesday the Merrill Lynch oil and gas analyst David Heard weighed in with a six-page note to clients titled: ''Green gas debate: who is hiding the fugitives?'' It pulls the APPEA report apart. For a start, the report assumes coal seam gas/liquefied natural gas projects apply best practice in greenhouse gas and environmental management, especially to prevention of venting and leaks in upstream operations. Extreme scenarios for coal seam gas venting and leakage were excluded. Extreme was defined to mean ''other than best practice''. But Heard records his personal observation of a Santos drilling operation in the Cooper Basin (not a coal seam gas well, as it happens) where after fracking and in the flow-back phase ''the well vents a mixture of fracking fluid and gas direct to atmosphere in an unconstrained manner for days''. Heard's colleagues in the US have found likewise.

Then Heard noted how our National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting System (NGERS) allowed the coal seam gas companies to rely on a 2004 US industry-derived document, the American Petroleum Institute's Compendium of Greenhouse Gas Emissions Methodologies for the Oil and Gas Industry, which explicitly stated it was ''neither a standard nor a recommended practice for the development of emissions inventories''. The compendium contains generic assumptions, Heard noted, which may be outdated given the rapid development of unconventional gas extraction, and inapplicable in an Australian context.

APPEA's report admits, on page eight, ''the large-scale CSG/LNG industry in Queensland is new and emissions are only projections subject to high uncertainties in some areas''. Under our emissions trading scheme, carbon price liability is determined according to the emissions reported under NGERS system, including fugitive emissions. Ferguson says leave it to the market, guided by the carbon price. But relying on the Compendium could lead companies to understate emissions and ignore any carbon price signal. If, for example, the coal seam gas companies just use a rule of thumb-a broad average at the end of the year by some junior accountant asked to 'multiply the number of wells we've drilled by a number in a 2004 US document'-there is no price signal.

We need better science on the emissions from coal seam gas and, ultimately, Heard's note backs Wright, expressing concern at the alleged suppression of Worley's report for Beyond Zero, and concluding such a thorough independent expert assessment of full life-cycle emissions would be worthwhile. This week Ferguson ruled out the government commissioning any such report. A spokesman for the Climate Change Minister, Greg Combet, conceded the NGERS probably relied on an estimation approach to emissions from coal seam gas extraction, but said the system allowed for annual updating of estimation methods as new science came in. Lastly, Heard's note criticises APPEA's assumption that gas substitutes for inefficient coal in baseload generation in China. This may not be correct, he writes, ''gas is not really competing with coal at all''.

Heard's concern, on his clients' behalf, is not so much that the coal seam gas companies could face higher-than-expected carbon price liabilities if we had a truer picture of emissions. Rather, it's that amid an increasingly nasty debate on the roll-out of coal seam gas in Queensland and NSW, and given these projects are on thin ice politically as they push east coast gas prices higher by linking us to international markets, the last thing the industry needs is to lose the one thing it had going for it: an apparent benefit in tackling climate change. The gas projects are counting on expansion, to build second and subsequent liquefaction ''trains'', and approvals may prove harder to come by. If the greenhouse benefit claims turn out to be false, it's bad news for the coal seam gas companies.

paddy.manning@fairfaxmedia.com.au
Twitter: @gpaddymanning

Geothermal industry eyes NT

2011-12-01T10:30:00.001+11:00

www.abc.net.au
18 Nov 2011

The geothermal industry is eyeing the Northern Territory as a key source of inexpensive and renewable energy. Susan Jeanes from the Australian Geothermal Energy Association says the introduction of the carbon tax has made it more worthwhile to invest in exploratory drilling. Geothermal electricity is produced from energy released from superheated rocks lying km below the earth's surface. Ms Jeanes says drilling has already commenced in the Cooper Basin east of Alice Springs.

"What the problem for the industry is in this early exploration phase is that the rigs that we need to drill holes four and five km deep cost about 50 million dollars," she said. "There's only one here in Australia and that's the rig that's owned by GeoDynamics and that's currently located in the Cooper Basin. So anybody else who wants to drill a deep well has to bring one in from overseas."

Ms Jeanes says people need to embrace more clean energy sources. "The government has come and said we think this is a very important energy resource," she said. "They've got a policy program now that's underpinned by a carbon price that will start to move some money for us. The market has to become more interested in clean energy sources. There are lot of clean energy options around but ultimately we're the only renewable energy on the horizon that is baseload."

Two new geothermal power plants on line in Indonesia

2011-12-01T10:29:00.001+11:00

www.utilityproducts.com
20 Nov 2011

Two Indonesian geothermal power plants are coming on stream with a total capacity of 25 megawatts, an official of the state electricity company PLN said. The fourth unit of PLTP Lahendong in North Sulawesi with a capacity of 20 MW is already on trial operation and PLTP Ulumbu in Flores with a capacity of 5 MW is to come on line next month. The two power plants will bring the total capacity of the country's geothermal power plants to 1,205 MW, said Mochammad Sofyam head of renewable energy. PLTP Lahendong, which is jointly owned by PLN and Pertamina Geothermal Enegry (PGE) is already connected to the PLN's system.

Power shifts as Tokyo turns to gas

2011-12-01T10:28:00.001+11:00

www.smh.com.au
November 19, 2011

In a direct act of rebellion against Tokyo Electric Power Co, which owns the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station, the local government in Tokyo is moving to build a huge natural gas facility. The plant would ensure a stable supply of electricity for the capital in the aftermath of the March nuclear meltdowns. But more important, the city government says, it could spur desperately needed change, breaking the collusion between business and government.

''Now's our chance,'' said Naoki Inose, Tokyo's vice-governor, invoking an ancient proverb about attacking a wild dog only after it has fallen into a river. ''On March 11, TEPCO became the dog that fell into the river. Only then can you fight against such a formidable foe,'' he said. Advertisement: Story continues below So formidable a foe, in fact, that just eight months after Japanese leaders vowed the nuclear disaster would lead to a kind of rebirth, the chances for change are slipping away.

Already, the reformers have lost a crucial ally: Naoto Kan, who as prime minister had called for an end to nuclear power and major changes to the power industry. He was eased out of office with the help of Japan's most powerful industry lobby, a faithful TEPCO supporter that, like many members of Japan's establishment, has benefited from the company's largesse.

''After the accident, I thought there was a real chance for change, but now the move to turn Fukushima into an opportunity for radical reforms is losing steam,'' said economist and author Hiroshi Okumura. ''There's a very big risk that Japan's lost decade, which became the lost 20 years, will now become the lost 30 years.''

Low-level radiation in Europe still a mystery-IAEA

2011-11-22T14:02:00.001+11:00

www.reuters.com
Nov 16, 2011

Nov 16 (Reuters)-The source of low levels of radioactive iodine-131 detected in several European countries over the past few weeks is still unclear, the UN nuclear agency said on Wednesday. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) first announced on Friday that traces had been detected in Europe, after it was tipped off by authorities in the Czech Republic. The IAEA has said the traces should not pose a public health risk and that it does not think the particles are from Japan's stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant after its emergency in March.

But the origin of the particles remains a mystery. The IAEA said it was working with countries to seek out the source. "Authorities from the Czech Republic, Austria, Slovakia, Germany, Sweden, France and Poland have continued to measure very low levels of iodine-131 in their respective atmospheres in recent days", the IAEA said in a statement. "The levels of iodine-131 currently being detected are extremely low".

It said that if a person were to breathe in the levels for a whole year, they would receive an annual radiation dose of less than 0.1 microsieverts. In comparison, average annual background radiation is 2,400 microsieverts a year, it said. Iodine-131, linked to cancer if found in high doses, can contaminate products such as milk and vegetables. Experts have said the origin of the radiation, which has been spreading for nearly three weeks, could come from many possible sources ranging from medical laboratories or hospitals, to nuclear submarines.

France's agency for radioprotection and nuclear safety (IRSN) said on Thursday the levels likely originate from central or eastern Europe. Didier Champion, head of environment and intervention at IRSN, said the possible origin could be the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Slovenia, Russia or Ukraine. Austria, which borders several of the eastern countries, could also be a possibility, he said. Austrian authorities say they have ruled out their country as the origin and have suggested that the source is a country to its east or south east.

IRSN is carrying out calculations to track down the trajectory of air masses to identify the origin of the leak. "We should have an answer by the middle of next week", Champion said, ruling out the suggestion that the leak could be from a nuclear power plant. "If it came from a reactor we would find other elements in the air", he said, adding one hypothesis the agency was working on was the possibility the leak came from the pharmaceutical industry.

Iodine-131 is a short-lived radioisotope that has a radioactive decay half-life of about eight days. The Czech Republic's nuclear security watchdog has said it alerted the IAEA after detecting the radiation, which it thought was coming from abroad but not from a nuclear power plant. It suggested it may be from production of radiopharmaceuticals.

South Africa’s first local wind turbine manufacturer to create hundreds of green jobs

2011-11-22T14:00:00.001+11:00

www.businesslive.co.za
13 Nov 2011

With COP17 around the corner, the debate around green versus carbon energy is heating up. Some say that if the South African government would genuinely commit to renewable energy, it could kill two birds with one stone: curbing our nation's carbon footprint and paving the way for thousands of new, sustainable jobs. Various research reports over time have shown that the renewable energy industry has massive job creation potential, especially in developing countries.

A good example is the South African Energy Sector Jobs in 2030, published by Greenpeace Africa late last year. According to the researchers, 78,000 permanent and full-time jobs could be created in the next 20 years if renewable energy such as solar and wind becomes more mainstream. Focusing on carbon, including coal fired power plants, would see the creation of only 46.000 jobs. If green energy equipment such as wind turbines and solar panels were manufactured in SA instead of being imported from China and the EU, the number of employment opportunities would climb to 111,700.

Thomas Schaal, founder of SA's first wind turbine manufacturer, agrees with the findings above and is determined to put them into practice. While Isivunguvungu Wind Energy Converter (I-WEC) opened shop only last month and is employing just over two-dozen permanent staff, the number of workers is expected to increase by 700% in the next five years. In the process, the company expects to create hundreds of indirect jobs.

"At the moment we have 30 employees, including engineers, electricians, mechanics, and admin staff", Schaal explained. "In the meantime, we have created about 60 indirect jobs. According to our research, we could create two indirect jobs for every direct employment opportunity, for instance on our suppliers' side". "In the next five years, we aim to create between 300 and 400 full-time direct jobs, as well as 900 to 1,200 indirect employment opportunities", Schaal continued.

These predictions are based on the company's production forecast. While this year's production stands at just one 2.5 MW turbine, I-WEC is expected to manufacture five units next year. "After that, we will increase production to 50 units in 2013, 100 in 2014 and hopefully 200 in 2015", Schaal explained, stressing that 60% to 70% of the wind turbine components will be manufactured or sourced locally. "We are the first company to do so in SA, beating the big players like Siemens and Vestas who are importing their turbines", he noted.

One of the factors that could make or break I-WEC's job creation potential is the extent of the local demand for wind turbines. That is where the government should come in, Schaal said: "Apart from an environmental aspect, the South African government should push the green energy sector because it is labour intensive and has the potential to create thousands of much-needed jobs". He added that he could export the turbines to other parts of Africa: "While we initially want to focus on the South African market, our license allows us to export to other countries too".

I-WEC currently operates from a workshop in Cape Town's harbour, but plans to move to Saldanha sometime next year. "We have procured a piece of land there", Schaal explained. "The reason for moving is that we will have more space in Saldanha. Our turbines are 80 meters tall, and the blades are 50 meters long. We need space", he continued. "In addition, it makes sense to move to the west coast, it is after all this region that has been identified as a wind power hot spot".