Solar power from giant mirrors flows into California's grid

www.forbes.com
24 Sep 2013

BrightSource Energy's massive solar farm in a remote corner of California delivered its first flow of power to the grid, an important step for demonstrating that the project is on the final path to become a fully operating power plant, the company said Tuesday.

BrightSource Energy achieved what is called the "first sync" with the project, Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System, where for the first time the steam was sent to one of its three turbines for generating electricity and synching to the grid. Ivanpah is the first commercial power plant project in the United States for BrightSource Energy, which owns a stake in the project along with NRG Energy NRG Energy +0.77% and Google GOOG-1.42%.

The project also is one of the massive solar power projects being built in California to enable the state to meet its goal of using an increasing amount of renewable electricity. The state's mandate requires 33% of its utilities power supplies to come from renewable sources such as solar, wind, geothermal and biomass by 2020.

The project has a 392 MW capacity but is set to deliver 377 MWs to the Pacific Gas and Electric and Southern California Edison, It's sized to deliver enough power to about 140,000 homes per year.

Ivanpah is made up of three power generation stations. The "first sync" milestone took place at Unit 1, and the same step will be done at Unit 2 and Unit 3 soon. Unit 2 and Unit 3 are scheduled to start delivering electricity to the grid by the end of the year.

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Tata Power, Geodynamics commission 1 MW geothermal plant in Australia

articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com
20 Jun 2013

NEW DELHI: Strengthening its overseas footprint, Tata Power along with GeoDynamics have commissioned a 1 MW geothermal plant in Australia. Tata Power has a minority stake in Australia-based GeoDynamics, a leading player in Enhanced Geothermal System (EGS) technology. In a statement, Tata Power said it has successfully commissioned 1 MW geothermal pilot plant in Australia.

"The commissioning of the 1 MW geothermal pilot plant is a significant milestone for the project and with this we plan to strengthen our footprint in the international markets", Tata Power Managing Director Anil Sardana said.

He noted that the company aims to have 20-25% of generation portfolio from clean energy. GeoDynamics has geothermal exploration interests in three Australian states including the license for exploring 2,000 km² of area in the Cooper Basin. According to the statement, GeoDynamics' tenements in the Cooper Basin contain the hottest granites on earth and are estimated to provide a thermal resource equivalent of 50 billion barrels of oil.

Besides Australia, Tata Power is implementing a 250 MW geothermal project in Indonesia in partnership with Origin Energy energy and PT Supraco. Geothermal energy is the natural heat found within the earth and in EGS technology, heat is extracted from granites located at a depth of a more than 4,000 metres. "EGS technology can potentially enable the setting up of base load power plants that are based on naturally heat and thereby making them a clean energy source for the future", the statement said.

Local firm leads energy future

www.brisbanetimes.com.au
17 May 2013

Geothermal energy could provide 9% of Australia's energy needs by 2035.

Milton firm GeoDynamics has used steam produced by boiling water tapped five km underground to generate electricity in an Australian first. Experts predict this geothermal energy gathered from turbines driven from the steam of boiling underground water will provide 9% of Australia's energy needs by 2035.

Queensland has already identified 11 high-priority sites-in southwest Queensland, near Surat, near Julia Creek and Cape York-from 33 potential targets. This month GeoDynamics successfully produced electricity to power its own test project in the South Australian desert at Innaminka, near Moomba. It now plans to provide electricity from its one MW pilot project to mining companies in the Cooper Basin by way of a longer-term commercial trial.

Managing director Geoff Ward said their plant was one of only three enhanced geothermal energy (EGS) plants worldwide at the trial stage and the first in Australia. ''What we are doing here is opening up the prospect of being able to use geothermal power in the long term, in the next 30, 40 years, 100 years in a whole lot of areas where you probably couldn't do so now,'' Mr Ward said.

GeoDynamics is running the successful Engineered Geothermal Systems trial from its Habanero well at Innaminka where is drawing boiling water from Innamincka granite deep underground. After 100 days of the pilot trial, it will move to a commercial trial over an extended period. ''We will take the results of the pilot plant trial and put together a 5 or 10 MW plant in a commercial project,'' he said. That will provide power to nearby mining companies.

Santos and Chevron are likely customers given their exploration of unconventional gas reserves nearby Moomba Mr Ward said. ''We are hoping to put together a scheme so that we can sell power, or direct heat to local gas producers or other industries in the Cooper Basin,'' he said. While geothermal enegy was first used in Italy in 1908 and tentatively explored around the geysers of Wyoming around World War II.

Traditional geothermal energy taps into volcanic conditions in places like California, New Zealand and Iceland and the Phillipines, where heavy rainfall run into the fault-lines and seeps underground. ''So you get a system where a lot of heat is bought to the surface and a lot of water that cuiculates quite quickly so generate the ability to generate a lot of heat,'' he said. ''That is the conventional geothermal system.''

But Australia is drier and different. That is why it encourages ''enhanced'' geothermal energy. ''What we do have is some of the world's hottest deep rocks,'' he said. GeoDynamics is exploring 1000 km² of Innaminka granite in central Australia, which is between seven and eight km thick, four km below ground. ''And extends seven to ten km, we think, below that.''

The boiling hot brine is tapped to the surface by steel-encased drill wells at temperatures of 240° celcius, tapped into turbines to produce steam which drive generators. Geoscience Australia estimates that 1% of Australia's geothermal energy shallower than five km and hotter than 150° Celsius, could supply Australia's energy requirements for 26,000 years.

Electricity produced from geothermal energy produces about one-tenth of the CO₂ per MW of electricity from brown coal, Mr Ward said. brown coal produces 1200kg of carbon per MW, gas around 600kgs per MW, while geothermal energy produces around 120kgs per MW, he said.

Premier Denis Napthine unveils a massive wind farm in state's southwest

www.news.com.au
12 Apr 2013

PREMIER Denis Napthine has signalled there will be more wind turbines in Victoria's southwest.

Speaking at the launch of the largest wind farm in the southern hemisphere in Macarthur, near Hamilton, Dr Napthine said the turbines were "magnificent"-and said Victoria's southwest was the perfect place for renewable energy production.

"I am very proud and will, at every opportunity, advocate that southwest Victoria is not only the home of renewable energy, but we've only just started in terms of the potential for renewable energy in this area", he said.

"I think they (the turbines) are absolutely fantastic", Dr Napthine said. "They're not right in every place, but in places like this-the wide open plains-I think they are really valuable in terms of their energy production. "I think they are majestic and I actually love them".

The 140 turbine Macarthur wind farm, a joint project between AGL Energy and partner Meridian Energy, took 2 1/2 years to build and cost $1 billion. The turbines have the capacity to power more than 220,000 average Victorian homes and abate more than 1.7 million tonnes of greenhouse gases annually.

Dr Napthine, the local MP, said he wanted to see more renewable energy projects as soon as possible. "There is already significant government support for work being done on wave energy, tidal power, geothermal energy, in this region. "And I believe those opportunities should be pursued at every opportunity", he said.

AGL Energy managing director and CEO Michael Fraser said the Macarthur project not only delivered clean, renewable energy but generated significant economic benefits for the region during development and construction.

But the project has faced opposition from anti-wind protesters who say the turbines cause health problems. A crowd of protesters gathered at the gate as industry leaders and dignitaries arrived yesterday, angry about the 420 MW project. Dr Napthine said he would meet anti-wind protesters to discuss their concerns.

Renewables can provide power 24/7

www.abc.net.au
5 Apr 2013

German researchers have found a way to overcome one of the problems with renewable energy-the fact that it is not always available-by linking different options in a unified system.

CRITICS OF RENEWABLES have always claimed that sun and wind are only intermittent producers of electricity and need fossil fuel plants as back-up to make them viable. But German engineers have proved this is not so. By combining the output of a number of solar, wind and biogas plants the grid can be provided with stable energy 24 hours a day without fear of blackouts, according to the Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy and Energy System Technology (IWES) in Kassel.

For Germany, which has turned its back on nuclear power and is investing heavily in all forms of renewables to reduce its CO₂ emissions, this is an important breakthrough. The country has a demanding industrial sector that needs a large and stable electricity supply, and some doubted that this could be achieved in the long term without retaining nuclear or large fossil fuel plants.

Solving the problem is becoming urgent. The latest figures show that on some days of the year the electricity being generated from sun, wind, biomass, water and geothermal production already accounts for more than half of the load required in the country. The research is funded by the German Federal Ministry of the Environment and is aimed at showing that the entire electricity grid could be run on renewable energy.

Dr Kurt Rohrig, deputy director of IWES, said: "Each source of energy-be it wind, sun or biogas-has its strengths and weaknesses. If we manage to skillfully combine the different characteristics of the regenerative energies, we can ensure the power supply for Germany". The idea is that many small power plant operators can feed their electricity into the grid but act as a single power plant using computers to control the level of power.

Sharing the load
Scientists linked together 25 plants with a nominal power output of 120 MWs. Surplus power could be used for charging electric vehicles and for pumped storage (pumping water uphill into a reservoir to produce hydroelectric later). When many small producers work together, then regional differences when the wind blows or the sun is intermittent are balanced out in the grid and can be boosted by controllable biogas facilities.

If there is too much surplus energy then the power can also be used to create and store thermal energy to be used later. Kasper Knorr, the project manager for the scheme, which is known as the Combined Power Plant2 research project, says the idea is to ensure that the consumer is supplied reliably with 230 volts at a frequency of 50 Hertz.

The current system of supplying the grid with electricity is geared to a few large producers. In the new system, with dozens of small producers, there will need to be extra facilities at intervals on the system to stabilise voltage. Part of the project is designed to find out how many of these the country will need.

US approves 3 major renewable energy projects

www.businessspectator.com.au
14 Mar 2013

The Obama administration on Wednesday approved three large renewable energy projects in the US West, including what will be one of the world's largest solar developments, that combined will produce enough energy to power 340,000 homes. The projects, to be built mostly on federal lands in California and Nevada but funded privately, were announced by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar at a press conference in San Francisco.

The approvals were for one wind and two solar projects, including NextEra Energy Resources Inc's 750 MW McCoy Solar Energy Project near the southern California city of Blythe in Riverside County that stands to be one of the largest solar developments in the world.

The other two projects are the 150 MW Desert Harvest Solar Farm proposed by EDF Energy Renewable Energy, also in Riverside County, and the 200 MW Searchlight Wind Energy Project in Nevada, south of Las Vegas. Searchlight, which is being developed by Duke Energy Corp, will use Siemens wind turbines. Both solar projects will use photovoltaic solar panels.

Wednesday's action brings the total number of renewable energy projects approved by the administration to 37 including 20 solar facilities, eight wind farms and nine geothermal plants with associated transmission corridors and infrastructure to connect to established power grids.

"That's a lot of power, and these projects now are becoming the examples to the rest of the world on what can be done with renewable energy", Mr Salazar said during the signing ceremony in San Francisco.

The two California projects are located in one of the nation's 17 solar power zones-areas the administration has identified as well suited for solar power projects due to high levels of sunlight, proximity to transmission lines, and limited impact on wildlife in the area. "They are the blueprint, the bible if you will, of where solar power will go on public lands in the years ahead", Mr Salazar said.

The renewable energy zones encompass 285,000 acres of public lands across six western states. California Governor Jerry Brown said the new projects will advance the state's position as a leader in the fight against climate change. "We have a lot of challenges in this country, a lot of them, but climate change is on the way and we've got to do something about it", Mr Brown said.

Graph of the Day – How fossil fuels lose out to wind and solar

reneweconomy.com.au
20 Feb 2013

The story that has really captured the imagination of our readers this year has been on the Bloomberg New Energy Finance analysis that demonstrated that wind power was already cheaper than new coal and gas plants in Australia, and solar PV was not all that behind.

Because of that interest, we've decided that today's Graph of the Day should be another set from the BNEF report, because they demonstrate so vividly how the technology costs of wind, solar PV, solar thermal, biomass and even geothermal fall below rising coal and gas plant costs over the coming decades.

Remember when looking at this graph of the day that Australia needs no new baseload power plants for another 10 years-that's according to the Australian Energy Market Operator and the utilities themselves. So this shows that the new plants we are getting built now-wind farms, thanks to the renewable energy target-are the cheapest option.

By the time 2020 comes around, solar PV will have well and truly joined wind on the southern side of the cost curve (and will no doubt be competing for space in the RET), and solar thermal-with its ability for storage and dispatchable energy, will be competing vigorously with gas.

Looking at these, it really is hard to disagree with BNEF's CEO Michael Liebrich, who said that "clean energy is a game changer which promises to turn the economics of power systems on its head". And it's also hard to stomach the constant carping from "the other side" about the expense of renewables.

We've published one graph that includes 2012, 2020 and 2030 forecasts, because the contrast is so visible. But due to the formatting, it may be easier to view the graphs individually, so we have also reproduced them below if the numbers and the letters are too small to see in the first.

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Hot rocks cool for geothermal industry

www.abc.net.au
27 Nov 2012

On paper, the potential for geothermal energy in Australia is staggering. Government data suggests that using just 1% of our hot rocks to generate power could meet Australia's energy needs for 26,000 years. But for now it seems the hot rock industry has gone cold. In August, one of Australia's largest geothermal supporters, Origin Energy wrote off its investments in GeoDynamics' Cooper Basin wells, one of Australia's only active geothermal projects. "They lost patience with geothermal", says Graeme Beardsmore from geothermal consultancy Hot Rocks. They haven't seen the returns that they anticipated ten years ago when they got involved. It's a similar story with EnergyAustralia".

In March, TRUEnergy, which recently merged with EnergyAustralia, also gave up its stake in another major geothermal project, the Paralena joint venture in South Australia. Mr Beardsmore says the decisions of both companies have a flow-on effect for all investment in the industry. "Other investors with money look at the project and say 'that project hasn't returned anything in ten years, so why should we believe that we are going to get our money back any time sooner?' "It becomes a difficult business model to raise investment on and that's the case the world-over for geothermal projects. "So the industry is at a crossroads".

Off the back of this difficult investment environment, the Federal Government downgraded the geothermal sector in its Energy White Paper, released earlier this month. Just a year ago it was predicted that geothermal would provide 23% of Australia's total electricity needs by 2050. That figure has now been revised to just nine%. "That probably was always much more realistic", says Mr Beardsmore. "It's certainly not insignificant, but it's not been a good year for the geothermal industry. "But I'm still optimistic-next year's looking much rosier. "I think we should actually have the first power generated from geothermal outside Birdsville".

The geothermal plant currently supplying power to Birdsville in Queensland was the last project to be built in Australia, over 20 years ago. Now, industry talk points to the Cooper Basin as the likely home to Australia's second geothermal power plant. Despite the loss of primary investor Origin Energy, GeoDynamics is expecting to have a new, trial one-MW-plant operational about 11 km from Innamincka by mid-2013. According to Geoff Ward, managing director at GeoDynamics, that's one geothermal project that isn't short of cash.

"We closed out our remaining insurance claims from events in 2009 when we had a well incident, and recieved that payment" he said., "We've also sold two large drill rigs,.. and are well supported by the Australia Renewable Energy Agency, and Sentient and Sunsuper groups. "But we've been exploring for hot rocks in the Cooper Basin for over 11 years now. "We've just completed our sixth deep, hot well, 'Habanero 4', in September, and we're now undertaking a major simulation to test it".

GeoDynamics are also advancing plans to provide geothermal energy to large customers like the Gove alumina refinery in the Northern Territory.

Solar capability enhanced with battery ‘smoother’

www.sciencewa.net.au
3 Nov 2012

WESTERN Australian based company Magellan Power has developed a unique device to address electricity fluctuations that occur with some alternative energy technologies. Renewable energy sources like solar, wind and geothermal are growing industries in Australia and research is focused on the pursuit of more efficient energy transmission. In particular, solar farms have an issue with power surges and lulls that occur due to changeable weather conditions.

"When the grid experiences large changes in the injection of solar power, for example on cloudy days, the generators work hard to keep up", Magellan Power's Jolleh Abshar says. "If a large cloud passes by, then the solar injection level will suddenly drop and generators will need to work hard to keep the power flowing".

This lack of reliability has caused WA electricity utility, Horizon Power to bring in new specifications, effective from July this year requiring solar farms to have 'smoothing devices'--a relatively new technology, installed. Chief Technical Officer for Magellan Power, Lindsay Meek says their Solar Smoother uses an integrated cell battery management system. "Our system consists of batteries and a bi-directional inverter and the lithium ensures that the batteries aren't compromised by the heavy work load", she says.

It uses similar battery technology to hybrid powered vehicles. A number of similar units called Grid Power Support Systems have already been sold to Ergon Energy in Queensland, to solve issues with their solar power and to smooth electricity flow in old single earth return (SWER) lines. The success of these first commercial placements has seen Magellan Power refining their product to the point where they now also offer smaller residential units (RUSS).

The Solar Smoother is a key solution for a 45KW solar project at the Carnarvon Police and Justice Complex, which is currently under tender. Plans are underway for another project for a local council in the Pilbara, where a Solar Smoother is again the preferred solution. Magellan believes it has the only Solar Smoother specifically designed to smooth solar power. The technology can be applied to both existing and prospective electricity supply sources in Australia and internationally.

Utah scientists find massive geothermal hotspot in west desert

www.power-eng.com
30 Sep 2012

Scientists at the Utah Geological Survey say they have found a massive new source of potential geothermal power in Utah's west desert. It is a different type of resource, they say, much deeper than the geothermal industry now uses. But it still should be exploitable.

Over the past two years, crews drilled nine wells in Utah's Black Rock Desert basin south of Delta to test out a theory that water at high temperatures might exist deep beneath the surface that would be hot enough to be turned into steam, which could then be used to generate electricity. They hit pay dirt.

"There is definitely something there, and it is big", said Rick Allis, director of the Utah Geological Survey. The agency has identified an approximately 100 square-mile area within the Black Rock Desert basin it believes could eventually support power plants that could conservatively produce hundreds of MWs of electricity. A MW is enough energy to run the appliances in 750 homes.

Allis said the area is especially attractive for geothermal development because of the existing infrastructure. There is a large coal-fired power plant in the area, a 300 MW wind farm and a major electrical transmission line nearby that could be used to get the power to where it is needed. "Our next step is to get [the geothermal power industry] interested in moving forward to develop this resource", he said.

The Utah Geological Survey plans to tell the industry about its discovery at the annual meeting of the Geothermal Resources Council next week in Reno. Karl Gawell is president of the Geothermal Energy Association, which is part of the council. On Thursday he termed the Utah discovery "exciting" and predicted it would be generating a lot of talk and interest among companies that are developing geothermal resources. "It's exciting for Utah, too, because it could eventually generate a lot of jobs and economic growth".

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New Zealand curbs gas emissions as polluters use more renewables

www.businessweek.com
27 Sep 2012

New Zealand's energy industry reduced its greenhouse gas emissions for the third straight year in 2011 as polluters decreased their reliance on coal and gas in favor of renewable sources. Companies cut their emissions by 1.9% last year, according to a report on the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment's web site. The fall was largely driven by a 10% drop in electricity emissions after high rainfall and increased use of wind and geothermal power curbed natural gas emissions, the report said.

New Zealand is seeking to harness more of its renewable power sources after the energy industry's emissions surged by a third in the last two decades from population growth and more cars and road freight. That's the fifth-highest growth in energy pollution among United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change members over the period, even as the nation's emissions peaked in 2008, according to the report.

"Over the last decade the amount of energy being generated by wind and geothermal has grown significantly, causing growth in emissions from electricity generation to flatten", Bryan Field, acting manager of the Ministry's energy information and modeling group, said in a separate e-mailed statement.

Christchurch Earthquake
The Pacific nation's lower emissions last year were also driven by reduced electricity demand in Christchurch, the South Island's biggest city, where earthquakes in September 2010 and February 2011 wrecked much of the city center. In July, New Zealand delayed measures that would have raised the carbon price for emitters. The decision came a day after Australia introduced a fixed price more than twice what New Zealand emitters pay. The nation, which got about 74% of its electricity from renewable sources in 2010, is focusing on economic growth as it seeks to recover from the earthquakes.

Province to build geothermal plant

vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn
September, 26 2012

HA NOI (VNS)--A pioneering 25MW geothermal power plant will be built in the central province of Quang Tri's Dakrong District, according to the Viet Nam Thermal Association vice chairman Ta Huong. The plant, set to be the very first of its kind in Viet Nam, has been licensed by provincial authorities and aims to promote exploration for new sources of energy in the near future.

Huong said Viet Nam has the potential for developing geothermal power in almost all provinces and cities nationwide, especially in Phu Tho, Quang Binh and Quang Tri. The geothermal plant can operate 24 hours a day without being affected by weather conditions such as sunlight, wind or sea wave. Geothermal electricity is generated from geothermal energy. It is considered to be sustainable and friendly-environmental because the heat extraction is small compared with the earth's heat content.

It's reported that the geothermal power plant will use Hot Dry Rock (HDR) heat mining technology to mine the heat from the hot rock found almost everywhere at some depth beneath the surface of the earth. The water is pumped into hot, crystalline rock via an injection well, which becomes superheated as it flows opening joints in the hot rock reservoir, and is then returned through production wells. At the surface, the useful heat is extracted to generate power and the same water is recirculated to mine more heat.

The technology has been used by many countries in the world including the US, Germany and Iceland. The US takes the lead, with its geothermal power output accounting for 32% of all geothermal power produced in the world. In the next 50 years, the US is expected to generate 100,000MW from geothermal energy, supplying power for 25 million households at a cost of around $40 million per year.

Asia eyes green energy in Australia

www.theasset.com
21 Aug 2012

Renewable energy currently comprises around 9% of Australia's energy generation against the Australian Government's renewable energy target of reaching 20% generation by 2020.

With a carbon pricing scheme in place since July, along with several well funded federal and state government financing schemes, the shift to renewable energy has become one of the main themes in the Australian energy industry.

In addition to connecting renewable power to the national grid, there are a range of mining and infrastructure projects around the country which have started planning to use standalone and dedicated renewable sources, from wind to solar and even tidal power.

Wind ventures
With such a solid focus on increasing renewable output, the sector has attracted strong interest from international investors and energy companies. In keeping with the trend elsewhere in the economy, mainland Chinese companies have been prominent, particularly in wind, which is currently the most developed of the renewable sectors in Australia.

Investors from other Asian countries have been active as well, and their interest has spanned not only wind but also geothermal and bioenergy.

Perhaps the first of these forays was the Roaring 40s wind power joint venture, formed in 2005 by Hong Kong CLP Group and state-owned Hydro Tasmania. That venture was unwound last year with the assets being split between the partners, but in its six-year history, Roaring 40s was a major pioneer of wind farm development both in Australia and overseas, with projects in India, Hong Kong and mainland China.

In Australia, those wind projects were centred in South Australia-an early adopter with wind now comprising more than 30% of the state's energy mix-and in Hydro Tasmania's home state. In the break-up of the Roaring 40s joint venture, Hydro Tasmania took the Tasmanian projects while CLP Group emerged with the two South Australian wind farms.

Those assets were subsequently transferred to CLP Group's Australian subsidiary TRUEnergy, which is considering selling one of the wind farms, the 111MW (MW) Waterloo project. ANZ Bank was recently hired to advise on that sale.

TRUEnergy retains a 50% interest in the smaller 66MW Cathedral Rocks project, in partnership with Spanish company ACCIONA Energy. It also has plans for a large 180MW solar farm in Victoria, a plan which has received backing from Ted Baillieu, the current Premier of Victoria.

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Solar electricity generation makes a lot of cents

www.power-eng.com
12 Aug 2012

The outlook for makers of photovoltaic cells is much sunnier in Australia than New Zealand. feed-in tariffs in Australia, which see homeowners paid good prices for what energy their solar panels produce above what they use, has driven a 431% increase in the installations of solar panels there since 2010. In New Zealand, there are about 20,000 solar installations-just over 1% of the country's 1.6 million houses. Europe accounts for about 71% of the world's installed solar capacity.

Roy and Jenny Gardner installed 10 solar panels on their southern English home about a year ago and expect to see the scheme pay for itself in under a decade. "They make enough money to pay for our electricity annually", Mrs Gardner said. "We are paid 43 pence [86¢] for every unit generated and a further 3 pence [6¢] for half the units produced. The government has since been cutting down on the units paid and anyone now investing in this scheme will now only be paid 16 pence [32¢] a unit".

Despite the cut, Ivan Posa, who spent $25,000 on 20 solar panels at his Hamilton home three years ago, envies the British scheme. His family bulldozed an old home on their rural Tuhikaramea Rd section two years ago and began building a four-bedroom home which they crowned with 20 solar panels.

Solar power, installed by specialists What Power Crisis, were complemented by a $20,000 wind turbine which, together, should make the Posas self sufficient. Mr Posa, a retired farmer, cannot be certain how self sufficient he, wife Deb, and children Mili, 17, and Zach, 15, are but guesses it is about 80% at the moment. That is with an unfinished house and underfloor heating, an idea borrowed from ancient Rome, which Mr Posa jokes would cause the lights in Hamilton to go out if it was turned on full bore.

"When I started the house building I thought it was an opportunity to install solar panels from the start", he said. "It's hard to work out where power pricing is going to go and the price of panels is relatively competitive at the moment". In fact, the cost of photovoltaic cells has fallen by about 80% this year to about $1.25 a watt, causing the likes of WEL Networks to investigate the economic viability of building solar power stations in the region.

WEL Networks chief executive Dr Julian Elder said the British market had experienced unprecedented growth. "New Zealand is well behind Europe due to many factors, but mainly the lack of feed-in tariffs and subsidies". At the moment an abundance of renewable energy, such as hydroelectric and wind, meant it was more cost-effective for power generators to expand existing facilities such as the Te Uku wind farm. Mark Hanson, acting communications manager for retail at Mighty River Power, said the state-owned company was not involved in any form of solar power investigation. "The company's priority is with its geothermal programme and potential wind farm developments,' he said.

Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority chief executive Mike Underhill said: "We have a high amount of untapped large-scale renewable energy. The other thing that we have got is a high number of renewable power stations. There's 3000 MWs of current available from consented sites and if they come off that's where the new generation is going to come from for the next 15 to 20 years".

But from a homeowner's perspective, hooking a home up to solar panels is a no-brainer. Just three weeks ago a similar sized photovoltaic project at the Forlong family home in Howden Rd, Frankton, where the same company installed 18 solar panels, cost $12,000. Dad Howard Forlong, a director at Forlongs department store in Frankton, got the idea from a stall at the National Agricultural Fieldays.

When he sat down with a chartered accountant he realised that installing the panels at the house he shares with his wife, Helen, and children Harrison, 17, Stephanie, 16, and Jonathan, 13, would pay for itself in about seven years. "It's got a 9.6% return on investment, compared to 4% if I put it in the bank". he said.

In the three weeks since he threw the switch he has saved $22 on his power bill. As well as generating their own electricity, both the Posa and Forlong families receive a one-for-one credit for energy they do not use that is fed into the national grid. That means their solar panels can earn them money on a sunny day when they are out or on holiday. "We are on an import and export tariff", Mr Posa said. "We tend to use a lot more [and export less] in the winter and use a lot less [and export more] in the summer. It's hard for us to put an exact figure on it at the moment".

Britton Broun, media adviser to the Economic Development Group for the Business, Innovation and Employment Ministry, said New Zealand differed from other countries as it had a national electricity system dominated by grid-scale renewable generation. "Last year, 77% of New Zealand's electricity came from renewable sources. This is one of the highest levels of renewable electricity generation in the OECD [Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development].

"The government has a target of generating 90% of electricity from renewable sources by 2025, so more grid-scale renewable electricity generation is anticipated. Consequently, there is less drive for domestic-scale renewable electricity generation here than in many other countries. Instead, the government's push has tended to be for more energy-efficient homes through insulation standards, efficient household heating, and encouraging energy efficiency".

U.S. military's big plan for renewable energy projects

www.forbes.com
6 Aug 2012

The US Department of Defense plans to open up 16 million acres of its land for renewable energy development, which it hopes will create a boom of solar, wind and geothermal projects and provide clean power to military bases, the department announced Monday.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and the Interior Secretary Ken Salazar signed a memorandum of understanding to work together on promoting renewable energy generation projects on public land that has historically been restricted for military uses. About 13 million of those 16 million acres are located in western US, where a lot of solar, wind and geothermal power development already has been taking place on private and other types of public land.

The administration has been making a strong push for renewable energy development by funding both technology research and power generation projects since the President Obama took office in 2009. The administration wants to accomplish two key goals by supporting renewable energy: creating jobs and finding alternative, cleaner and more abundant power sources domestically. Last month, Salazar unveiled a roadmap for speeding up solar power project development on 285,000 acres of public land in six western states.

The government support for renewable energy has indeed propelled the development of advanced materials and equipment and the construction of some of the largest solar power plants in the country. It also has attracted vocal critics, notably Republicans, who have used the bankruptcy of government-funded solar panel maker Solyndra last fall to accuse the administration of political favoritism and mismanaging public money.

The Monday announcement by the Defense and Interior departments involved not only land set aside for the military but also offshore locations near military installations. The goal is to promote onshore and offshore energy projects, such as erecting wind turbines in the sea. The MOU calls for the military and the the Interior's Bureau of Land Management to run a pilot project to oversee solar power plant development at military bases in Arizona and California. The military has been vocal about its support of renewable energy, from electricity to transportation fuels, that it says will help it become more self-sufficient and reduce its vulnerabilities in the battle fields.

The vast majority of the military bases rely on power from nearby utilities, and they depend on backup generators during blackouts, said Dorothy Robyn, deputy under secretary of defense for installations and environment, during a conference call on Monday. The military is keenly interested in creating "microgrids" for its bases. A microgrid is a mostly self-sufficient base of power generation and storage, which allows for banking the electricity (using batteries or other technologies) for later use. A microgrid can still be connected to the regular electric grid, but it will take power from local utilities only when its own power plants aren't able to generate enough to meet the demand. "Renewable energy will allow a military base to maintain critical operations for weeks or months if an electric power grid goes down", she said.

The military wants to attract developers and private investments for building solar, wind and other renewable electricity power projects on its land. It plans to lease the land to developers and buy some or all of the power from each project for its own use, and any unused power will be sold local utilities, Robyn said. Each of the military services plans on getting 1 GW of renewable energy installed near its bases by 2025.

$257 billion invested in renewable energy in 2011

news.brisbanetimes.com.au
12 Jun 2012

Global investment in renewable energy reached a record of $257 billion last year, with solar attracting more than half the total spending, according to a UN report released Monday. Investment in solar power surged to $147 billion in 2011, a year-on-year increase of 52% thanks to strong demand for rooftop photovoltaic installations in Germany, Italy, China and Britain.

Large-scale solar thermal installations in Spain and the United States also contributed to growth during a fiercely competitive year for the solar industry. Several large American and German manufacturers fell victim to price pressure from Chinese rivals that helped to halve the cost of photovoltaic modules in 2011. The report's authors said the demise of companies such as Solyndra, Evergreen Solar, SpectraWatt, Solar Millenium and Solon AG was a sign that the solar industry is maturing. "In 1903, the United States had over 500 car companies, most of which quickly fell by the wayside even as the automobile sector grew into an industrial juggernaut", the report said. "Today, the renewable energy sector is experiencing similar growing pains as the sector consolidates".

China was responsible for almost a fifth of the total investment volume, spending $52 billion on renewable energy last year. The United States was close behind with investments of $51 billion, as developers sought to benefit from government incentive programs before they expired. Germany, Italy and India rounded out the top five. Wind power investment slipped 12% to $84 billion due to uncertainty about energy policy in Europe and fewer new installations in China, according to the report.

Overall investment in renewable energy grew 17%, a slowdown from the 37% increase seen in 2010. Still, the head of the UN Environment Program claimed the latest figures were an indication that renewable energy is drawing level with fossil fuels in some markets. "These trends are real, they are substantive and they are transformative", Achim Steiner told reporters in a conference call.

The UN is hoping that countries will use an environmental summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, next week to commit to further investments in renewable energy, which covered just 16.7% of global energy consumption in 2010. Of this share, modern technologies such as solar and wind accounted for just 8.2%, less than the 8.5% contributed by biomass.

By comparison, more than 80% of electricity consumed worldwide still comes from fossil fuels that are blamed for a rise in carbon in the atmosphere. The UN report claims that solar panels installed in Germany, Italy, Spain, Denmark and Australia can now compete with the retail cost of electricity in those countries, even as government feed-in subsidies are lowered. It noted that developing countries were also exploring the use of renewable energy other than hydroelectric, which has long been a popular source in poor countries.

Nations in East Africa are seeking to take advantage of the abundant geothermal capacity in the Rift Valley region. Kenya aims to meet half of its electricity needs with geothermal power by 2018. Djibouti, Eritrea, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda are also exploring geothermal use.

For future energy, volcanic Indonesia bets on heat

www.weku.fm
28 May 2012

Indonesia, the country with the world's largest number of active volcanoes, is betting that all the hot rocks will provide a clean and reliable energy source for the future. The country is believed have 40% of the world's geothermal energy resources. But making geothermal energy economically feasible will require adjusting the country's heavily subsidized energy prices. And that issue is a political hot potato.

Unused Potential
Steam is visible from miles away as it billows into the sky over Kawah Kamojang, Indonesia's first geothermal field in West Java. Some of the steam is piped into a plant, where it turns turbines and generates electricity that is fed into the national power grid. It's is run by the geothermal arm of the state-owned oil company Pertamina. "This area", explains plant manager Tavip Dwikorianto, "used to be a volcano that erupted and collapsed, forming a large crater. Heat comes up from faults inside the crater. The heat is released through vents and hot springs around the crater".

In many spots near the Kamojang plant, boiling hot water with the sulfurous smell of rotten eggs gushes from the ground. Indonesia has around 130 active volcanoes, strung out through the archipelago. At present, Indonesia is only using about half a GW of its estimated potential of 28 GWs of geothermal energy. That potential is roughly equivalent to 12 billion barrels of oil. Until 1996, Indonesia produced more oil than it could consume, so there was little incentive to invest in geothermal, and it is still cheaper to produce electricity by burning oil or coal.

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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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Japan recommends preferential price rates for renewable energy

www.bloomberg.com
25 Apr 2012

Japan will require power utilities to pay above market rates for electricity generated from renewable energy sources such as solar and wind, based on recommendations announced today by a government panel. The preferential rate, known as a feed-in tariff, for solar power was recommended at 42 yen (52 U.S,¢) a kW for 20 years, compared with the current rate of 13.65 yen a kW for industry and commercial users, according to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.

Wind-generated power was recommended at 23.10 yen a kW for plants with the capacity of 20 kWs or more and 57.75 yen for smaller ones, both for 20 years. For geothermal, the panel recommended 27.30 yen a kW for plants with the capacity of 15,000 kWs or more and 42 yen for smaller plants, both for 15 years. Japan currently gets about 9% of its electricity from renewable energy.

Pending approval by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, the feed-in tariffs will be introduced in July to spur investment in solar, wind geothermal, biomass and hydroelectric power generation as Japan plans a shift away from atomic power after the Fukushima disaster. In August, Japan's parliament approved legislation for the feed-in tariffs to help diversify its energy mix following the devastating accident at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant in March 2011. Atomic power provided about 30% of the country's electricity before the Fukushima crisis.

Nuclear Free
Japan is set to be nuclear free for the first time in more than four decades next month as the last of its 50 operating reactors is scheduled to be shut for maintenance. All the reactors are being kept offline pending safety tests and government approval for restarts. The price recommendation for solar is in line with that earlier proposed by the Japan Photovoltaic Energy Association. The Japan Wind Power Association had suggested a wind tariff of up to 25 yen over 20 years for bigger producers. The Japan Geothermal Developers' Council had recommended 25.8 yen a kW for 15 years for bigger suppliers.

CEFC review to fast-track transition to low cost clean energy

www.cleanenergycouncil.org.au
17 Apr 2012

The clean energy industry today welcomed the report on the Clean Energy Finance Corporation delivered to the Federal Government by the independent Expert Review Panel led by Reserve Bank Board Member Jillian Broadbent. Clean Energy Council acting Chief Executive Kane Thornton congratulated the panel on recognising the importance of developing our clean energy future, to insure Australia against rising energy prices in years to come.

"Australia has some of the best renewable energy resources in the world. Taking advantage of those through the CEFC can attract a massive amount of investment into clean energy and develop a range of technologies that will enable us to deliver low cost clean energy in a carbon-constrained world", Mr Thornton said. "We are encouraged by the review's understanding of the challenges our industry must overcome to develop new clean energy technologies such as wave energy, geothermal and large scale solar power.

"The report reveals a strong understanding of the complexities involved in providing support for new technologies, while not distorting the existing markets for proven clean energy sources like wind, solar and hydroelectric. The panel's recognition of the need for the CEFC to work in tandem with the Renewable Energy Target and a carbon price reflect a mature understanding of Australia's energy landscape. "The recognition that flexibility is required in assessing funding opportunities on a case-by-case basis is particularly important, as well as the independence from government that will ensure only the best projects receive investment support.

"This includes remaining open minded about investments in transmission, energy storage and the potential to aggregate smaller-including community owned-clean energy projects", he said. Mr Thornton said there had not been any form of electricity generation technology developed in Australia without significant government support. "The current challenge of developing new forms of energy technology is not unique to the clean energy sector, and other technologies such as coal and gas generation have enjoyed decades of public support to get to where they are today", said Mr Thornton. "Some level of government support is warranted when long-term investments requiring large amounts of capital are needed to kick-start promising first-of-kind technologies.

"Investment in an institution like the CEFC is all the more worthwhile given the risk to our economy if we put all our faith in fossil fuel-based technologies whose costs are increasing. The CEFC will help rapidly bring down the costs of the next generation of clean energy technologies for all energy users". The Clean Energy Council is now calling for the Australian Parliament to legislate the CEFC as a matter of urgency to allow the industry and investors to get on with the job of transforming Australia's electricity sector.