Wave energy turbine on the way

www.borderwatch.com.au
21 Oct 2013

THE countdown to the arrival of the world's first 1MW wave energy converter off the coast of Port McDonnell is underway with Sydney-based company Oceanlinx Limited set to launch the project this week. See your ad here The converter-called greenWAVE-will be connected to the electricity grid in South Australia by the end of the year and is expected to put the South East on the world renewable energy map.

The company has released the first photographs of the groundbreaking unit's turbine, which will soon be part of the seascape off Port MacDonnell. Constructed and to be launched into the water from TechPort in Adelaide on Friday, the $7m project will be the first of its kind to be commissioned in the world.

The demonstration unit received $4m from the Federal Government in a bid to make the project ready for market. The unit-which is on track for a December completion-will be grid-connected and rigorously tested throughout 2014.

The 3000 tonne demonstration unit will be on display at TechPort before being towed to its final location a few km off the coast of Port MacDonnell. The unit has a rated capacity of 1MW, which can supply power to about 1000 homes. Oceanlinx managing director Ali Baghaei said the converter was based on the oscillating water column principle.

He said the technology was one of the wave energy sector's most tested and matured technologies. Mr Baghaei said the unit was completely environmentally friendly, sitting under its own weight on the seabed in shallow water with no anchors, mooring or attachment to the seabed. "It is expected to act as an artificial reef for sea life", Mr Baghaei said.

"It has no moving parts under the water and is designed to withstand the most aggressive sea conditions, while there is ease of access to the weather-tight powerhouse placed above the sea level, so the life management costs are kept to the minimum". He said Oceanlinx had demonstrated three test platforms in the ocean over the past 16 years. See your ad here "It was the first company to achieve the full grid connection of a test platform in Australia in 2010", Mr Baghaei said.

"With an end to end solution, its technologies are globally patented and provide versatility for application in conjunction with a wide range of areas such as offshore platforms, breakwater construction, desalination and provision of energy and water to remote locations. "As a leading technology provider in the wave energy conversion sector, Oceanlinx is in discussion with a number of international entities to develop multiple units of this technology".

Carnegie Wave Energy formally awarded A$1.27M seawater desalination plant grant

www.proactiveinvestors.com.au
22 Apr 2013

Carnegie Corporation Wave Energy has been formally awarded the A$1.27 million AusIndustry grant to support its CETO Seawater desalination Demonstration Pilot Plant at Garden Island, Western Australia. The grant, which is half the $2.5 million cost, will support design and construction of the seawater desalination plant.

Carnegie Corporation's plant will be directly powered by CETO hydraulic energy from an offshore CETO system to demonstrate that wave energy driven seawater desalination has the potential to significantly and sustainably reduce the amount of electricity consumed by seawater desalination.

The CETO desalination pilot will be co-located with Carnegie Corporation's Perth Wave Energy Project (PWEP) on Garden Island, integrating off-the-shelf reverse-osmosis desalination technology with the PWEP infrastructure.

Key initial tasks ahead of construction include completing detailed design, securing environmental approvals, negotiation of a water sales agreement and, if possible, the integration of the construction and commissioning of the desalination pilot with the delivery of PWEP.

THE Desert Kingdom; desalination from oil power to solar power?

www.saudigazette.com.sa
15 Apr 2013

Saudi Arabia finds itself in an interesting economic cleft stick. While blessed with oil that it can currently sell at around $104 per barrel on the world market, it is compelled to burn a sizable proportion of that potential income to produce desalinated water. Cost of production of water fluctuates, but a fair guess is between 40 and 90¢ a barrel, depending on fuel price.

To produce water, the Kingdom uses approximately 1.5 million barrels of oil a day across its 30 or so desalination plants to meet the demand for domestic and industrial water. Little of this water--if any is used for agriculture. The water for agriculture--some 85 to 90% of the total water use in the Kingdom--comes from non-replaceable resources, underground aquifers that are drying out rapidly. For every 100 liters per annum withdrawn, only one liter or less finds itself back into the aquifer.

The government has wisely decided that food security, once an unquestionable shibboleth of policy, is no longer worth the use of resources and has taken up the idea of virtual water. This refers to the hidden flow of water if food or other commodities are traded from one place to another.

Virtual water is best defined as "the volume of freshwater used to produce the product, measured at the place where the product was actually produced". It refers to the sum of the water use in the various steps of the production chain. It is 'virtual' for when the product arrives at its destination, the water is no longer contained in it, and was used only to produce it. An example of the saving of such imports is wheat, which takes 1,600 tons of water on average to produce one ton of grain.

It has resolved that the Kingdom will rely entirely on imports for food by 2016. Starting in 2008, the government has been reducing wheat purchases from local farmers by 12.5% a year and plans eventually to withdraw all agricultural subsidies to these farmers. Having addressed the issue of water supply and use and effectively engaged the biggest user of water, agriculture, positively, desalination for the balance of life in the Kingdom remains a huge challenge on several levels.

A major issue, the use of expensive oil that could produce income for making water, has spawned a slew of projects based on solar power for water production. The Kingdom might, and probably is, considering nuclear power as another option, but this introduces the political aspect of the importation of nuclear fuels and technology to the region, which is already under the baleful gaze of the West.

Happily, Saudi Arabia is one of the sunniest places on earth, averaging between 200 and 300 hours per month. Solar power therefore is an environmentally friendly, infinitely renewable (well, for the next seven billion years or so and the earth will have dried out and life gone in 3.5 billion) and very available alternative. Moreover it is harmless, both politically and environmentally.

The Kingdom seems to have opted so far for the expensive option of photovoltaic cell electricity generation to run the new solar desalination plants rather than the simpler, longer lasting and lower maintenance Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) alternative. Commercially viable CSP plants are already in operation in California, France and Spain--all with lower sunshine hours--and are feeding electricity into the grid.

The government is tackling the building of desalination capacity actively and has allocated $6.4 billion for water and sanitation projects in 2013.

Saline Water Conversion Corp. SWCC, (which supplies 50% of the municipal water in the Kingdom and produces 18% of the global total) for example plans to build the world's largest water desalination plant in Rabigh and will have the ability to pump 600,000 cubic meters of desalinated water per day. The conventionally fueled plant should be completed by 2018. State-owned National Water Co, plans to spend $66 billion on plants and upgrades over the next 10 years.

In October 2012, Abdul Rahman Al-Ibrahim, governor of SWCC announced plans to establish three new solar-powered desalination plants in Haqel, Dhuba and Farasan in addition to the one under construction in Khafji.

The Khafji solar desalination project will be the first large-scale solar-powered seawater reverse-osmosis (SWRO) plant in the world. It was due for completion at the end of 2012 and designed with a capacity of 30,000 cubic meters of water per day for the 100,000 customers.

The Khafji desal plant is the first step in King Abdullah City for Science and Technology's solar power program to reduce desalination costs. Phase two of the project is the construction of a new plant to produce 300,000 cubic meters of water per day is planned by 2015, and phase three will involve Haqel, Dhuba and Farasan by 2018.

The Kingdom is not alone in the search for a clean, effective and cheap means of producing water. The UN classifies around 700 million people in 43 countries as suffering from water scarcity today. By 2025 the figure is forecast to rise to 1.8 billion.

With the global population expected to reach nine billion by 2050 and the US secretary of state openly discussing the threat of water shortages leading to wars, the production of desalinated water has never been more important.

Saudi Arabia completes its biggest solar power plant

www.bloomberg.com
31 Jan 2013

Saudi Arabia completed its biggest ground-mounted photovoltaic plant as the world's largest crude oil exporter seeks to generate a third of its electricity with energy from the sun by 2032.

Germany's Phoenix Solar AG developed the 3.5 MW plant in Riyadh that uses 12,684 panels from China's Suntech Power Co. Ltd. and inverters from SMA Solar Technology AG, Phoenix Solar said in an e-mailed statement. "This project represents an important milestone in the development of the solar industry in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia", Ron Shen, Suntech Power's vice president of Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa, said in a separate statement.

Saudi Arabia plans to boost renewable energy use as a way to pare back on oil consumption used for domestic desalination and power plants, potentially saving 523,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day over the next 20 years. The country aims to have 41,000 MWs of solar capacity within two decades, Maher al-Odan, a consultant at the King Abdullah City for Atomic and Renewable Energy, said last year.

GE starts Australia’s biggest solar farm to power seawater plant

www.bloomberg.com
10 Oct 2012

General Electric Co, and Verve Energy, a state-owned utility based in Perth, started Australia's biggest solar farm to generate electricity for the Southern Seawater Desalination Plant.

The 10 MW Greenough River project in Western Australia uses panels from FirstSolar Inc, and will produce energy equivalent to powering 3,000 homes, according to a joint statement from GE, Verve Energy and FirstSolar. GE and Verve Energy own 50% each of the plant.

The project partners are now evaluating the possibility of expanding the plant's capacity to as much as 40 MWs to meet increasing demand for renewable energy, Verve Energy Chief Executive Officer Jason Waters said in the statement. The solar farm is 50 km (31 miles) southeast of the port town of Geraldton in Western Australia.

Australia's largest solar farm opens amid renewable target debate

www.reuters.com
10 Oct 2012

(Reuters)-Australia switched on its first utility-scale solar farm on Wednesday, bringing the country a small step closer to achieving ambitious renewable energy use targets that traditional coal and gas power producers are now fighting to soften.

The Greenough River solar farm, just outside the small town of Walkaway in Western Australia state, is a joint-venture between Western Australian state-owned Verve Energy and U.S, conglomerate General Electric Co. It is expected to generate 10 MWs, enough to power 3,000 homes.

"The Greenough River solar farm demonstrates that renewable technologies can contribute to meeting Australia's future energy needs on a sustainable, cost-competitive basis", Jason Waters, chief executive of Verve Energy said on Wednesday. Australia has committed to getting 20% of its power from renewables by 2020 but big coal and gas-based utilities are arguing for generation targets to be cut.

The plant is General Electric Co's first investment in Australian renewable energy, and plans are already underway to eventually expand it to 40 MWs. The electricity generated by the plant will be purchased by Western Australia Water Corporation to power a nearby desalination plant.

Australia is one of the world's most ideal places for solar projects. It has the highest average solar radiation per m² of any continent in the world, according to government, and a population the size of New Delhi spread over an area the size of the contiguous United States. Australia currently gets about 10% of its electricity supply from renewable energy, about two-thirds of which comes from hydroelectric power.

Read More…

Saudi Arabia plans $109 billion boost for solar power

www.bloomberg.com
12 May 2012

Saudi Arabia is seeking investors for a $109 billion plan to create a solar industry that generates a third of the nation's electricity by 2032, according to officials at the agency developing the plan.

The world's largest crude oil exporter aims to have 41,000 MWs of solar capacity within two decades, said Maher al-Odan, a consultant at the King Abdullah City for Atomic and Renewable Energy. Khalid al-Suliman, vice president for the organization known as Ka-care, said on May 8 in Riyadh that nuclear, wind and geothermal would contribute 21,000 MWs.

"We are not only looking for building solar plants", al-Odan said in an interview in Riyadh yesterday. "We want to run a sustainable solar power sector that will become a driver for the domestic energy for years to come". The comments highlight the scale of Saudi Arabia's ambitions to boost renewable energy use as a way to pare back on oil consumption used for domestic desalination and power plants, potentially saving 523,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day over the next 20 years.

For the solar panel manufacturers such as FirstSolar Inc. (FSLR) and SunPower Corp. (SPWR), the Saudi Arabian market would open a huge new market as European countries reduce subsidies to keep a lid on installations. Panel sales may dip this year for the first time in more than a decade from 27,700 MWs installed last year, according to a survey of analysts by Bloomberg on March 9.

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WA to launch world-first wave energy project

www.smh.com.au
1 May 2012

The first wave energy project in the Southern Hemisphere is set to commence operation in Western Australia next year, with the federal government announcing almost $10 million in funding today. WA-based energy company Carnegie Corporation will begin construction of Australia's first commercial scale grid-connected wave project next year, which will be located on and around Garden Island, with power delivered by the end of 2013. Energy Minister Craig Ferguson today announced the federal government would contribute $9.9 million as part of the Emerging Renewables program, with the state government contributing $5.5 million under the Low Emissions Energy Development program.

Mr Ferguson commended the project for showcasing innovative Australian technology, and said the by-product of emission-free desalinated water was a "welcome bonus". "This is where I see Australia growing into renewable energy jobs of the future", he said. As well as being the first such project in the Southern Hemisphere, the project also uses Australian-owned and developed CETO technology, which is the only of its kind in the world. Developed in WA over the last 10 years at a cost of $60 million, CETO differs to other wave energy technology by operating out of sight and underwater, where it is anchored to the ocean floor and generates electricity onshore, rather than offshore.

The CETO units move with motion of passing waves, driving pumps which deliver pressurised water to shore via a pipeline, which in turn drives hydroelectric turbines. In addition to generating zero-emission electricity, the pressurised water delivered ashore can also be used to supply a desalination plant. The unique Australian technology has already been snapped up by the world's largest electricity generator, French company EDF Energy, for use on Reunion Island. The project's onshore power generation facility will be located at Australia's largest naval base HMAS Stirling, and is expected to produce 2 MWs of electricity by 2014, with later expansion to 5 MWs.

A CSIRO study last year found Australia's wave energy alone was capable of providing three times Australia's annual energy consumption, which was 50,000 MWs. Carnegie Corporation chief executive officer Dr Michael Ottaviano said the project provided a unique opportunity for Australia to become a "technology provider rather than technology taker". Australia could rival Scotland, Dr Ottaviano said, which was trying to capture the wave energy industry by virtue of its offshore engineering experience and good wave resources.

"We've got just as much, if not more, competent offshore engineering experience from the oil and gas industry and our wave resources are some 20 times greater than Scotland", he said. State and federal government funds will comprise half of the project's $31.2 million cost, with New York-based investors Lind group also providing funding. Carnegie Corporation has signed memorandums of understanding with the Department of Defence and West Australian retailer, Synergy Energy.

WA farms for solar power

www.governmentnews.com.au
17 Apr 2012

Utilities will use renewable energy generated from a solar panel installation at Greenough River solar farm through a public and private joint venture. The Western Australian Water Corporation will purchase 100% of the sustainable energy generated by the 10 MW farm to offset the requirements of the Southern Seawater desalination Plant near Binningup. As a joint venture between Verve Energy and GE Energy Financial Services, the Western Australian Government has committed $20 million to the project, including $10 million from the Royalties for Regions Program and the Public Utilities Office.

According to a release from Verve Energy, the two companies each own 50% of the facility and no debt has been raised to fund the project. Installation of above ground electrical works and structural elements supporting the panels has been the focus of the construction since November 2011. Photovoltaic module (PV) manufacturer, FirstSolar will supply more than 150000 of its thin film PV modules to the facility. Additionally, FirstSolar will supply operations and maintenance support, engineering, procurement and construction services once the solar farm is operational. Minister for Energy, Peter Collier said the Greenough River solar farm will generate enough electricity for 3000 average homes while displacing 20000 tonnes of greenhouse gas each year.

"The demonstration of this proven technology in WA on a commercial scale should encourage the development of larger projects and reduce renewable energy costs in the medium to long term", Mr Collier said. FirstSolar vice president business development and sales, Jack Curtis said FirstSolar's panels will produce electricity with no water use, waste production or CO₂ emissions. According to the WA Government, the City of Geraldton will generate millions of dollars for the local economy from the employment of local contractors as well as sourcing of products. The solar farm 50 km south of Geraldton is expected to open in July/August 2012.

Verve sheds light on 'clean, green' solar farm

www.abc.net.au
13 Apr 2012

The first of 150,000 panels needed to run Australia's largest solar farm, which will power a south-west Western Australian desalination plant, have been installed at its site in the mid-west. The Minister for Energy, Peter Collier, attended the ceremony at the $50 million Greenough River solar farm to lay down the first two panels. The project, about 50 km south-east of Geraldton, was financed by Verve Energy and GE Energy, as well as a contribution from the State Government's Royalties for Regions fund.

One-hundred% of the energy it produces will be used to power the Binningup desalination plant in Bunbury. However, Verve Energy's Tony Narvaez says local businesses and community members will benefit from the economic and environmental opportunities the project provides. "What it will provide for Geraldton is a number of jobs but more importantly a lead into new technology and building up your skill set to ensure you can work off that technology and experience for future expansions", he said.

He says although no energy will be generated for the mid-west at this stage, there is a potential for future expansion. "That will create, clearly, some jobs and other levels of expertise in moving the scale from 10 MWs to 40 MWs and that energy could go anywhere", he said. "The first 10 MWs is being contracted to the Water Corporation, the next 40 could be contracted to anyone". Mr Collier says the Greenough River solar farm is just the start of a multi-faceted approach to meeting the energy needs of the mid-west.

He says the Government will continue to invest in renewable energy projects in the region. "In terms of energy projects, the mid-west is a magnificent opportunity place", he said. "You've got an abundance of wind, you've got an abundance of sun, you've got an abundance of potential with geothermal, you have an abundance of potential with wave.

"So as far as I'm concerned and as far as the Government is concerned,.. we'll continue to invest in the mid-west region to ensure those opportunities are fulfilled. "This is just the start of much more,.. I can say the best is yet to come in terms of the energy needs of the mid-west. "It is a very symbolic gesture, it is 10 MWs of clean, green energy for the future and as I said it really is the start of a multi-faceted approach to renewable energy for the mid-west and for Western Australia as a whole".

Record points to anti jobs stance

Age
19 Oct 2011, Page: 16

Ted Baillieu would do better to devote a bit more effort to getting Victoria out of the desalination plant's take-or-pay contract than continue his attack on Victoria's low-carbon future. This contract is going to cost Victorians far more than any slashing to the feed-in tariff will ever save.

Mr Baillieu's environmental record since the election bears summarising: slashing of the solar premium feed-in tariff; removal of the standard feed-in tariff in favour of a temporary arrangement; prohibitive restrictions on the installation of wind power generation; abandonment ofthe wind-down program for the dirty Hazelwood power station; effective abandonment of the 20% renewable energy target; and promotion of development of Melbourne's green wedges.

One could be excused for thinking that with the jobs to be lost in the solar industry, Mr Baillieu is actually anti-jobs and has no understanding that the world, like it or not, is heading into a low carbon future. But enough of this concern with the future of our children and the fate of jobs in a fickle state economy; let's get on to the important issues. Yeah, the selection of a safety slogan on number plates.

Robert Brown, Glen Iris

GE swoops on WA solar

West Australian
31 August 2011, Page: 3

Global giant GE's energy financing arm has taken a 50% stake in a $50 million solar farm in the Mid West, the first project of its kind in Australia to get financial approval. In a deal closed last week, GE Energy Financial Services will partner State-owned utility Verve Energy in establishing the solar farm to partially power WA's second desalination plant.

The Water Corporation has committed to purchase 100% of the new installation's output for the Southern Seawater desalination plant being built near Binningup in the South West. The State Government is providing $20 million for the solar project, of which $10 million is coming from the Royalties for Regions program. The project is GE Energy Financial Services' first renewable energy investment in Australia.

"It has all the criteria we look for: good local partner, good technology provider, sound fundamentals", the company's Australian business leader, Jason Willoughby, said. The Greenough River solar farm will be installed on 80ha of cleared land 50km south-east of Geraldton, and have an output of 10 MWs, or 20 GW/hours per annum. US-based manufacturer FirstSolar will build, operate and maintain the plant using more than 150,000 photovoltaic modules.

It is the first utility-scale solar project in the country, 10 times bigger than any other installation nationwide. It is expected to be operational by the middle of next year. "This is the only one that ticks all the key boxes for a project to be viable", Rob Bartrop, FirstSolar's Australian business development and sales manager, said. "It has a PPA (power purchase agreement) in place, it has a proven technology with a proven company delivering it. And importantly has the ownership in place, in this case with Verve Energy and GE", Mr Bartrop said.

Tony Narvaez, Verve Energy's general manager, strategy and business development, said the project was a "toe in the water" for the utility. "We would like to think that is going to kick off a pipeline of projects moving forward in solar PV", Mr Narvaez said. The desalination plant's use of renewable energy was mandated by the State Government. It will also be supplied by the 55 MW Mumbida wind farm, also in Greenough, an equal partnership between Verve Energy and Macquarie Capital. In that project, GE Energy and Leighton Holdings contractors have formed a consortium to supply and install the turbines.

Renewable energy sells

Summaries - Australian Financial Review
26 August 2011, Page: 11

The expansion of a second desalination plant in Perth will underpin a solar power plant as well as the Macquarie Capital-backed Mumbida wind farm. State-owned Water Corporation will purchase the entire output of electricity for the renewable projects to offset the Binningup desalination expansion Water Minister Bill Marmion announced yesterday.

Charged with power – SA one of nation's big players in the renewable energy future

Adelaide Advertiser
16 July 2011, Page: 75

THE energy sector in Australia is under increased scrutiny, building towards its biggest overhaul in decades under the proposed carbon tax that kicks in on July 1 next year. The sector is the biggest contributor to greenhouse gases in Australia due to the way in which most of the energy is generated. While consumers are being educated to save and get smarter about using less energy, efforts are under way to unlock the huge potential of the country's natural renewable energy resources. The national renewable energy target is set at 20% by 2020.

South Australia's energy mix is better than most states and its share of total nationwide greenhouse gas emissions was just 5% in 2009. It also has a more ambitious 33% renewable energy target by 2020. But there is a long way to go in terms of investment, firstly in research and development and, subsequently, in generation and transmission infrastructure before renewable energy can be a reliable supply source. SA's power portfolio can be explained in two ways by total installed capacity of power plants and by actual contribution to demand in a given year.

Temperature, the age of the plant, outages and wear have an impact. At higher temperatures or during peak demand, the efficiency of some generators decreases. For wind farms, output may be limited to prevent overheating of the turbines. By way of installed capacity, SA has two coal fired power stations at Port Augusta, seven natural gas, three distillate and two dual fuel plants with an installed capacity of 3687 MW.

Some of these are used as base load power plants that produce electricity at the lowest cost of any type of plant and are most economically used at maximum capacity. Others simply lie idle for much of the year, used only during peak demand. Consequently, in terms of actual contribution to energy demand, more than 70% of the power comes from some coal-fired plants (44%) and the Playford and Northern coal fired plants (30%).

The Australian Energy Market Operator estimates the two coal fired and two gas plants took on most of the energy demand in the 2010-11 financial year. Closure of either of the coalfired plants by the indicated date of 2014 could lead to a power crisis given the expected increase in demand from the mining sector, the desalination plant and electrification of the train network. On the renewables front, there are 14 operating wind farms with an installed capacity of 1150 MW and 72 MW of solar power.

"With enough investment, South Australia could be a major national player in clean power generation, maximising on our competitive advantages", Renewables SA commissioner Tim O'Loughlin said. Wind energy contributed to just over 20% of the energy demand last financial year, but this can vary based on wind speed, availability, temperature and transmission network limitations. The wind farms operated at less than 40% of their capacity in 2010-11.

The growth in wind generation and variability makes management of the transmission network and power system challenging. The State Government says the Green Grid project a $4.5 billion investment plan, of which $2 billion is proposed for SA, to harness wind power on the Eyre Peninsula and export it interstate will be key to resolving this challenge. The state has a high quality resource for large scale solar installations, but the capital costs are high. Currently, roof top installations are the only significant contributors to the power grid.

With a rush of households signing up before federal subsidies ended, the installed solar capacity is expected to reach 100 MW in the near future. Geothermal energy derived from the natural heat of hot rocks deep underground is still in the experimental phase but has huge base load potential. Research is ongoing, especially in the state's north, with almost 30 companies and more than 400 exploration licences.

Clean energy industry warns of boom bust

Australian
Monday 14/3/2011, Page: 7

AUSTRALIA'S clean energy industry is facing a boom bust cycle as depressed green energy prices forced the owners of the nation's biggest baseload renewable energy project to call in receivers. New South Wales Sugar Milling Co-operative chief executive Chris Connors has blamed lower renewable energy prices from the government's "botched" renewable energy legislation for the financial failure of the joint venture cogeneration project between Sunshine Renewables and Delta Energy.

Nationwide, wind farm projects have been stymied by low prices for the Renewable Energy Certificates that are supposed to be a key income stream for the projects sparking fresh warnings of a boom bust cycle related to the government's renewable energy target scheme of 20% by 2020. Critics say the RET is "simply a government created market".

Underlining this, International Power Australia estimates 61% of the 1400 MWs of wind generation that have been built or promised since 2008 will be used to help meet contracts with state governments, often for taxpayer funded water desalination plants. Mr Connors said green energy prices were depressed because the solar credit scheme which subsidises households that install solar panels had led to a glut of 30 million RECs. Ferrier Hodgson, appointed receivers and managers two weeks ago, said the plants would run as normal and there would not be a large number of job losses as they were mostly automated.

On Friday, RECs prices were almost $36, well below the price of $45 to $50 that renewable energy companies say is needed to underwrite new investments in the absence of a carbon price. This is despite the government's move to deal with the glut of RECs last year by splitting large scale renewable projects and small scale projects into two separate markets. National Generators Forum executive director Malcolm Roberts said the RET was "simply a government created market" that required retailers to buy more expensive energy.

Pacific Hydro corporate and government affairs executive manager Andrew Richards said there was a significant backlog of shovel ready wind farm projects, but developers struggled to lock in the power purchase agreements needed to finance them. There would be a need to build new projects in the future, because while energy retailers have been banking the glut of cheap RECs, these are expected to be used by about 2014 to 2015. "We just hope the industry is still here and able to deliver", Mr Richards said. "You don't want a situation where you bottom out in the cycle as we are now and everybody has to build wind farms in a hurry, because that's going to shoot the prices up".

It was unfortunate "that's been the history of the industry, the boom bust cycle", while industry wanted sustainable growth. Clean Energy Council chief executive Matthew Warren said uncertainty about the carbon price was weighing heavily on RECs prices. But he did not expect a boom-bust situation "at this stage" as industry knew what its needs would be. A spokesperson for Climate Change Minister Greg Combet said the RET was always designed to complement a carbon price to drive clean energy investments.

Plugging into the sun for clean, fresh water

Age
28 February 2011, Page: 3

A SMALL Victorian company reckons it has found a way to prevent 3.5 million deaths a year from water borne diseases while also cutting emissions of the greenhouse gas CO₂. F CUBED, based in Somerton, has been working on its solar powered desalination system for about six years and started selling the units commercially in November.

Earlier this month, F CUBED was recognised internationally and invited to join the Clinton Global Initiative, which aims to partner companies with technologies that may provide solutions to key environmental challenges. The modular unit, which retails for $362.50 plus GST and freight, works by running saltwater through a gravity fed pipe at the top. The water disperses evenly as it runs down the solar collector evaporator.

The solar power heats the water, which vaporises and then condenses on the inside of the plastic panel enclosure. The distilled water runs to the bottom of the unit where it is collected. In the process, disease causing pathogens, as well as heavy metals, are removed. Peter Johnstone, the chief executive and founder of F CUBED, said there was enormous potential to work with developing countries to provide clean drinking water.

"There is a clear connection between the world's poorest people boiling water for drinking and greenhouse gas emissions", he said. "An average family boiling 20 litres a day will need 20 kilos of fuel, which is usually wood, and that is producing 40 kilos of CO₂ a day. That is 15 tonnes a year of CO₂ and when you times that by 300 million families it is enormous".

The company has signed an $11 million memorandum of understanding with the South Australian town of Ceduna to supply 13,000 of the Carocell panels. "The beauty of us is that we don't waste anything", Mr Johnstone said. "We are going to sell about 6000 tonnes of salt from it. At $100 a tonne, that is $60,000 in salt sales".

F CUBED will have another revenue stream if it is successful in its application to be part of the Clean Development Mechanism under the Kyoto Protocol. The instrument allows signatories to Kyoto in developed countries to establish programs in developing countries and then sell the carbon credits.

"That would pay for the panels for the poor people, which means we can give them away for nothing", Mr Johnstone said. "It also means they won't be cutting down trees any more". While the application will take another two years to gain approval, F CUBED has received country approval from Bangladesh and is working with a not for profit group, WaterAid, to provide clean drinking water. The company is also believed to be in talks with large miners, such as Rio Tinto and one of the Queensland coal seam gas proponents, to provide desalinated water.

Electricity-hungry water providers need to get with the power

Age
3 January 2011 Page: 9

AS THE newly installed Baillieu government grappled with what to do with Victoria's money and energy-devouring reverse-osmosis plant at Wonthaggi, Australia's chief scientist, Penny Sackett, was on Lateline talking about her newly released report Challenges at energy-water-carbon intersections. During the interview she expressed doubts as to whether energy, water and carbon budgets were being dealt with holistically around the nation, adding that treating one independently could harm the others.

Sackett has good reason for her concerns. Water and energy have long been linked through the water cooling of power stations on the one hand, and the electrical pumping and treatment systems on the other, even before desalination plants came on the scene as emergency drought response measures.

In Britain, the water industry is the third most energy-intensive sector per unit of product surpassed only by cement and chemicals. In America, electricity is the second biggest budget item in municipal water supply. The link in our region looks set to tighten even more with the national industry body, the Water Services Association of Australia, predicting that water utilities will use four times as much electricity in their reliance on reverse-osmosis desalination.

If and when such a massive increase in energy use comes to pass, water utilities will be well and truly hocked to the fortunes of an electricity sector facing supply shortfalls across most states from about 2014-15 partly due to the carbon pricing hiatus, partly due to inertia in New South Wales and partly due to demand growth.

For some time now, it's been possible to integrate electricity generation and water making in the one facility. The trick is to use the waste heat from a high-efficiency combined cycle gas-fired power station to run a multiple effect distillation plant, which operates by progressively lowering the pressure at which water boils.

Combined cycle stations offer lower emissions, vastly improved efficiencies (typically much above, for example, the Loy Yang Power Station) as well as flexibility with the capacity for remote operation. Such groupings are commonplace in the Middle East, producing electricity during the times that it's most needed and fresh water when electricity demand tails off.

And, there's no chance of the "purified water" being contaminated by marine sewer outfalls, as the CSIRO has warned may happen with the Kurnell reverse-osmosis plant south of Sydney. These innovative packages were passed over in Australia, which has plenty of natural gas at suitable sites, seemingly on account of poor advice and a haste bordering on panic.

It didn't help either that there has been no regular dialogue nor awareness of each other's standpoints between water and electricity network professionals. Only two government agencies in this country ACTEW in the ACT and the Power and Water Corporation of the Northern Territory combine water and electricity, thus allowing an in-house exchange of ideas.

A recent report by Britain's Environment Agency has suggested that water companies merge with energy producers to create more effective partnerships for tackling emissions The local challenge is the mismatch between an electricity supply sector, which is deregulated and operates nationally often with offshore ownership, and a water industry that remains in government hands with a local focus. Still, private-public partnerships have proven that this is not necessarily a barrier.

Unlike south-east Queensland, where the Tugun reverse-osmosis plant has been mothballed (with dams now 99.9% full), Victoria appears to have little scope to vary the contract for, or scale back, its plant, since reducing the output volume requires lowering the number of filtration tubes but keeping the pressure up in order to maintain purity a messy task, according to engineers in the know.

Let's at least put some perspective on the urgency of achieving a greater integration between the water sector and the power industry, whether our judgment is based on cost efficiencies or on global warming scenarios. In a just-published report, World energy outlook, the International Energy Agency says the earth is on course to warm 3.5° by 2100 leading to a planet which NASA says is far from the one upon which civilisation developed and to which life is adapted.

To reach the 2° target, the energy agency found that every signatory at Copenhagen would have to hit the top of its range of commitments a task that would need a global rate of decarbonisation twice as large in the coming decade as in the last. There are several pieces of work which suggest that the job can be done with renewable energies, using gas as the transition measure. In the meantime, bridging the policy abyss between the two infrastructures has to be one of the "big ideas" for administrations to pursue and that is a challenge for the new Baillieu government.

Dr Peter Fisher works on climate change adaptation and water management. He recently jointly presented a ICE WaRM-AusAid short course on this topic for water professionals from five Mekong countries.

Acciona Energy court date delayed

Adelaide Advertiser
Tuesday 16/11/2010 Page: 39

Acciona Energy's fight in court to defend the development of its $175 million wind farm near Mt Gambier has been adjourned into the new year to allow for medical evidence submissions. The Environment Resources and Development Court in Adelaide recently began proceedings on an appeal filed by dairy farmer Richard Paltridge over the construction of the wind farm near his property in Allendale East. The development had received approval from the District Council of Grant's Development Assessment Panel in March this year.

The council's planning and development director, Leith McEvoy, said the court had allowed for medical evidence with a doctor's statement introduced into the proceedings. "Acciona Energy and the council now have the right to bring in their own (medical) evidence", he said. "The industry needs to deal with the issues, so it's good in a way to present all the evidence".

The Spanish company - joint developer of the Cathedral Rocks wind farm near Port Lincoln with Roaring 40s and the consortium leader of the group building the Port Stanvac desalination plant through its Agua division - was scheduled to begin construction work on the 46 turbine, 70.5MW wind farm early next year.

Hearings in the Adelaide environmental court will resume towards the middle of January. It's the second development in court this year with a decision on an appeal against AGL Energy's Mount Bryan wind farm which is planned for the Razorback Ranges east of Hallett still pending.

Buyers line up for wind farm

Australian
Tuesday 21/9/2010 Page: 22

ONE of Australia's biggest wind farms, the 80-MW Emu Downs project in Western Australia, is generating strong interest from potential buyers after being put up for sale following the collapse of Ric Stowe's Griffin Group. The state-of-the-art wind farm expected to fetch more than $200 million is owned by a 50-50 joint venture between Mr Stowe's Griffin Energy and the Queensland government owned Stanwell Corporation. Sources said last night the sale had attracted interest from the "usual suspects" after first-round indicative bids closed last Friday.

The companies considered most likely to bid include AGL Energy, Origin Energy, Transfield Services Infrastructure Fund and Infigen Energy, formerly known as Babcock 8, Brown Wind Partners. The WA government-owned electricity generator Verve Energy is believed to have stayed out of the bidding process. The sale of Emu Downs is being conducted separately to the sale of Griffin's coal mining and power generation businesses in WA, believed to be saddled with about $2 billion in debt.

Up to 40 prospective buyers for those assets including from India, China and Japan will submit offers next week and administrators hope to finalise the sale by the end of the year. A creditors' meeting to be held in February next year is expected to sign off on the sale. Mr Stowe is believed to be keen to buy back his empire, which went into administration in January, but that is considered an unlikely prospect. The Emu Downs wind farm, about 200km north of Perth, produces enough electricity to power more than 50,000 homes a year and the capacity to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 280,000 tonnes annually.

The electricity produced from Emu Downs is purchased by WA government-owned retailer Synergy Energy, whose customers include the state's desalination plant. An industry source familiar with Emu Downs, which opened in 2006, said the asset was considered first class. The returns generated would be considered attractive to funds and energy companies, while the sales contract with Synergy Energy would provide comfort to a buyer. The sale is being handled by the Sydney offices of Royal Bank of Scotland and Royal Bank of Canada.

Carnegie rides CETO wave

West Australian
Saturday 24/07/2010 Page: 66

Renewable energy hopeful Carnegie Corporation Wave Energy has secured Government cash to fund a pilot project to test the success of its CETO technology in powering desalination plants. Carnegie Corporation, founded by one-time Fremantle inventor Alan Burns, has been testing its underwater wave energy technology for use as a zero emissions energy source at its Fremantle facility and this year began building a 5MW pilot plant at Garden Island with $12.5 million from the State Government.

It has also flagged the potential for the technology to be used in desalination projects. Now it has been formally given the go-ahead to prove that potential through the Rockingham based National Centre for Excellence in desalination, a joint State-Federal Government research institute launched by the Minister for Climate Change Penny Wong last night.

Speaking after the ribbon-cutting, Carnegie Corporation managing director Mike Ottaviano said the $500,000 project - jointly funded by Carnegie Corporation and the NCED - was an important first step in shoring up the CETO technology. "Having our initial project located in WA means we're well-placed to capitalise on desalination opportunities locally and then export this expertise globally", Dr Ottaviano said.

The CETO technology generates power through buoys anchored on the ocean floor that use the motion of passing waves to drive pumps to deliver pressurised water to shore. Under the desalination project, the water would be pushed into the incoming seawater being pumped into a traditionally designed desalination plant.

"There are a lot of desal plants already in operation today that are powered by fossil fuels... and about 40% of the bottom line of a desalination plant is energy (cost)!' he said. "So if you can remove that... you've got massive cost savings and greenhouse gas savings as well". Carnegie Corporation is among tenderers on the short list for the proposed Binningup desalination plant.