Herald Sun
October 26, 2006 12:00am
RIC Brazzale writes: encouraging that the Federal Government is taking action on climate change.
The announcement yesterday of the first allocation of its Low Emissions Technology Demonstration Fund -- $75 million for a 154 megawatt solar station near Mildura and $50 million for the Hazelwood coal power plant to experiment with making coal cleaner -- is welcome recognition that climate change is a problem.
But it falls short of what is needed most. That's a robust, strategic government policy that will make deep cuts to dangerous greenhouse gas emissions now, and develop a vibrant renewable and clean energy industry. What that means in practice is putting a price on carbon pollution with a carbon tax or carbon emissions trading.
It also entails raising the national Mandatory Renewable Energy Target from its paltry 2 per cent of electricity to come from new clean renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power. China has a 15 per cent renewables target, yet it has fewer renewable energy choices and less expertise than Australia.
Californian Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is the Carbon Terminator and leads a thriving economy; he has demanded a cut in carbon emissions of 25 per cent by 2020.
These market-based incentives -- a carbon price "signal' and a useful renewable energy target -- are sensible, sustainable and affordable ways to usher in the genuinely clean, green power that we already have pouring from the sun, roaring in the wind and simmering in rocks under central Australia.
The clean energy industry wants these measures. Increasingly, many big businesses are clamoring for them too. Even if climate change weren't a concern, the security of our electricity is.
A huge $24 billion has already been committed to our electricity infrastructure, which is cracking under the pressure of our soaring peak energy demand. This is where solar panels in particular are good for providing zero-emission peak energy.
On hot summer afternoons, when the air-conditioner is on full blast, solar panels on the roof can pour clean power into your home. But the clean energy industry has never called for coal to be completely replaced by any single "green energy" source.
Rather, it advocates a gradual build-up of a new clean-energy mix of renewable and low-emission energies; solar, wind, geothermal (hot rocks), bioenergy and natural gas.
AGL, one of Australia's major energy companies, undertook a study with Frontier Economics that found Australia could reduce its greenhouse emissions from electricity by 30 per cent by 2030 at a high-end cost of $2 a person a week.
Would it wreck the economy? Hardly.
The energy choices we make now, especially electricity, are crucial to whether humans manage to slow global warming. Electricity is the largest and fastest growing generator of greenhouse emissions in Australia.
Yet, and this is the good news, it makes up less than 3 per cent of most industry sectors' material costs, and Australian households spend more on grog than they do on electricity.
It means switching to cleaner energy reaps big greenhouse benefits but costs comparatively little. It's easy to get lost in despair over global warming. But when you break it down and start putting the issue in context you realise that this is a problem for which we do have the answers.
Their names are solar power, bioenergy, wind power, cogeneration, energy efficiency, hydroelectricity and natural gas. They have been around for many years and are excellent at cutting greenhouse gas emissions today. But the longer we wait the less time we have, and the bigger the mess we will have to deal with.
RIC BRAZZALE is the Executive Director of the Australian Business Council for Sustainable Energy
Thursday, 26 October 2006
For E.ON's British boss, there are big changes blowing in the wind
The Times
October 23, 2006
Paul Gollby, head of E.ON UK, talks to our correspondent about how to achieve the balance between meeting energy needs and safeguarding the planet
THEY say you shouldn’t take your work home with you, but Paul Golby, head of E.ON UK, the power company, is busy arranging to have a wind turbine strapped to his house near Statford-upon-Avon. It may smack of tokenism, and the generator will only supply about a third of his family’s energy needs, but Mr Golby says that it shows his commitment to taking seriously the planet-threatening issue of climate change.
His seems an anomalous position for the chief of an energy company, who readily admits that his industry is incentivised to sell more and more electricity and gas, at least at present. “I genuinely believe that climate change represents a grave threat,” he says. “We shouldn’t believe that we can afford to do nothing.”
In tabloid language, Mr Golby explains, the parameters of the energy debate are nuclear versus windmills and draught excluders. But as he is keen to tell people it should not be an “either or” debate.
“We have to do lots of these things in parallel if we are going to reduce the impact on the environment, preserve supplies and at least slow down the rate of increase in price,” he says. That means energy efficiency, distributed energy, gas, clean coal, nuclear and a whole range of emerging technologies, such as marine and solar power.
Read more...
October 23, 2006
Paul Gollby, head of E.ON UK, talks to our correspondent about how to achieve the balance between meeting energy needs and safeguarding the planet
THEY say you shouldn’t take your work home with you, but Paul Golby, head of E.ON UK, the power company, is busy arranging to have a wind turbine strapped to his house near Statford-upon-Avon. It may smack of tokenism, and the generator will only supply about a third of his family’s energy needs, but Mr Golby says that it shows his commitment to taking seriously the planet-threatening issue of climate change.
His seems an anomalous position for the chief of an energy company, who readily admits that his industry is incentivised to sell more and more electricity and gas, at least at present. “I genuinely believe that climate change represents a grave threat,” he says. “We shouldn’t believe that we can afford to do nothing.”
In tabloid language, Mr Golby explains, the parameters of the energy debate are nuclear versus windmills and draught excluders. But as he is keen to tell people it should not be an “either or” debate.
“We have to do lots of these things in parallel if we are going to reduce the impact on the environment, preserve supplies and at least slow down the rate of increase in price,” he says. That means energy efficiency, distributed energy, gas, clean coal, nuclear and a whole range of emerging technologies, such as marine and solar power.
Read more...
Councillors worry about climate - sort of
The Wellington Councillors professed concern about climate change is belied by their failure to vote in favour of the Devon North wind farm proposal....
Gippsland Times & Maffra Spectator
Friday 20/10/2006, Page: 3
WHILE all Wellington Shire Councillors who spoke at last week's meeting believe immediate action needs to be taken on climate change, some believe it's difficult for council to make a real difference.
None of the councillors who voted against the Devon North wind farm could think of a suitable place to locate one in Wellington, although Cr Jeff Amos suggested an area surrounded by plantation.
Councillor Peter Gault acknowledged there was "a lot of concern" in the community. "(But) it's really the levels of government above us (which can make a difference). "There are big issues which really need to be addressed... basically coal burning power stations," he said.
"Bass Coast have looked into tidal energy and are very keen, there's a huge resource running in twice a day." Cr Amos also doubted council could single-handedly attract alternative energy forms to the area.
"I don't know whether we could do anything along those lines, it's usually controlled by other levels of government," he said.
However Wellington Shire could be renowned for renewable energy if Cr Beth Ripper gets her way. "When people sit in a cafe in Melbourne they are warmed by gas from Gippsland, the water in their coffee is from Gippsland, their electricity is from Gippsland," Cr Ripper said.
"We are the energy centre of Victoria ... my vision is we should promote ourselves as the driving force in alternatives." Cr Ripper said Latrobe City Council was replacing streetlights with low energy streetlighting.
Energy efficient devices could be promoted on the council website, she added. "The problem is while we have 500 years of coal and a grid, we don't look elsewhere," she said. "Everything ... is being commercially driven against people thinking about it.
"With wind and tidal ... if we're not in there with technology today, even though it's inefficient, we'll never progress past that." Significantly less polluting coal technology was a long way off, Cr Ripper added.
Cr Darren McCubbin said people needed to make the link between the drought and climate change. "(Climate change) is the reasonblind Freddy could see that. "Perhaps the (fact) we're so tied to coal fired power is the reason we've been in drought for six years ...
compared to the rest of the world we are really slack in terms of what we churn out of coal fired power stations." Cr McCubbin warned if alternatives were not developed the likely option would be nuclear, which would be "scary for Gippsland".
"They've looked at sites in which (nuclear) power stations would be placed, Gippsland is certainly on that agenda." Council could be doing "much more" to encourage efficient use of energy and promote alternative energy sources, according to Cr McCubbin, who added he would be pay more for energy to produce a better environmental outcome.
Gippsland Times & Maffra Spectator
Friday 20/10/2006, Page: 3
WHILE all Wellington Shire Councillors who spoke at last week's meeting believe immediate action needs to be taken on climate change, some believe it's difficult for council to make a real difference.
None of the councillors who voted against the Devon North wind farm could think of a suitable place to locate one in Wellington, although Cr Jeff Amos suggested an area surrounded by plantation.
Councillor Peter Gault acknowledged there was "a lot of concern" in the community. "(But) it's really the levels of government above us (which can make a difference). "There are big issues which really need to be addressed... basically coal burning power stations," he said.
"Bass Coast have looked into tidal energy and are very keen, there's a huge resource running in twice a day." Cr Amos also doubted council could single-handedly attract alternative energy forms to the area.
"I don't know whether we could do anything along those lines, it's usually controlled by other levels of government," he said.
However Wellington Shire could be renowned for renewable energy if Cr Beth Ripper gets her way. "When people sit in a cafe in Melbourne they are warmed by gas from Gippsland, the water in their coffee is from Gippsland, their electricity is from Gippsland," Cr Ripper said.
"We are the energy centre of Victoria ... my vision is we should promote ourselves as the driving force in alternatives." Cr Ripper said Latrobe City Council was replacing streetlights with low energy streetlighting.
Energy efficient devices could be promoted on the council website, she added. "The problem is while we have 500 years of coal and a grid, we don't look elsewhere," she said. "Everything ... is being commercially driven against people thinking about it.
"With wind and tidal ... if we're not in there with technology today, even though it's inefficient, we'll never progress past that." Significantly less polluting coal technology was a long way off, Cr Ripper added.
Cr Darren McCubbin said people needed to make the link between the drought and climate change. "(Climate change) is the reasonblind Freddy could see that. "Perhaps the (fact) we're so tied to coal fired power is the reason we've been in drought for six years ...
compared to the rest of the world we are really slack in terms of what we churn out of coal fired power stations." Cr McCubbin warned if alternatives were not developed the likely option would be nuclear, which would be "scary for Gippsland".
"They've looked at sites in which (nuclear) power stations would be placed, Gippsland is certainly on that agenda." Council could be doing "much more" to encourage efficient use of energy and promote alternative energy sources, according to Cr McCubbin, who added he would be pay more for energy to produce a better environmental outcome.
New giants put power in perspective
Launceston Examiner
Sunday 22/10/2006, Page: 4
$175m Woolnorth wind farm is taking shape on the far North-West Coast
THE GIANTS of Australia's wind energy industry make a person feel very small. Stretching up 135m from base to tip, the V90 turbine tower is the biggest in Australia, a massive structure that weighs in at 400 tonnes when complete.
Twenty-five towers are being erected at Studland Bay to complete the second stage of Roaring 40s' Woolnorth wind farm.
And early next year the turbines will begin to generate electricity - enough to provide power to 60,000 homes.
Five are now standing. The components may be massive, but the job of putting a tower together is a delicate one. Men working high in the air to connect the tower's three sections together look like ants on a lollipop stick as a crane with a 115m jib delicately lifts the pieces into position.
As you crane your neck to see the rotor blades at the top of a completed tower, it appears to be moving in the stiff breeze. "That is not an illusion," project manager Michael Gilmore said on Thursday as he watched a two-year construction job come to fruition.
"The tower is actually swaying, it is designed to. A rigid structure is not as strong as a pliable one." The V90 turbine towers are at the cutting edge of the world's evolving wind energy industry.
The nacelle at the top of a tower moves 360 degrees as it chases the wind and in optimum conditions the rotor revolves 16 times a minute. "It tries to suck wind out of a calm day and shed it on windy days," Mr Gilmore said.
This kind of technology does not come cheap. Roaring 40s has outlaid $175 million building its Woolnorth wind farm.
The 90m-high towers are made in Northern Tasmania by Haywards but the rest of the turbine components are shipped from Denmark, unloaded in Burnie and trucked to Woolnorth.
To the outsider, the turbine components lying prone ready for assembly look like pieces in a very expensive Lego set. It takes only a few minutes for the tower pieces to be hoisted into the air and bolted into position.
"The crew inside the towers instruct the crane driver on position by radio. The crane lifts the piece into position and the men match up the bolt holes," Mr Gilmore said.
Mr Gilmore said all 25 turbines should be up and adding power to the Tasmanian grid by early next year. "There has been a lot of talk about global warming but we are doing something about it. I find it personally rewarding to be involved." Mr Gilmore said.
Sunday 22/10/2006, Page: 4
$175m Woolnorth wind farm is taking shape on the far North-West CoastTHE GIANTS of Australia's wind energy industry make a person feel very small. Stretching up 135m from base to tip, the V90 turbine tower is the biggest in Australia, a massive structure that weighs in at 400 tonnes when complete.
Twenty-five towers are being erected at Studland Bay to complete the second stage of Roaring 40s' Woolnorth wind farm.
And early next year the turbines will begin to generate electricity - enough to provide power to 60,000 homes.
Five are now standing. The components may be massive, but the job of putting a tower together is a delicate one. Men working high in the air to connect the tower's three sections together look like ants on a lollipop stick as a crane with a 115m jib delicately lifts the pieces into position.
As you crane your neck to see the rotor blades at the top of a completed tower, it appears to be moving in the stiff breeze. "That is not an illusion," project manager Michael Gilmore said on Thursday as he watched a two-year construction job come to fruition.
"The tower is actually swaying, it is designed to. A rigid structure is not as strong as a pliable one." The V90 turbine towers are at the cutting edge of the world's evolving wind energy industry.
The nacelle at the top of a tower moves 360 degrees as it chases the wind and in optimum conditions the rotor revolves 16 times a minute. "It tries to suck wind out of a calm day and shed it on windy days," Mr Gilmore said.
This kind of technology does not come cheap. Roaring 40s has outlaid $175 million building its Woolnorth wind farm.
The 90m-high towers are made in Northern Tasmania by Haywards but the rest of the turbine components are shipped from Denmark, unloaded in Burnie and trucked to Woolnorth.
To the outsider, the turbine components lying prone ready for assembly look like pieces in a very expensive Lego set. It takes only a few minutes for the tower pieces to be hoisted into the air and bolted into position.
"The crew inside the towers instruct the crane driver on position by radio. The crane lifts the piece into position and the men match up the bolt holes," Mr Gilmore said.
Mr Gilmore said all 25 turbines should be up and adding power to the Tasmanian grid by early next year. "There has been a lot of talk about global warming but we are doing something about it. I find it personally rewarding to be involved." Mr Gilmore said.
The European solution
Age
Tuesday 24/10/2006, Page: 15
By degrees, John Howard is warming to the idea of tackling climate change. He should look to Europe.
TONY Blair and his Dutch counterpart, Jan Peter Balkenende, are two European politicians John Howard likes. Blair is from the left and Balkenende from the right, but last week they joined to send European leaders a stark wake-up call on the issue Australians rate as more serious than terrorism: global warming.
"The science of climate change has never been clearer," the two PMs wrote. "Without further action, scientists now estimate we may be heading for temperature rises of at least three to four degrees above pre-industrial levels.
"We have a window of only 10 to 15 years to avoid crossing catastrophic tipping points. These would have serious consequences for our economic growth prospects, the safety of our people and the supply of resources, most notably energy. "Europe has the opportunity to lead the world in making the technology transition to a low-carbon economy ... The technologies are already available or within reach.
A historic political choice faces us.
The need to respond to climate change can be seen as a burden. Or it can be seen as a once-in-a-generation opportunity for Europe to mobilise the political will and resources to transform and modernise our energy system." This is Europe, mind you. It already has the world's most advanced emissions trading scheme. The European Union has 36 action plans to cut emissions from everything from buildings to power generators to cars.
John Howard, now rethinking his own policies on global warming, might marvel at his European mates saying they must do far more. While Europe has pledged to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 8 per cent between 1990 and 2010 - and insists it will meet the target, though others are sceptical
- Australia has pledged only to hold its growth in emissions to 8 per cent.
Even that will require some tricky accounting. The Australian Greenhouse Office estimates that by 2010, we will be pumping out 45 per cent more carbon emissions to produce energy, and 53 per cent more from industrial use. We get down to 8 per cent growth only because threequarters of the growth in energy and industrial emissions will be offset by a one-off decline in land-clearing and new plantations.
By 2020, the Greenhouse Office predicts Australia's emissions will have swollen 22 per cent from their 1990 levels. Transport would be emitting 78 per cent more gases than in 1990, power generation 70 per cent more, industry 75 per cent more. The gap between us and Europe would be stark.
Blair and Balkenende have both been here recently and, among other things, asking Howard to do more on global warming. Now that he is interested, he might look at what they propose. They argue for: Strengthening the EU's emissions trading system, which has had a bumpy start, by tightening the caps (i.e. reducing emission levels), extending it to cover more than the 11,500 firms so far included, and linking it to other countries.
Adopting a wide-ranging plan presented last week by EU energy commissioner Andris Piebalgs to cut Europe's energy consumption by 20 per cent by lifting energy efficiency in appliances, cars, buildings, power generators, the lot.
Among other things, it envisages higher taxes on fuel-inefficient cars, minimum efficiency standards for appliances (including in stand-by mode, which accounts for 7 per cent of European energy consumption) and ad campaigns to persuade households to turn down thermostats, insulate their homes and turn off lights when they leave the room.
Investing more in biofuels and wind farms at sea, accelerating development of clean coal technology and establishing policies for "an effective and durable post-2012 (i.e. post-Kyoto) framework".
How does this help Howard frame his own policy? Well, he must start by creating a financial disincentive to emitting greenhouse gases. Without that, there will be no carbon capture and storage, no clean coal technology, and no nuclear power stations. Without a carbon tax, or European-style emissions trading scheme, dirty coal will remain by far the cheapest source of baseload power, and the only one any firm wanting to stay competitive could use.
The arithmetic is simple. Dirty coal (A) plus the cost of cleaning it (B) must cost more than dirty coal (A). A+B must be more than A. The Government has to admit that and bite the bullet.
Around the world, emission targets are in, and Kim Beazley and the states have embraced them as Labor's solution. But if Howard wants to differentiate himself, in the long term, he would do better to go for a carbon tax.
Why? Because it is more likely to be adopted in any global agreement after Kyoto.
Howard won't want to be seen to back down by signing Kyoto or adopting an emissions trading scheme. That's not important. What really matters is the post-Kyoto agreement, and to have Australia lead the way towards it.
A global agreement on emissions trading would be a Swiss cheese. Every country would demand special deals to protect industries. It would be far 6 By 2020, the Greenhouse Office predicts our emissions will have swollen 22 per cent from 1990. A cleaner and simpler to have a common global tax on carbon emissions, whether in Mumbai, Mombasa or Melbourne.
This is not a time for Howard to play politics. We are going to need a lot of new investment in energy over coming years, and it ought to start now. But what investors need is policy certainty. We are asking them to commit to very expensive, very long-tens projects on time scales over which prices of rival fuels and resources could change dramatically.
They deserve to have a stable longterm policy environment. In this area, as much as possible, policies should be bipartisan. Play politics with it, and Australia will be the loser.
Tuesday 24/10/2006, Page: 15
By degrees, John Howard is warming to the idea of tackling climate change. He should look to Europe.
TONY Blair and his Dutch counterpart, Jan Peter Balkenende, are two European politicians John Howard likes. Blair is from the left and Balkenende from the right, but last week they joined to send European leaders a stark wake-up call on the issue Australians rate as more serious than terrorism: global warming.
"The science of climate change has never been clearer," the two PMs wrote. "Without further action, scientists now estimate we may be heading for temperature rises of at least three to four degrees above pre-industrial levels.
"We have a window of only 10 to 15 years to avoid crossing catastrophic tipping points. These would have serious consequences for our economic growth prospects, the safety of our people and the supply of resources, most notably energy. "Europe has the opportunity to lead the world in making the technology transition to a low-carbon economy ... The technologies are already available or within reach.
A historic political choice faces us.
The need to respond to climate change can be seen as a burden. Or it can be seen as a once-in-a-generation opportunity for Europe to mobilise the political will and resources to transform and modernise our energy system." This is Europe, mind you. It already has the world's most advanced emissions trading scheme. The European Union has 36 action plans to cut emissions from everything from buildings to power generators to cars.
John Howard, now rethinking his own policies on global warming, might marvel at his European mates saying they must do far more. While Europe has pledged to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 8 per cent between 1990 and 2010 - and insists it will meet the target, though others are sceptical
- Australia has pledged only to hold its growth in emissions to 8 per cent.
Even that will require some tricky accounting. The Australian Greenhouse Office estimates that by 2010, we will be pumping out 45 per cent more carbon emissions to produce energy, and 53 per cent more from industrial use. We get down to 8 per cent growth only because threequarters of the growth in energy and industrial emissions will be offset by a one-off decline in land-clearing and new plantations.
By 2020, the Greenhouse Office predicts Australia's emissions will have swollen 22 per cent from their 1990 levels. Transport would be emitting 78 per cent more gases than in 1990, power generation 70 per cent more, industry 75 per cent more. The gap between us and Europe would be stark.
Blair and Balkenende have both been here recently and, among other things, asking Howard to do more on global warming. Now that he is interested, he might look at what they propose. They argue for: Strengthening the EU's emissions trading system, which has had a bumpy start, by tightening the caps (i.e. reducing emission levels), extending it to cover more than the 11,500 firms so far included, and linking it to other countries.
Adopting a wide-ranging plan presented last week by EU energy commissioner Andris Piebalgs to cut Europe's energy consumption by 20 per cent by lifting energy efficiency in appliances, cars, buildings, power generators, the lot.
Among other things, it envisages higher taxes on fuel-inefficient cars, minimum efficiency standards for appliances (including in stand-by mode, which accounts for 7 per cent of European energy consumption) and ad campaigns to persuade households to turn down thermostats, insulate their homes and turn off lights when they leave the room.
Investing more in biofuels and wind farms at sea, accelerating development of clean coal technology and establishing policies for "an effective and durable post-2012 (i.e. post-Kyoto) framework".
How does this help Howard frame his own policy? Well, he must start by creating a financial disincentive to emitting greenhouse gases. Without that, there will be no carbon capture and storage, no clean coal technology, and no nuclear power stations. Without a carbon tax, or European-style emissions trading scheme, dirty coal will remain by far the cheapest source of baseload power, and the only one any firm wanting to stay competitive could use.
The arithmetic is simple. Dirty coal (A) plus the cost of cleaning it (B) must cost more than dirty coal (A). A+B must be more than A. The Government has to admit that and bite the bullet.
Around the world, emission targets are in, and Kim Beazley and the states have embraced them as Labor's solution. But if Howard wants to differentiate himself, in the long term, he would do better to go for a carbon tax.
Why? Because it is more likely to be adopted in any global agreement after Kyoto.
Howard won't want to be seen to back down by signing Kyoto or adopting an emissions trading scheme. That's not important. What really matters is the post-Kyoto agreement, and to have Australia lead the way towards it.
A global agreement on emissions trading would be a Swiss cheese. Every country would demand special deals to protect industries. It would be far 6 By 2020, the Greenhouse Office predicts our emissions will have swollen 22 per cent from 1990. A cleaner and simpler to have a common global tax on carbon emissions, whether in Mumbai, Mombasa or Melbourne.
This is not a time for Howard to play politics. We are going to need a lot of new investment in energy over coming years, and it ought to start now. But what investors need is policy certainty. We are asking them to commit to very expensive, very long-tens projects on time scales over which prices of rival fuels and resources could change dramatically.
They deserve to have a stable longterm policy environment. In this area, as much as possible, policies should be bipartisan. Play politics with it, and Australia will be the loser.
Wednesday, 25 October 2006
Australia speaks: time for action on climate change
Friday 20 October 2006
For the second time in a month Australians have shown they want action on climate change, and they don't believe enough is being done to tackle the problem.
Following on from the Lowy Institute's recent report, the latest polling from A.C. Nielsen has found that only 8% believe the federal government is doing enough to address climate change, while three out of four want to see more done to support the use of wind energy.
More than two-thirds of respondents said they would be happy to pay an extra couple of dollars a month if it meant using energy from an environmentally friendly source, 77% want the government to look at setting up more windfarms, while 74% believe wind is a good alternative energy source.
The A.C. Nielsen poll of more than 1,500 Australians, undertaken in late September-early October, found that 84% believe Australia should take stronger action to reduce its greenhouse gas pollution levels and 78% think Australia should be a world leader in greenhouse reduction.
The survey showed nine out of ten Australians are concerned about environmental issues, but despite a push to establish nuclear energy, just 13% of Australians think nuclear power is a clean energy source.
Nearly 75% recognise coal-fired power stations are a major contributor to climate change and just 6% say any form of electricity is acceptable as long as the waste can be buried.
Auswind's CEO, Dominique La Fontaine, said: "These figures come at a time when nuclear energy is being promoted as an answer to climate change, despite widespread concerns over the safety and greenhouse intensity of the nuclear cycle, and the fact that it would take up to 20 years for Australia's first nuclear reactor to come online."
"At the same time, while new wind farm developments are being welcomed in China, Australia's own wind energy industry is faltering," she said.
Among the report's other findings, 71% think Australia should sign the Kyoto Protocol, less than one in ten say using energy sources such as wind power would NOT help save the environment, and just 6% believe any form of electricity is acceptable as long as the waste can be buried.
For the second time in a month Australians have shown they want action on climate change, and they don't believe enough is being done to tackle the problem.
Following on from the Lowy Institute's recent report, the latest polling from A.C. Nielsen has found that only 8% believe the federal government is doing enough to address climate change, while three out of four want to see more done to support the use of wind energy.
More than two-thirds of respondents said they would be happy to pay an extra couple of dollars a month if it meant using energy from an environmentally friendly source, 77% want the government to look at setting up more windfarms, while 74% believe wind is a good alternative energy source.
The A.C. Nielsen poll of more than 1,500 Australians, undertaken in late September-early October, found that 84% believe Australia should take stronger action to reduce its greenhouse gas pollution levels and 78% think Australia should be a world leader in greenhouse reduction.
The survey showed nine out of ten Australians are concerned about environmental issues, but despite a push to establish nuclear energy, just 13% of Australians think nuclear power is a clean energy source.
Nearly 75% recognise coal-fired power stations are a major contributor to climate change and just 6% say any form of electricity is acceptable as long as the waste can be buried.
Auswind's CEO, Dominique La Fontaine, said: "These figures come at a time when nuclear energy is being promoted as an answer to climate change, despite widespread concerns over the safety and greenhouse intensity of the nuclear cycle, and the fact that it would take up to 20 years for Australia's first nuclear reactor to come online."
"At the same time, while new wind farm developments are being welcomed in China, Australia's own wind energy industry is faltering," she said.
Among the report's other findings, 71% think Australia should sign the Kyoto Protocol, less than one in ten say using energy sources such as wind power would NOT help save the environment, and just 6% believe any form of electricity is acceptable as long as the waste can be buried.
Gravity satellites see ice loss
Friday, 20 October 2006
Greenland is currently losing about 100 billion tonnes of ice a year. US space agency (NASA) scientists have undertaken a new assessment of the rate of melting occurring on the great ice sheet that covers the region.
Their data comes from satellites that detect changes in mass by monitoring tiny fluctuations in the pull of gravity as they fly over the Earth.
Scott Luthcke, from the Goddard Space Flight Center, and colleagues report their study in the journal Science.
The rate of ice loss observed using the Grace (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment) spacecraft is much lower than other recent research using the same data has suggested.
The Luthcke team says it has used a different analysis technique - one that enabled the group to determine the behaviour of individual drainage systems instead of looking at the ice sheet as a whole.
The results indicate that Greenland lost about 100 billion metric tonnes (or gigatonnes, Gt) of ice per year from 2003 to 2005. Other estimates for the same period have been close to 240 Gt of ice.
Both figures, however, contrast with findings showing that the ice sheet's overall volume was roughly constant during the 1990s.
Reducing uncertainties
The Science authors also found, as others have, that the ice sheet is thinning at the margins while growing a little in the interior. This fits with climate models of a warmer world which expect increased melting at the edges of Greenland and increased snowfall on more central, higher locations.
According to this study, though, Greenland is now losing 20% more mass than it receives from new snowfall each year.
"This is a very large change in a very short time," said co-author Jay Zwally.
"In the 1990s, the ice sheet was growing inland and shrinking significantly at the edges, which is what climate models predicted as a result of global warming. Now the processes of mass loss are clearly beginning to dominate the inland growth, and we are only in the early stages of the climate warming predicted for this century."
The contribution to global sea-level rise of the ice loss observed in this study is about 0.3mm per year.
Commenting on the Grace research, Anny Cazenave, from the Observatoire Midi-Pyrenees, France, said scientists still had much work to do, to pull all their observations together and build a full picture of ice mass trends.
"Because of these contrasting behaviours - mass loss in coastal regions and mass gain in elevated central regions - ice-sheet mass loss exceeds mass gain only slightly," the Toulouse-based researcher said.
"Thus according to the recent mass-balance estimates, the ice sheets presently contribute little to sea-level rise. However, great uncertainty remains, mainly because of incomplete coverage by remote-sensing surveys, spatial and temporal undersampling, measurement errors, and perturbation from unrelated signals."
Greenland is currently losing about 100 billion tonnes of ice a year. US space agency (NASA) scientists have undertaken a new assessment of the rate of melting occurring on the great ice sheet that covers the region.Their data comes from satellites that detect changes in mass by monitoring tiny fluctuations in the pull of gravity as they fly over the Earth.
Scott Luthcke, from the Goddard Space Flight Center, and colleagues report their study in the journal Science.
The rate of ice loss observed using the Grace (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment) spacecraft is much lower than other recent research using the same data has suggested.
The Luthcke team says it has used a different analysis technique - one that enabled the group to determine the behaviour of individual drainage systems instead of looking at the ice sheet as a whole.
The results indicate that Greenland lost about 100 billion metric tonnes (or gigatonnes, Gt) of ice per year from 2003 to 2005. Other estimates for the same period have been close to 240 Gt of ice.
Both figures, however, contrast with findings showing that the ice sheet's overall volume was roughly constant during the 1990s.
Reducing uncertainties
The Science authors also found, as others have, that the ice sheet is thinning at the margins while growing a little in the interior. This fits with climate models of a warmer world which expect increased melting at the edges of Greenland and increased snowfall on more central, higher locations.
According to this study, though, Greenland is now losing 20% more mass than it receives from new snowfall each year.
"This is a very large change in a very short time," said co-author Jay Zwally.
"In the 1990s, the ice sheet was growing inland and shrinking significantly at the edges, which is what climate models predicted as a result of global warming. Now the processes of mass loss are clearly beginning to dominate the inland growth, and we are only in the early stages of the climate warming predicted for this century."
The contribution to global sea-level rise of the ice loss observed in this study is about 0.3mm per year.
Commenting on the Grace research, Anny Cazenave, from the Observatoire Midi-Pyrenees, France, said scientists still had much work to do, to pull all their observations together and build a full picture of ice mass trends.
"Because of these contrasting behaviours - mass loss in coastal regions and mass gain in elevated central regions - ice-sheet mass loss exceeds mass gain only slightly," the Toulouse-based researcher said.
"Thus according to the recent mass-balance estimates, the ice sheets presently contribute little to sea-level rise. However, great uncertainty remains, mainly because of incomplete coverage by remote-sensing surveys, spatial and temporal undersampling, measurement errors, and perturbation from unrelated signals."
Poll shows demand for green energy
Adelaide Advertiser
Saturday 21/10/2006, Page: 51
MORE than threequarters of Australians believe the country should be a world leader in greenhouse gas reduction to address climate change, an AC Nielsen poll has found.
It was conducted for the wind energy association, Auswind.
It showed 71 per cent wanted the Kyoto Protocol signed, while only 13 per cent thought nuclear power was a clean form of energy.
Saturday 21/10/2006, Page: 51
MORE than threequarters of Australians believe the country should be a world leader in greenhouse gas reduction to address climate change, an AC Nielsen poll has found.
It was conducted for the wind energy association, Auswind.
It showed 71 per cent wanted the Kyoto Protocol signed, while only 13 per cent thought nuclear power was a clean form of energy.
Little confidence in Howard to tackle global warming
Australian
Friday 20/10/2006, Page: 6
ONLY 7 per cent of voters think the Howard Government is doing enough to address climate change and a significant majority think Australia should ratify the Kyoto Protocol.
A nationwide poll of 1500 voters commissioned by the wind industry has found that despite a government push to establish nuclear energy, only 13 per cent thought it was a clean energy source.
The poll, taken in September and October, found more than nine out of 10 voters were concerned about environmental issues and climate change and 83 per cent believed the Government should take stronger action to reduce greenhouse gas emission levels.
Three-quarters of voters did not believe the Government was doing enough to address climate change. Eighteen per cent were open-minded. Seventy per cent of voters believed the Government should sign up to Kyoto and 20 per cent were open-minded.
Solar and wind energy were energy sources most highly associated with being environmentally friendly, while only 11 per cent of voters believed the same about nuclear energy.
Dominique La Fontaine, chief executive of the Australian Wind Energy Association, said the poll showed voters wanted action on climate change.
But the poll findings suggest the wind industry has some work to do selling its case. While voters believed wind farms were clean and reduced greenhouse emissions, they were less convinced about their visual appeal, their impact on property values and level of noise.
Friday 20/10/2006, Page: 6
ONLY 7 per cent of voters think the Howard Government is doing enough to address climate change and a significant majority think Australia should ratify the Kyoto Protocol.
A nationwide poll of 1500 voters commissioned by the wind industry has found that despite a government push to establish nuclear energy, only 13 per cent thought it was a clean energy source.
The poll, taken in September and October, found more than nine out of 10 voters were concerned about environmental issues and climate change and 83 per cent believed the Government should take stronger action to reduce greenhouse gas emission levels.
Three-quarters of voters did not believe the Government was doing enough to address climate change. Eighteen per cent were open-minded. Seventy per cent of voters believed the Government should sign up to Kyoto and 20 per cent were open-minded.
Solar and wind energy were energy sources most highly associated with being environmentally friendly, while only 11 per cent of voters believed the same about nuclear energy.
Dominique La Fontaine, chief executive of the Australian Wind Energy Association, said the poll showed voters wanted action on climate change.
But the poll findings suggest the wind industry has some work to do selling its case. While voters believed wind farms were clean and reduced greenhouse emissions, they were less convinced about their visual appeal, their impact on property values and level of noise.
Regulatory uncertainty creating carbon risk for business
Press Release
20th October 2006
Climate Institute Chief Executive, Corin Millais told business leaders attending last night’s Australian launch of the Carbon Disclosure Project that the Federal Government should listen to the concerns of Australian businesses about a lack of regulatory certainty in this country in relation to greenhouse gas emissions.
“Businesses are reporting that there is a growing investment risk associated with carbon, but in Australia the future is unclear with no direction from the Australia Government on carbon pricing or greenhouse gas emissions reductions,” Mr Millais said.
“The top 150 Australian and New Zealand companies were surveyed for the first time this year by the Carbon Disclosure Project and 94% of the companies responding recognise the potential for climate change to impact future earnings, liabilities or the company’s general risk profile.”
“There is a Federal Government policy vacuum when it comes to managing greenhouse gas emissions and addressing climate change, and the agriculture, energy, tourism and finance sectors are already feeling the effects of that policy failure.”
“Tougher greenhouse regulations will help, not hinder the Australian business community. It’s time for a policy change, and public opinion on the issue has reached a peak concern.”
“Recent economic analysis shows the longer the delay in taking action, the more expensive it becomes for business, consumers and the Australian economy,” said Mr Millais.
The Climate Institute is a Gold Sponsor of the Australian launch of the Carbon Disclosure Project in Sydney, and is pleased to support the initiative during the first year in which the top 150 Australian and New Zealand companies have been included in the international project representing investors with assets worth US$31 trillion ($195 billion from Australia and NZ).
The ANZ CDP survey respondent companies have a market capitalisation of 63% of the ASX 100 and 71% of the NZ50. The global CDP survey covers 30% of the world’s investment capital.
Contact – Sky Laris, The Climate Institute 0410 963 047
www.climateinstitute.org.au
20th October 2006
Climate Institute Chief Executive, Corin Millais told business leaders attending last night’s Australian launch of the Carbon Disclosure Project that the Federal Government should listen to the concerns of Australian businesses about a lack of regulatory certainty in this country in relation to greenhouse gas emissions.“Businesses are reporting that there is a growing investment risk associated with carbon, but in Australia the future is unclear with no direction from the Australia Government on carbon pricing or greenhouse gas emissions reductions,” Mr Millais said.
“The top 150 Australian and New Zealand companies were surveyed for the first time this year by the Carbon Disclosure Project and 94% of the companies responding recognise the potential for climate change to impact future earnings, liabilities or the company’s general risk profile.”
“There is a Federal Government policy vacuum when it comes to managing greenhouse gas emissions and addressing climate change, and the agriculture, energy, tourism and finance sectors are already feeling the effects of that policy failure.”
“Tougher greenhouse regulations will help, not hinder the Australian business community. It’s time for a policy change, and public opinion on the issue has reached a peak concern.”
“Recent economic analysis shows the longer the delay in taking action, the more expensive it becomes for business, consumers and the Australian economy,” said Mr Millais.
The Climate Institute is a Gold Sponsor of the Australian launch of the Carbon Disclosure Project in Sydney, and is pleased to support the initiative during the first year in which the top 150 Australian and New Zealand companies have been included in the international project representing investors with assets worth US$31 trillion ($195 billion from Australia and NZ).
The ANZ CDP survey respondent companies have a market capitalisation of 63% of the ASX 100 and 71% of the NZ50. The global CDP survey covers 30% of the world’s investment capital.
Contact – Sky Laris, The Climate Institute 0410 963 047
www.climateinstitute.org.au
Sunday, 22 October 2006
Eco companies to quit NSW
October 22, 2006
NSW risks losing $9 billion in energy investment if it fails to make a quarter of the state's electricity green by 2020, says a report to be released today.
High-tech companies have confirmed they will abandon projects combating climate change and go overseas if Premier Morris Iemma does not do more to help.
With a national scheme about to expire, the companies want new state laws to force electricity retailers to buy energy that is generated using solar power, wind or waste instead of fossil fuels, which are blamed for climate change.
NSW would be halfway towards meeting a 25 per cent renewable energy target if 19 proposed projects, worth $3.1 billion, were developed, the report, co-written by Greenpeace, the Total Environment Centre and the Nature Conservation Council, said.
One proposed project, a solar power development near Moree in the state's north-west, could generate enough power to light up a town the size of the state's largest inland city, Wagga Wagga. Managing director of Solar, Heat and Power, Peter Le Lievre, who is planning the Moree development, said government schemes in Europe and the US were far more profitable.
"If there's nothing coming from NSW we will go overseas," he said. "We are up and out of here. "It's a pity because we got our start in Australia but we have to pay our bills and make money."
The company has one pilot scheme running. It feeds electricity, generated by solar power, into the grid at the Liddell plant near Singleton in the Hunter Valley.
As the March state election approaches, the issue of alternative energy is shaping up to challenge the Labor Government's green credentials.
The results of polling by independent think tank the Lowy Institute show voters see climate change as a serious concern. Even China appears to be doing more to find alternatives to fossil fuels, by demanding that 15 per cent of its energy must come from renewable sources by 2015.
Australia was the first country to introduce targets for renewable energy, but the Federal Government has not maintained the targets, leaving no incentives for new companies to look for ways of creating electricity out of alternatives to fossil fuels. Victoria and South Australia have already decided to set their own targets.
"NSW has one of the worst regimes in place for ensuring renewable energy," said Greenpeace's green energy campaigner Mark Wakeham. "The proof is that since 2001 only two wind turbines have been introduced in NSW and there have been 215 in South Australia."
Meanwhile, a 1 per cent increase in temperatures in Australia would make the drought in NSW increase by 70 per cent, the report says.
NSW risks losing $9 billion in energy investment if it fails to make a quarter of the state's electricity green by 2020, says a report to be released today.High-tech companies have confirmed they will abandon projects combating climate change and go overseas if Premier Morris Iemma does not do more to help.
With a national scheme about to expire, the companies want new state laws to force electricity retailers to buy energy that is generated using solar power, wind or waste instead of fossil fuels, which are blamed for climate change.
NSW would be halfway towards meeting a 25 per cent renewable energy target if 19 proposed projects, worth $3.1 billion, were developed, the report, co-written by Greenpeace, the Total Environment Centre and the Nature Conservation Council, said.
One proposed project, a solar power development near Moree in the state's north-west, could generate enough power to light up a town the size of the state's largest inland city, Wagga Wagga. Managing director of Solar, Heat and Power, Peter Le Lievre, who is planning the Moree development, said government schemes in Europe and the US were far more profitable.
"If there's nothing coming from NSW we will go overseas," he said. "We are up and out of here. "It's a pity because we got our start in Australia but we have to pay our bills and make money."
The company has one pilot scheme running. It feeds electricity, generated by solar power, into the grid at the Liddell plant near Singleton in the Hunter Valley.
As the March state election approaches, the issue of alternative energy is shaping up to challenge the Labor Government's green credentials.
The results of polling by independent think tank the Lowy Institute show voters see climate change as a serious concern. Even China appears to be doing more to find alternatives to fossil fuels, by demanding that 15 per cent of its energy must come from renewable sources by 2015.
Australia was the first country to introduce targets for renewable energy, but the Federal Government has not maintained the targets, leaving no incentives for new companies to look for ways of creating electricity out of alternatives to fossil fuels. Victoria and South Australia have already decided to set their own targets.
"NSW has one of the worst regimes in place for ensuring renewable energy," said Greenpeace's green energy campaigner Mark Wakeham. "The proof is that since 2001 only two wind turbines have been introduced in NSW and there have been 215 in South Australia."
Meanwhile, a 1 per cent increase in temperatures in Australia would make the drought in NSW increase by 70 per cent, the report says.
LIPA to Pay Customers for Extra Wind Power
1010 WINS
Thursday, 19 October 2006
UNIONDALE, Long Island -- The Long Island Power Authority has agreed to pay customers who use wind power for extra electricity they generate. The LIPA Board of Trustees yesterday agreed to allow homeowners who use wind energy to tie into the utility's electric meter.
The metering agreement means if a homeowner's windmill produces to much electricity, the meter can spin backwards and in effect the homeowner is selling electricity back to the utility. LIPA already has interconnection agreements with people who use solar energy.
LIPA Chairman Richard Kessel says metering wind generated power is the next logical step to help customers take advantage of all renewable and clean energy. LIPA has more than 750 solar customers able to sell electricity back to the company.
Thursday, 19 October 2006
UNIONDALE, Long Island -- The Long Island Power Authority has agreed to pay customers who use wind power for extra electricity they generate. The LIPA Board of Trustees yesterday agreed to allow homeowners who use wind energy to tie into the utility's electric meter.
The metering agreement means if a homeowner's windmill produces to much electricity, the meter can spin backwards and in effect the homeowner is selling electricity back to the utility. LIPA already has interconnection agreements with people who use solar energy.
LIPA Chairman Richard Kessel says metering wind generated power is the next logical step to help customers take advantage of all renewable and clean energy. LIPA has more than 750 solar customers able to sell electricity back to the company.
NASA and NOAA announce ozone hole is a double record breaker
October 19, 2006
NASA and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) scientists report this year's ozone hole in the polar region of the Southern Hemisphere has broken records for area and depth.
The ozone layer acts to protect life on Earth by blocking harmful ultraviolet rays from the sun. The "ozone hole" is a severe depletion of the ozone layer high above Antarctica. It is primarily caused by human-produced compounds that release chlorine and bromine gases in the stratosphere.
"From September 21 to 30, the average area of the ozone hole was the largest ever observed, at 10.6 million square miles," said Paul Newman, atmospheric scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. If the stratospheric weather conditions had been normal, the ozone hole would be expected to reach a size of about 8.9 to 9.3 million square miles, about the surface area of North America.
The Ozone Monitoring Instrument on NASA's Aura satellite measures the total amount of ozone from the ground to the upper atmosphere over the entire Antarctic continent. This instrument observed a low value of 85 Dobson Units (DU) on Oct. 8, in a region over the East Antarctic ice sheet. Dobson Units are a measure of ozone amounts above a fixed point in the atmosphere. The Ozone Monitoring Instrument was developed by the Netherlands' Agency for Aerospace Programs, Delft, The Netherlands, and the Finnish Meteorological Institute, Helsinki, Finland.
Scientists from NOAA's Earth System Research Laboratory in Boulder, Colo., use balloon-borne instruments to measure ozone directly over the South Pole. By Oct. 9, the total column ozone had plunged to 93 DU from approximately 300 DU in mid-July. More importantly, nearly all of the ozone in the layer between eight and 13 miles above the Earth's surface had been destroyed. In this critical layer, the instrument measured a record low of only 1.2 DU., having rapidly plunged from an average non-hole reading of 125 DU in July and August.
"These numbers mean the ozone is virtually gone in this layer of the atmosphere," said David Hofmann, director of the Global Monitoring Division at the NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory. "The depleted layer has an unusual vertical extent this year, so it appears that the 2006 ozone hole will go down as a record-setter."
Observations by Aura's Microwave Limb Sounder show extremely high levels of ozone destroying chlorine chemicals in the lower stratosphere (approximately 12.4 miles high). These high chlorine values covered the entire Antarctic region in mid to late September. The high chlorine levels were accompanied by extremely low values of ozone.
The temperature of the Antarctic stratosphere causes the severity of the ozone hole to vary from year to year. Colder than average temperatures result in larger and deeper ozone holes, while warmer temperatures lead to smaller ones. The NOAA National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) provided analyses of satellite and balloon stratospheric temperature observations. The temperature readings from NOAA satellites and balloons during late-September 2006 showed the lower stratosphere at the rim of Antarctica was approximately nine degrees Fahrenheit colder than average, increasing the size of this year's ozone hole by 1.2 to 1.5 million square miles.
The Antarctic stratosphere warms by the return of sunlight at the end of the polar winter and by large-scale weather systems (planetary-scale waves) that form in the troposphere and move upward into the stratosphere. During the 2006 Antarctic winter and spring, these planetary-scale wave systems were relatively weak, causing the stratosphere to be colder than average.
As a result of the Montreal Protocol and its amendments, the concentrations of ozone-depleting substances in the lower atmosphere (troposphere) peaked around 1995 and are decreasing in both the troposphere and stratosphere. It is estimated these gases reached peak levels in the Antarctica stratosphere in 2001. However, these ozone-depleting substances typically have very long lifetimes in the atmosphere (more than 40 years).
As a result of this slow decline, the ozone hole is estimated to annually very slowly decrease in area by about 0.1 to 0.2 percent for the next five to 10 years. This slow decrease is masked by large year-to-year variations caused by Antarctic stratosphere weather fluctuations.
The recently completed 2006 World Meteorological Organization/United Nations Environment Programme Scientific Assessment of Ozone Depletion concluded the ozone hole recovery would be masked by annual variability for the near future and the ozone hole would fully recover in approximately 2065.
"We now have the largest ozone hole on record for this time of year," says Craig Long of NOAA's NCEP. As the sun rises higher in the sky during October and November, this unusually large and persistent area may allow much more ultraviolet light than usual to reach Earth's surface in the southern latitudes.
For more information and images, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/vision/earth/lookingatearth/ozone_record.html
NASA and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) scientists report this year's ozone hole in the polar region of the Southern Hemisphere has broken records for area and depth.The ozone layer acts to protect life on Earth by blocking harmful ultraviolet rays from the sun. The "ozone hole" is a severe depletion of the ozone layer high above Antarctica. It is primarily caused by human-produced compounds that release chlorine and bromine gases in the stratosphere.
"From September 21 to 30, the average area of the ozone hole was the largest ever observed, at 10.6 million square miles," said Paul Newman, atmospheric scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. If the stratospheric weather conditions had been normal, the ozone hole would be expected to reach a size of about 8.9 to 9.3 million square miles, about the surface area of North America.
The Ozone Monitoring Instrument on NASA's Aura satellite measures the total amount of ozone from the ground to the upper atmosphere over the entire Antarctic continent. This instrument observed a low value of 85 Dobson Units (DU) on Oct. 8, in a region over the East Antarctic ice sheet. Dobson Units are a measure of ozone amounts above a fixed point in the atmosphere. The Ozone Monitoring Instrument was developed by the Netherlands' Agency for Aerospace Programs, Delft, The Netherlands, and the Finnish Meteorological Institute, Helsinki, Finland.
Scientists from NOAA's Earth System Research Laboratory in Boulder, Colo., use balloon-borne instruments to measure ozone directly over the South Pole. By Oct. 9, the total column ozone had plunged to 93 DU from approximately 300 DU in mid-July. More importantly, nearly all of the ozone in the layer between eight and 13 miles above the Earth's surface had been destroyed. In this critical layer, the instrument measured a record low of only 1.2 DU., having rapidly plunged from an average non-hole reading of 125 DU in July and August.
"These numbers mean the ozone is virtually gone in this layer of the atmosphere," said David Hofmann, director of the Global Monitoring Division at the NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory. "The depleted layer has an unusual vertical extent this year, so it appears that the 2006 ozone hole will go down as a record-setter."
Observations by Aura's Microwave Limb Sounder show extremely high levels of ozone destroying chlorine chemicals in the lower stratosphere (approximately 12.4 miles high). These high chlorine values covered the entire Antarctic region in mid to late September. The high chlorine levels were accompanied by extremely low values of ozone.
The temperature of the Antarctic stratosphere causes the severity of the ozone hole to vary from year to year. Colder than average temperatures result in larger and deeper ozone holes, while warmer temperatures lead to smaller ones. The NOAA National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) provided analyses of satellite and balloon stratospheric temperature observations. The temperature readings from NOAA satellites and balloons during late-September 2006 showed the lower stratosphere at the rim of Antarctica was approximately nine degrees Fahrenheit colder than average, increasing the size of this year's ozone hole by 1.2 to 1.5 million square miles.
The Antarctic stratosphere warms by the return of sunlight at the end of the polar winter and by large-scale weather systems (planetary-scale waves) that form in the troposphere and move upward into the stratosphere. During the 2006 Antarctic winter and spring, these planetary-scale wave systems were relatively weak, causing the stratosphere to be colder than average.
As a result of the Montreal Protocol and its amendments, the concentrations of ozone-depleting substances in the lower atmosphere (troposphere) peaked around 1995 and are decreasing in both the troposphere and stratosphere. It is estimated these gases reached peak levels in the Antarctica stratosphere in 2001. However, these ozone-depleting substances typically have very long lifetimes in the atmosphere (more than 40 years).
As a result of this slow decline, the ozone hole is estimated to annually very slowly decrease in area by about 0.1 to 0.2 percent for the next five to 10 years. This slow decrease is masked by large year-to-year variations caused by Antarctic stratosphere weather fluctuations.
The recently completed 2006 World Meteorological Organization/United Nations Environment Programme Scientific Assessment of Ozone Depletion concluded the ozone hole recovery would be masked by annual variability for the near future and the ozone hole would fully recover in approximately 2065.
"We now have the largest ozone hole on record for this time of year," says Craig Long of NOAA's NCEP. As the sun rises higher in the sky during October and November, this unusually large and persistent area may allow much more ultraviolet light than usual to reach Earth's surface in the southern latitudes.
For more information and images, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/vision/earth/lookingatearth/ozone_record.html
Minister visits Millicent
South Eastern Times
Monday 16/10/2006, Page: 2
Energy Minister Patrick Conlon will visit Millicent on November 8 for a major ceremony associated with the Lake Bonney windfarm.
Mr Conlon will be joined by senior Babcock and Brown Wind Partners executives and officials from the Wattle Range Council. Siteworks got underway in June for the 53 turbine towers.
The Lake Bonney second stage is being developed along the Woakwine Range by Babcock and Brown Wind Partners.
When completed, the first two stages of their windfarm will have 99 wind turbines.
The nearby Canunda windfarm with 23 wind turbines is operated by a separate company, International Power.
Monday 16/10/2006, Page: 2
Energy Minister Patrick Conlon will visit Millicent on November 8 for a major ceremony associated with the Lake Bonney windfarm.
Mr Conlon will be joined by senior Babcock and Brown Wind Partners executives and officials from the Wattle Range Council. Siteworks got underway in June for the 53 turbine towers.
The Lake Bonney second stage is being developed along the Woakwine Range by Babcock and Brown Wind Partners.
When completed, the first two stages of their windfarm will have 99 wind turbines.
The nearby Canunda windfarm with 23 wind turbines is operated by a separate company, International Power.
World's biggest wind turbine generates new bearing technology
Earthmover and Civil Contractor
October, 2006, Page: 67
DESIGNING A bearing system for a giant wind turbine with an unusual rotor shaft lead to the biggest ever CARB toroidal roller bearing, new bearing assembly techniques and a new method of axial fixation for large bearings.
All wind turbines are large but the Repower 5M wind turbine is huge. Manufactured by Repower Systems AG from Hamburg, the 5M stands 120m above the ground and produces 5MW of electrical power, enough for 7500 houses. With its three-bladed 126m diameter blade span, the 5M is the largest and one of the most efficient wind turbines in the world.
During early design stages and later, the 5M presented a significant technical challenge in several different fields. One of the most crucial was the design, manufacture and installation of a bearing system for the 1.5 metre diameter rotor shaft that supports the 130 tonnes three bladed rotor.
New bearing system
Even though it has to support the heavy rotor, the cast iron rotor shaft is hollow. This is to meet weight, cost and performance requirements and it was just one the factors that had to be considered by SKF when they were given the challenge of designing, manufacturing and installing a bearing system for the shaft.
To eliminate the influence of positional and deflection related errors, the SKF specialists in cooperation with the Repower designers developed a system with the shaft supported by two bearings. In the non-locating position is an SKF CARB toroidal roller bearing. The other bearing, in the locating position, is an SKF axially locating spherical roller bearing. This arrangement offers high load carrying capacity and the lowest possible bearing plus housing weight for a two bearing arrangement.
Simulation, calculation tool
To give Repower a bearing system that would meet all performance requirements, SKF made use an in-house simulation tool: "Beast". It is a dynamic simulation program that can be regarded as a virtual test rig in the computer.
Traditional methods of long and costly experiments on a test rig are replaced by faster, and more detailed computer simulations.
The program was first used in the development of the SKF range of CARB bearings, so naturally it was used again in smaller sized CARB bearings to evaluate how the inclined shaft in the 5M would influence bearing behaviour.
This bearing with its 1.5m inside diameter weighs 2.7t and is the largest of its type ever mande by SKF. So its behaviour on an inclined shaft was an unknown in the early stages of the design process. The finished product represents a milestone in bearing design.
October, 2006, Page: 67
DESIGNING A bearing system for a giant wind turbine with an unusual rotor shaft lead to the biggest ever CARB toroidal roller bearing, new bearing assembly techniques and a new method of axial fixation for large bearings.
All wind turbines are large but the Repower 5M wind turbine is huge. Manufactured by Repower Systems AG from Hamburg, the 5M stands 120m above the ground and produces 5MW of electrical power, enough for 7500 houses. With its three-bladed 126m diameter blade span, the 5M is the largest and one of the most efficient wind turbines in the world.
During early design stages and later, the 5M presented a significant technical challenge in several different fields. One of the most crucial was the design, manufacture and installation of a bearing system for the 1.5 metre diameter rotor shaft that supports the 130 tonnes three bladed rotor.
New bearing system
Even though it has to support the heavy rotor, the cast iron rotor shaft is hollow. This is to meet weight, cost and performance requirements and it was just one the factors that had to be considered by SKF when they were given the challenge of designing, manufacturing and installing a bearing system for the shaft.
To eliminate the influence of positional and deflection related errors, the SKF specialists in cooperation with the Repower designers developed a system with the shaft supported by two bearings. In the non-locating position is an SKF CARB toroidal roller bearing. The other bearing, in the locating position, is an SKF axially locating spherical roller bearing. This arrangement offers high load carrying capacity and the lowest possible bearing plus housing weight for a two bearing arrangement.
Simulation, calculation tool
To give Repower a bearing system that would meet all performance requirements, SKF made use an in-house simulation tool: "Beast". It is a dynamic simulation program that can be regarded as a virtual test rig in the computer.
Traditional methods of long and costly experiments on a test rig are replaced by faster, and more detailed computer simulations.
The program was first used in the development of the SKF range of CARB bearings, so naturally it was used again in smaller sized CARB bearings to evaluate how the inclined shaft in the 5M would influence bearing behaviour.
This bearing with its 1.5m inside diameter weighs 2.7t and is the largest of its type ever mande by SKF. So its behaviour on an inclined shaft was an unknown in the early stages of the design process. The finished product represents a milestone in bearing design.
Wednesday, 18 October 2006
Vote tonight on wind farm
History will show the Wellington councillors last night failed the local community and the environment with their lack of vision and courage to support renewable energy. Instead they pandered to a noisy minority who are only concerned about themselves and who treat the general community with contempt.
Gippsland Times & Maffra Spectator
Tuesday 17/10/2006, Page: 5
An application for a wind farm at Devon North, near Yarram, has been recommended for approval by a Wellington Shire Council officer. The officer recommended nine turbines be approved on steel towers no greater than 80 metres in height with rotor blades no more than 46m in length.
The recommendation for approval by the council officer carried with it four pages of conditions for approval. The application took extra time to arrive at a council meeting after council requested more documentation from the applicants.
The application concedes there may be "some deaths to birds and bats" and some vegetation would be removed along the lines connecting the wind farm to the electricity grid.
Councillors will vote to approve or refuse the wind farm application at tonight's meeting in the council offices from 6pm.
Gippsland Times & Maffra Spectator
Tuesday 17/10/2006, Page: 5
An application for a wind farm at Devon North, near Yarram, has been recommended for approval by a Wellington Shire Council officer. The officer recommended nine turbines be approved on steel towers no greater than 80 metres in height with rotor blades no more than 46m in length.
The recommendation for approval by the council officer carried with it four pages of conditions for approval. The application took extra time to arrive at a council meeting after council requested more documentation from the applicants.
The application concedes there may be "some deaths to birds and bats" and some vegetation would be removed along the lines connecting the wind farm to the electricity grid.
Councillors will vote to approve or refuse the wind farm application at tonight's meeting in the council offices from 6pm.
China project first of three for Tasmanian
Launceston Examiner
Wednesday 18/10/2006, Page: 10
Renewable energy company Roaring 40s yesterday commissioned the first of three wind projects in China. A ceremony in Beijing was held to mark the start of the $80 million,
49.3MW Shuangliao wind farm, a joint venture between Roaring 40s and China Datang Corporation.
Roaring 40s expansion in Tasmania has been frustrated by the Australia Government's lukewarm attitude towards wind energy. The Hydro Tasmania-China Light and Power joint venture is making inroads overseas.
Earlier this year, Roaring 40s managing director Mark Kelleher complained that energy companies were being forced to invest offshore because Australia lagged behind international renewable energy targets.
Roaring 40s is busy constructing the second stage of its Woolnorth wind farm, but it has put other Tasmanian projects on hold. "The current project outlook in Australia is not strong," Mr Kelleher said from China yesterday.
"Roaring 40s hopes that, having seen what can be done in China, Environment Minister Ian Campbell will be encouraged to consider policies in Australia." The Shuangliao development, in North-East China, will generate enough power to supply the needs of more than 300,000 people.
It will also contribute towards a push to source 15 per cent of China's energy from renewable sources by 2020. The wind farm boasts 58,850KW turbine generators and was completed 12 months after the first sod was turned.
Mr Kelleher said the project underpinned Roaring 40s' entry into the Chinese market and showed that an Australian developer could be a major player in an emerging global wind energy market.
"The completion of the Shuangliao wind farm has allowed Roaring 40s to build a successful partnership with the China Datang Corporation and we are already investigating a number of other potential developments," he said.
Wednesday 18/10/2006, Page: 10
Renewable energy company Roaring 40s yesterday commissioned the first of three wind projects in China. A ceremony in Beijing was held to mark the start of the $80 million,
49.3MW Shuangliao wind farm, a joint venture between Roaring 40s and China Datang Corporation.
Roaring 40s expansion in Tasmania has been frustrated by the Australia Government's lukewarm attitude towards wind energy. The Hydro Tasmania-China Light and Power joint venture is making inroads overseas.
Earlier this year, Roaring 40s managing director Mark Kelleher complained that energy companies were being forced to invest offshore because Australia lagged behind international renewable energy targets.
Roaring 40s is busy constructing the second stage of its Woolnorth wind farm, but it has put other Tasmanian projects on hold. "The current project outlook in Australia is not strong," Mr Kelleher said from China yesterday.
"Roaring 40s hopes that, having seen what can be done in China, Environment Minister Ian Campbell will be encouraged to consider policies in Australia." The Shuangliao development, in North-East China, will generate enough power to supply the needs of more than 300,000 people.
It will also contribute towards a push to source 15 per cent of China's energy from renewable sources by 2020. The wind farm boasts 58,850KW turbine generators and was completed 12 months after the first sod was turned.
Mr Kelleher said the project underpinned Roaring 40s' entry into the Chinese market and showed that an Australian developer could be a major player in an emerging global wind energy market.
"The completion of the Shuangliao wind farm has allowed Roaring 40s to build a successful partnership with the China Datang Corporation and we are already investigating a number of other potential developments," he said.
How smart it that?
Burnie Advocate
Wednesday 18/10/2006, Page: 16
IT SHOULD be a source of pride that Australians are developing wind farms in China. It should also be a source of pride that Australia's groundbreaking technology is helping lead that charge.
But why are we developing these technologies off-shore? In China of all places. Nothing against China. It is a burgeoning industrial economy which will need sustainable energy to take it into the future.
But Australia's economy is heavily reliant on traditional fossil fuels. Won't we need a cheap, renewable source of power to secure our future. Shouldn't our government be working to establish our credentials as a smart, progressive nation with an eye on next century and all those to follow? Apparently not.
As we know the government's position on renewable energy targets has led to the closure of a strong local company at the forefront of the wind energy field. We still have not signed onto to the Kyoto Agreement, something which should be the source of national shame.
We should be world leaders in this field. Australia, and particularly Tasmania, should have the credentials to turn heads globally. Instead, we are asking people to travel to China to look at our handiwork.
I ask you, how smart it that?
Wednesday 18/10/2006, Page: 16
IT SHOULD be a source of pride that Australians are developing wind farms in China. It should also be a source of pride that Australia's groundbreaking technology is helping lead that charge.
But why are we developing these technologies off-shore? In China of all places. Nothing against China. It is a burgeoning industrial economy which will need sustainable energy to take it into the future.
But Australia's economy is heavily reliant on traditional fossil fuels. Won't we need a cheap, renewable source of power to secure our future. Shouldn't our government be working to establish our credentials as a smart, progressive nation with an eye on next century and all those to follow? Apparently not.
As we know the government's position on renewable energy targets has led to the closure of a strong local company at the forefront of the wind energy field. We still have not signed onto to the Kyoto Agreement, something which should be the source of national shame.
We should be world leaders in this field. Australia, and particularly Tasmania, should have the credentials to turn heads globally. Instead, we are asking people to travel to China to look at our handiwork.
I ask you, how smart it that?
Sun, wind better options while Australian uranium can fuel regional tensions
Age
Wednesday 18/10/2006, Page: 14
The answer to our power needs is blowing in the wind, write James Norman and-Jim Green.
THE way some commentators have been talking one, could be mistaken for thinking Australia is on the verge of an economic boom based on uranium sales to Asia. These claims don't stand up to scrutiny.
Uranium accounts for less than one-third of 1 per cent of Australia's total export revenue.
Even with exports to China, an expansion of the Roxby Downs and new mines, the likelihood of uranium accounting for more than 1 per cent of export revenue is minuscule. And even if Australia was the sole supplier of uranium on the global market, revenue from exports such as wine and medicines would still exceed it.
The nuclear industry may be able to reverse the pattern of stagnation that has prevailed for the past decade but it will need to replace the current cohort of ageing reactors.
Earlier predictions of nuclear growth proved to be laughably wrong. In 1974, the International Atomic Energy Agency predicted there would be 4450 nuclear reactors in operation by the turn of the century - the actual figure turned out to be just 440.
The Federal Parliament's joint Standing Committee on Treaties is scrutinising proposed uranium exports to China. In its submission to the committee, the Australian Safeguards and Non-Proliferation Office predicts that Chinese demand for Australian uranium could reach 2500 tonnes annually if China's ambitious nuclear expansion plans are realised.
At last year's value of Australia's uranium exports, sales of 2500 tonnes to China would yield just $136 million, though the safeguards office uses the current spot-price to estimate returns of $250 million. Total exports to China last year amounted to $18.4 billion, so uranium exports will struggle to increase that figure by 1 per cent.
But the bigger issue is to do with risk and global security.
IAEA director-general Mohamed ElBaradei has described his organisation's basic inspection rights as "fairly limited" and complained about "halfhearted" efforts to improve the system. He has also expressed concern that the safeguards system operates on a "shoestring budget ... comparable to a local police department". Yet we rely on the IAEA's safeguards to keep Australian uranium out of nuclear weapons.
China plans to increase the contribution of renewable energy to 15 per cent by 2020 while nuclear's contribution is expected to grow from 2 to 4 per cent. Australia ought to set a positive regional example and encourage China to abandon its nuclear expansion and to increase its renewable energy target to 17 per cent or more.
Earlier this year, an Australian consortium signed a $300 million deal to build wind farms in China. Surely we would be better off staying out of the dangerous nuclear game and promoting investment in the more lucrative clean energy sector instead.
Australia's role in nuclear proliferation in North- East Asia is all the more topical in the wake of the North Korean nuclear test. North Korea provides the latest of several examples demonstrating the link between nuclear power and weapons. Its weapons program has depended crucially on the pretence of a power program (and on support from China).
Plutonium produced in North Korea's "experimental power reactor" may have been used in the regime's nuclear bomb test. That test will encourage Japan and South Korea to pursue weapons programs.
Plutonium produced in reactors fuelled by Australian uranium is an obvious source of weapons material in both countries, as retired diplomat and Canberra University professor Richard Broinowski has been warning for years. By allowing Japan to separate and stockpile plutonium produced using Australian uranium, we are potentially fuelling further regional tensions.
Australia should be engaging with the clean-energy markets of the future, such as wind and solar, which several Asian countries are already investing heavily in. With global markets growing annually at 60 per cent and 28 per cent respectively for wind and solar, these clean, green technologies will fulfil our moral obligations while providing economic and energy security for the future.
James Norman is a Melbourne writer and author. Jim Green is national secretary of the Beyond Nuclear initiative.
Wednesday 18/10/2006, Page: 14
The answer to our power needs is blowing in the wind, write James Norman and-Jim Green.
THE way some commentators have been talking one, could be mistaken for thinking Australia is on the verge of an economic boom based on uranium sales to Asia. These claims don't stand up to scrutiny.
Uranium accounts for less than one-third of 1 per cent of Australia's total export revenue.
Even with exports to China, an expansion of the Roxby Downs and new mines, the likelihood of uranium accounting for more than 1 per cent of export revenue is minuscule. And even if Australia was the sole supplier of uranium on the global market, revenue from exports such as wine and medicines would still exceed it.
The nuclear industry may be able to reverse the pattern of stagnation that has prevailed for the past decade but it will need to replace the current cohort of ageing reactors.
Earlier predictions of nuclear growth proved to be laughably wrong. In 1974, the International Atomic Energy Agency predicted there would be 4450 nuclear reactors in operation by the turn of the century - the actual figure turned out to be just 440.
The Federal Parliament's joint Standing Committee on Treaties is scrutinising proposed uranium exports to China. In its submission to the committee, the Australian Safeguards and Non-Proliferation Office predicts that Chinese demand for Australian uranium could reach 2500 tonnes annually if China's ambitious nuclear expansion plans are realised.
At last year's value of Australia's uranium exports, sales of 2500 tonnes to China would yield just $136 million, though the safeguards office uses the current spot-price to estimate returns of $250 million. Total exports to China last year amounted to $18.4 billion, so uranium exports will struggle to increase that figure by 1 per cent.
But the bigger issue is to do with risk and global security.
IAEA director-general Mohamed ElBaradei has described his organisation's basic inspection rights as "fairly limited" and complained about "halfhearted" efforts to improve the system. He has also expressed concern that the safeguards system operates on a "shoestring budget ... comparable to a local police department". Yet we rely on the IAEA's safeguards to keep Australian uranium out of nuclear weapons.
China plans to increase the contribution of renewable energy to 15 per cent by 2020 while nuclear's contribution is expected to grow from 2 to 4 per cent. Australia ought to set a positive regional example and encourage China to abandon its nuclear expansion and to increase its renewable energy target to 17 per cent or more.
Earlier this year, an Australian consortium signed a $300 million deal to build wind farms in China. Surely we would be better off staying out of the dangerous nuclear game and promoting investment in the more lucrative clean energy sector instead.
Australia's role in nuclear proliferation in North- East Asia is all the more topical in the wake of the North Korean nuclear test. North Korea provides the latest of several examples demonstrating the link between nuclear power and weapons. Its weapons program has depended crucially on the pretence of a power program (and on support from China).
Plutonium produced in North Korea's "experimental power reactor" may have been used in the regime's nuclear bomb test. That test will encourage Japan and South Korea to pursue weapons programs.
Plutonium produced in reactors fuelled by Australian uranium is an obvious source of weapons material in both countries, as retired diplomat and Canberra University professor Richard Broinowski has been warning for years. By allowing Japan to separate and stockpile plutonium produced using Australian uranium, we are potentially fuelling further regional tensions.
Australia should be engaging with the clean-energy markets of the future, such as wind and solar, which several Asian countries are already investing heavily in. With global markets growing annually at 60 per cent and 28 per cent respectively for wind and solar, these clean, green technologies will fulfil our moral obligations while providing economic and energy security for the future.
James Norman is a Melbourne writer and author. Jim Green is national secretary of the Beyond Nuclear initiative.
Tuesday, 17 October 2006
Wind, sun and farm-based energy sources in the US
Australian Cottongrower
Wednesday 25/10/2006, Page: 42
What do Minnesota. Texas, and Alaska have in common? They all contain remote areas and get lots of wind.
Texas and Minnesota are striving to become leaders in renewable energy use - relying on everything from wind power to hydrogen fuel. USDA Agricultural Research Services (ARS) researchers have been working closely with university scientists, industry, and landowners in those states to develop renewable energy.
In just 20 years, companies have installed so many new wind turbines that the United States' ability to "farm the wind" for electricity increased more than 900- fold - from 10 megawatt hours annually in 1981 to 9,149 megawatt hours as of January 2006. Texas and Minnesota are among the top five states producing wind energy.
Wind power today is generated by turbines that use only two or three very long, sleek blades, unlike the quaint, multibladed windmills that once symbolised the West.
A turbine's size depends on whether it is to be used for "wind farms" - clusters of 50 to 200 wind turbines producing power to sell to electric companies - or for individual farms and homes or entire remote communities far from a power grid.
Turbines in wind farms are set on towers 230 feet or more high, in areas with winds of 17 miles per hour or more. These are huge machines, about the size of a Boeing 747 airplane, says Nolan Clark, director of the ARS Conservation and Production Research Laboratory in Bushland, Texas.
Each can produce enough electricity to power more than 500 average homes. Wind farm companies pay farmers and landowners about $3,000 per tower per year, and towers are spaced about every 400 hectares.
Lighting A Cold Place, Far Away
The ARS Renewable Energy and Manure Management Research Unit headquartered in Bushland has designed a wind-diesel hybrid control system for two remote Alaskan fishing villages to reduce their dependence on diesel-fueled generators for electricity. The generators are linked to wind turbines by a computerised system that seamlessly switches between diesel and wind without interruption. ARS scientists worked with manufacturers of wind turbines and of diesel engine controls. The computerised control system is commercially available.
Says Clark, "We reduced energy costs from 48 cents to 28 cents a kilowatt hour for one village - saving both diesel fuel and storage costs. Last year, when diesel prices went up, some villages had to spend an extra $10,000 to buy a year's supply of fuel." The Bushland scientists worked with the Alaska Village Electric Cooperative and the Alaska Energy Authority to install these systems.
Several more villages are interested in adopting the system, and still another adopted the scientists' suggestion to mix fish oil with diesel. Generators can run on biodiesel made from a variety of plant or animal fats and oils. In remote areas, local sources - such as fish oil in Alaska or palm oil in Hawaii - are generally the most economical.
Meanwhile, In Sunny Texas
In Alaska, there isn't enough sunlight for solar power to be a part of hybrid systems. But in Texas there is. So the Bushland team designed their hybrid system with solar power included. They design and test wind/solar/biodiesel hybrid systems running an experimental electric grid.
They also use solar energy to power electric pumps for irrigation and for filling water troughs for cattle in remote locations on open range. These regular pumps can be run on solar power thanks to a computerised control device the team built.
They have also designed and tested pumps specifically made to run on solar power. One such pump has been commercialised, and Bushland researchers are working with three pump companies to design more.
"We feel good when we drive down the road and see our pumps being used by farmers," says Clark. They also use wind turbines to operate water pumps and for wind-farm research with the US Department of Energy.
To compare the cost-effectiveness of wind power versus solar power - or both - to operate water pumps, Clark's team places a small wind turbine by each pump.
So far, its not been cost-effective to have both wind and solar systems. Solar power has worked best for pumping up water from less than 100 feet deep, while wind power works better at pumping up deeper water. For both solar and wind-driven systems, pumps that use impellers to lift water worked better than those with pistons.
Mixing Manure And Coal
Clark and colleagues are working with Texas A&M University on burning manure for energy. In one approach, they mix 10 per cent ground-up, dried manure with 90 per cent coal (by weight) and then inject it into a furnace. "This converts excess manure to energy while reducing use of nonrenewable coal," Clark says.
"We're helping a company build a boiler that uses a blend of 75 per cent manure and 25 per cent coal to heat water and steam for processing ethanol from corn," Clark adds. It appears to work well as long as the manure doesn't contain too much soil.
Bushland scientists are cooperating with graduate students at West Texas A&M University to examine potential uses of the mixture, such as for fertiliser or plant bedding material.
A Wind-Powered "Green" Campus
ARS scientists at the North Central Soil Conservation Laboratory in Morris, Minnesota, are working with the University of Minnesota at Morris on powering the campus with similarly diverse energy sources.
Says Abdullah A. Jaradat, an agronomist who leads the lab's research, "The University seeks to make itself truly a green' campus that uses only renewable fuels and products. It gets about 60 per cent of its electricity from a wind turbine.
"The campus currently heats with natural gas. In the near future, cornstalks will feed a gasifier system for heating and cooling.
There's a backup generator running on regular diesel, but scientists are planning to switch to either biodiesel or hydrogen fuel that produces electricity directly." ARS electrical engineer Steve Wagner thinks that biodiesel could one day be made from Cuphea, a crop that does particularly well in the Northern Plains. Its unique oil could be used as a fuel source without the chemical modification required of soybean oil.
Dave Archer, an ARS economist at Morris, is studying the economic impact of biofuels on farms and rural communities. "We want to see whether they bring new jobs by creating new industries, and we want to know the effects on agricultural production and rural landscapes," he says. "We also want to encourage community wind farms jointly owned by farmers."
Mapping Best Bets
Wagner and colleagues have created maps that highlight areas of strong winds suitable for wind power generation. They used GIS (Geographic Information Systems) technology to overlay a topographical map with roads, power lines, and land ownership for a few counties in western Minnesota. They noted power lines because wind farms must have access to a heavy-duty power line within five to 10 miles of their connection to a power grid.
"The maps showed that we have more wind power than we knew," says Wagner. The Morris campus hopes to eventually transmit enough excess electricity to the main campus in the Twin Cities area to meet 20 per cent of the university's electricity needs.
That is," says Wagner, "until technology is developed to turn wind power into shippable hydrogen fuel that potentially could be used in fuel cells for transportation, to generate electricity, and to heat homes. "
More Benefits From Biobased Energy
The University of Minnesota plans to use biomass such as cornstalks, wood, or other plant materials for energy. ARS soil scientist Jane Johnson at Morris is analysing the resulting ash to check for heavy metals or other toxins that might render it unfit for use as fertiliser.
"Ag-based energy systems have the potential to help farm communities in many ways, providing renewable energy, an additional cash crop, and possibly new jobs," Johnson says. She is conducting experiments to determine how much residue must stay on the field to prevent soil erosion and loss of soil carbon. A certain percentage may be removed from a field - depending on crop, soil type, and other factors - without harming the soil.
In fact, it can help farmers in areas like Minnesota and northern Iowa, where soils can be too wet and cold in the spring to plant. Farmers tend to avoid no-till in those areas, despite its erosion-reducing potential, because the crop residue can hold in moisture and coolness, delaying planting.
Taking the right amount of residue off for energy generation could reduce this effect and help the spread of no-till, giving farmers yet one more benefit from using their farms to produce energy.
Wednesday 25/10/2006, Page: 42
What do Minnesota. Texas, and Alaska have in common? They all contain remote areas and get lots of wind.
Texas and Minnesota are striving to become leaders in renewable energy use - relying on everything from wind power to hydrogen fuel. USDA Agricultural Research Services (ARS) researchers have been working closely with university scientists, industry, and landowners in those states to develop renewable energy.
In just 20 years, companies have installed so many new wind turbines that the United States' ability to "farm the wind" for electricity increased more than 900- fold - from 10 megawatt hours annually in 1981 to 9,149 megawatt hours as of January 2006. Texas and Minnesota are among the top five states producing wind energy.
Wind power today is generated by turbines that use only two or three very long, sleek blades, unlike the quaint, multibladed windmills that once symbolised the West.
A turbine's size depends on whether it is to be used for "wind farms" - clusters of 50 to 200 wind turbines producing power to sell to electric companies - or for individual farms and homes or entire remote communities far from a power grid.
Turbines in wind farms are set on towers 230 feet or more high, in areas with winds of 17 miles per hour or more. These are huge machines, about the size of a Boeing 747 airplane, says Nolan Clark, director of the ARS Conservation and Production Research Laboratory in Bushland, Texas.
Each can produce enough electricity to power more than 500 average homes. Wind farm companies pay farmers and landowners about $3,000 per tower per year, and towers are spaced about every 400 hectares.
Lighting A Cold Place, Far Away
The ARS Renewable Energy and Manure Management Research Unit headquartered in Bushland has designed a wind-diesel hybrid control system for two remote Alaskan fishing villages to reduce their dependence on diesel-fueled generators for electricity. The generators are linked to wind turbines by a computerised system that seamlessly switches between diesel and wind without interruption. ARS scientists worked with manufacturers of wind turbines and of diesel engine controls. The computerised control system is commercially available.
Says Clark, "We reduced energy costs from 48 cents to 28 cents a kilowatt hour for one village - saving both diesel fuel and storage costs. Last year, when diesel prices went up, some villages had to spend an extra $10,000 to buy a year's supply of fuel." The Bushland scientists worked with the Alaska Village Electric Cooperative and the Alaska Energy Authority to install these systems.
Several more villages are interested in adopting the system, and still another adopted the scientists' suggestion to mix fish oil with diesel. Generators can run on biodiesel made from a variety of plant or animal fats and oils. In remote areas, local sources - such as fish oil in Alaska or palm oil in Hawaii - are generally the most economical.
Meanwhile, In Sunny Texas
In Alaska, there isn't enough sunlight for solar power to be a part of hybrid systems. But in Texas there is. So the Bushland team designed their hybrid system with solar power included. They design and test wind/solar/biodiesel hybrid systems running an experimental electric grid.They also use solar energy to power electric pumps for irrigation and for filling water troughs for cattle in remote locations on open range. These regular pumps can be run on solar power thanks to a computerised control device the team built.
They have also designed and tested pumps specifically made to run on solar power. One such pump has been commercialised, and Bushland researchers are working with three pump companies to design more.
"We feel good when we drive down the road and see our pumps being used by farmers," says Clark. They also use wind turbines to operate water pumps and for wind-farm research with the US Department of Energy.
To compare the cost-effectiveness of wind power versus solar power - or both - to operate water pumps, Clark's team places a small wind turbine by each pump.
So far, its not been cost-effective to have both wind and solar systems. Solar power has worked best for pumping up water from less than 100 feet deep, while wind power works better at pumping up deeper water. For both solar and wind-driven systems, pumps that use impellers to lift water worked better than those with pistons.
Mixing Manure And Coal
Clark and colleagues are working with Texas A&M University on burning manure for energy. In one approach, they mix 10 per cent ground-up, dried manure with 90 per cent coal (by weight) and then inject it into a furnace. "This converts excess manure to energy while reducing use of nonrenewable coal," Clark says.
"We're helping a company build a boiler that uses a blend of 75 per cent manure and 25 per cent coal to heat water and steam for processing ethanol from corn," Clark adds. It appears to work well as long as the manure doesn't contain too much soil.
Bushland scientists are cooperating with graduate students at West Texas A&M University to examine potential uses of the mixture, such as for fertiliser or plant bedding material.
A Wind-Powered "Green" Campus
ARS scientists at the North Central Soil Conservation Laboratory in Morris, Minnesota, are working with the University of Minnesota at Morris on powering the campus with similarly diverse energy sources.
Says Abdullah A. Jaradat, an agronomist who leads the lab's research, "The University seeks to make itself truly a green' campus that uses only renewable fuels and products. It gets about 60 per cent of its electricity from a wind turbine.
"The campus currently heats with natural gas. In the near future, cornstalks will feed a gasifier system for heating and cooling.
There's a backup generator running on regular diesel, but scientists are planning to switch to either biodiesel or hydrogen fuel that produces electricity directly." ARS electrical engineer Steve Wagner thinks that biodiesel could one day be made from Cuphea, a crop that does particularly well in the Northern Plains. Its unique oil could be used as a fuel source without the chemical modification required of soybean oil.
Dave Archer, an ARS economist at Morris, is studying the economic impact of biofuels on farms and rural communities. "We want to see whether they bring new jobs by creating new industries, and we want to know the effects on agricultural production and rural landscapes," he says. "We also want to encourage community wind farms jointly owned by farmers."
Mapping Best Bets
Wagner and colleagues have created maps that highlight areas of strong winds suitable for wind power generation. They used GIS (Geographic Information Systems) technology to overlay a topographical map with roads, power lines, and land ownership for a few counties in western Minnesota. They noted power lines because wind farms must have access to a heavy-duty power line within five to 10 miles of their connection to a power grid."The maps showed that we have more wind power than we knew," says Wagner. The Morris campus hopes to eventually transmit enough excess electricity to the main campus in the Twin Cities area to meet 20 per cent of the university's electricity needs.
That is," says Wagner, "until technology is developed to turn wind power into shippable hydrogen fuel that potentially could be used in fuel cells for transportation, to generate electricity, and to heat homes. "
More Benefits From Biobased Energy
The University of Minnesota plans to use biomass such as cornstalks, wood, or other plant materials for energy. ARS soil scientist Jane Johnson at Morris is analysing the resulting ash to check for heavy metals or other toxins that might render it unfit for use as fertiliser.
"Ag-based energy systems have the potential to help farm communities in many ways, providing renewable energy, an additional cash crop, and possibly new jobs," Johnson says. She is conducting experiments to determine how much residue must stay on the field to prevent soil erosion and loss of soil carbon. A certain percentage may be removed from a field - depending on crop, soil type, and other factors - without harming the soil.
In fact, it can help farmers in areas like Minnesota and northern Iowa, where soils can be too wet and cold in the spring to plant. Farmers tend to avoid no-till in those areas, despite its erosion-reducing potential, because the crop residue can hold in moisture and coolness, delaying planting.
Taking the right amount of residue off for energy generation could reduce this effect and help the spread of no-till, giving farmers yet one more benefit from using their farms to produce energy.
Wind farm should go-ahead: study
Denmark Bulletin
Thursday 12/10/2006, Page: 3
AN independent final feasibility study into a proposed windfarm at Denmark has found that the project is technically and financially viable, and recommends that it should proceed.
The study, conducted by Perthbased civil engineering company GHD Pty Ltd, confirmed that the limitations of Western Power's local infrastructure dictated a reduction in the size of the windfarm, from three turbines to two.
However, it could still succeed financially, due to the excellent wind resource at the chosen site, its proximity to existing infrastructure, and eligibility for regional assistance programs.
Denmark Community Windtarm, the community group managing the project, will now seek planning approvals, investors and grid-connection agreements for the $2.6m project, which will generate about 60 per cent of Denmark's annual power consumption and prevent more than 7000 tonnes of carbon dioxide entering the atmosphere each year.
DCW chairman Craig Chappelle said the study confirmed the group's long-held belief that a small-scale local windfarm could deliver a range of community benefits and be financially viable.
"The study vindicates the local community's vision to move Denmark towards a sustainable energy future, and do it profitably," Mr Chappelle said. "It shows that by careful planning and minimising the ecological footprint, decentralised, renewable-energy generation is achievable at a community scale.
"Our success will open the door for many other small rural communities to create similar projects." However, the current world demand for turbines meant that the windfarm may not begin operating until 2009.
DCW hoped that at least half the funds needed would come from the local community."
Thursday 12/10/2006, Page: 3
AN independent final feasibility study into a proposed windfarm at Denmark has found that the project is technically and financially viable, and recommends that it should proceed.
The study, conducted by Perthbased civil engineering company GHD Pty Ltd, confirmed that the limitations of Western Power's local infrastructure dictated a reduction in the size of the windfarm, from three turbines to two.
However, it could still succeed financially, due to the excellent wind resource at the chosen site, its proximity to existing infrastructure, and eligibility for regional assistance programs.
Denmark Community Windtarm, the community group managing the project, will now seek planning approvals, investors and grid-connection agreements for the $2.6m project, which will generate about 60 per cent of Denmark's annual power consumption and prevent more than 7000 tonnes of carbon dioxide entering the atmosphere each year.
DCW chairman Craig Chappelle said the study confirmed the group's long-held belief that a small-scale local windfarm could deliver a range of community benefits and be financially viable.
"The study vindicates the local community's vision to move Denmark towards a sustainable energy future, and do it profitably," Mr Chappelle said. "It shows that by careful planning and minimising the ecological footprint, decentralised, renewable-energy generation is achievable at a community scale.
"Our success will open the door for many other small rural communities to create similar projects." However, the current world demand for turbines meant that the windfarm may not begin operating until 2009.
DCW hoped that at least half the funds needed would come from the local community."
Campbell says Aust companies to fill Chinese energy needs
AAP Newswire
Monday 16/10/2006
Environment Minister Ian Campbell says Australian renewable energy companies are well placed to take advantage of China's huge demand for energy. Senator Campbell is in China this week to open a new 300 million dollar wind farm .. built by Australian company Roaring Forties.
He's told ABC Radio the challenge is to see massive increases in energy in China .. with massively reduced greenhouse gas emissions. Senator Campbell says the Australian renewable energy industry can play an incredibly transformational role in delivering that outcome.
Roaring Forties cancelled two wind farms in South Australia and Tasmania earlier this year because of an alleged lack of government bias.
Labor has long criticised the government for failing to take drastic action in Australia to encourage renewable energy.
Monday 16/10/2006
Environment Minister Ian Campbell says Australian renewable energy companies are well placed to take advantage of China's huge demand for energy. Senator Campbell is in China this week to open a new 300 million dollar wind farm .. built by Australian company Roaring Forties.
He's told ABC Radio the challenge is to see massive increases in energy in China .. with massively reduced greenhouse gas emissions. Senator Campbell says the Australian renewable energy industry can play an incredibly transformational role in delivering that outcome.
Roaring Forties cancelled two wind farms in South Australia and Tasmania earlier this year because of an alleged lack of government bias.
Labor has long criticised the government for failing to take drastic action in Australia to encourage renewable energy.
Campbell happy to see renewable energy go to China: Brown
AAP Newswire
Monday 16/10/2006
It was farcical that Australia's environment minister was in China opening a wind farm when he was stifling the industry at home, Greens leader Bob Brown said today.
Environment Minister Ian Campbell is in China this week heading a renewable energy business mission and to open a $300 million wind farm built by Australian company Roaring Forties.
But he has been under pressure in Australia for blocking a $200 million wind farm in eastern Victoria and over the collapse of at least two other wind farm projects. Its a farce. Ian Campbell has presided over the closing down of the wind industry in Australia and he's going to see that investment transferred into China," Senator Brown told reporters.
Senator Brown said Senator Campbell had squeezed solar research to death in Australia. Some of the best (technology) in the world, including sliver cell technology at the Australian National University (ANU), is likely to be bought up by the Chinese very soon," he said.
He blamed government policy for the transfer of Australia's renewable technology innovations to China. "What an extraordinary failure as minister Ian Campbell is, but it goes right to the prime minister - a failure of policy," he said.
The Chinese have a renewable energy aim of 15 per cent while Australia's got two per cent.
"While the government's closed down on the industry's expansion in Australia, here's the minister trotting off to China which has got the good sense to be buying our technology and roaring ahead.
"Make no mistake about this, Ian Campbell's going to China to see Australian profits made in China lost to this country, and thousands of Australian jobs lost to this country being boosted in China by his inaction in this country."
Monday 16/10/2006
It was farcical that Australia's environment minister was in China opening a wind farm when he was stifling the industry at home, Greens leader Bob Brown said today.
Environment Minister Ian Campbell is in China this week heading a renewable energy business mission and to open a $300 million wind farm built by Australian company Roaring Forties.
But he has been under pressure in Australia for blocking a $200 million wind farm in eastern Victoria and over the collapse of at least two other wind farm projects. Its a farce. Ian Campbell has presided over the closing down of the wind industry in Australia and he's going to see that investment transferred into China," Senator Brown told reporters.
Senator Brown said Senator Campbell had squeezed solar research to death in Australia. Some of the best (technology) in the world, including sliver cell technology at the Australian National University (ANU), is likely to be bought up by the Chinese very soon," he said.
He blamed government policy for the transfer of Australia's renewable technology innovations to China. "What an extraordinary failure as minister Ian Campbell is, but it goes right to the prime minister - a failure of policy," he said.
The Chinese have a renewable energy aim of 15 per cent while Australia's got two per cent.
"While the government's closed down on the industry's expansion in Australia, here's the minister trotting off to China which has got the good sense to be buying our technology and roaring ahead.
"Make no mistake about this, Ian Campbell's going to China to see Australian profits made in China lost to this country, and thousands of Australian jobs lost to this country being boosted in China by his inaction in this country."
Future for renewables, not reactors -
AAP Newswire
Monday 16/10/2006
Beazley Opposition Leader Kim Beazley has ruled out a nuclear-generated electricity future for Australia .. under a Labor government. The Labor leader told Amaroo primary school students .. the modern way is a renewable energy future.
The Canberra school has photovoltaic cells and a wind turbine helping with its electricity generation .. and warming of hot water and floors. Mr Beazley says this is the way to deal with global warming .. and the future is about renewables .. not reactors.
Monday 16/10/2006
Beazley Opposition Leader Kim Beazley has ruled out a nuclear-generated electricity future for Australia .. under a Labor government. The Labor leader told Amaroo primary school students .. the modern way is a renewable energy future.
The Canberra school has photovoltaic cells and a wind turbine helping with its electricity generation .. and warming of hot water and floors. Mr Beazley says this is the way to deal with global warming .. and the future is about renewables .. not reactors.
PM backs 'clean, green' nuclear
Sunshine Coast Daily
Tuesday 17/10/2006, Page: 14
AS Prime Minister John Howard was busy selling nuclear power as the new "clean, green" energy this week, Environment Minister Ian Campbell was preparing for a trip to China where he will open a $300 million wind farm built by an Australian company, Roaring Forties.
Mr Howard said yesterday that nuclear power had to be considered if Australia was serious about global warming. He made the comment when announcing aid packages for farmers affected by the drought.
A nuclear energy taskforce will report early next month on the potential for nuclear power in Australia. And while the Prime Minister says nuclear is just one of a range of options being considered, his environment minister has recently blocked a $200 million wind farm in Victoria.
Greens leader Bob Brown warned yesterday that Australia risked seeing the alternative energy technologies it has developed exported overseas. Brown points out Australia has only a 2% target for renewable energy while China is chasing 15%. He also accused the government of squeezing funding for solar research.
Opposition leader Kim Beazley, meanwhile, used a school visit to argue that renewables, not reactors were the answer to Australia's future.
It appears that suddenly power, water and the drought are on everyone's lips.
Tuesday 17/10/2006, Page: 14
AS Prime Minister John Howard was busy selling nuclear power as the new "clean, green" energy this week, Environment Minister Ian Campbell was preparing for a trip to China where he will open a $300 million wind farm built by an Australian company, Roaring Forties.
Mr Howard said yesterday that nuclear power had to be considered if Australia was serious about global warming. He made the comment when announcing aid packages for farmers affected by the drought.
A nuclear energy taskforce will report early next month on the potential for nuclear power in Australia. And while the Prime Minister says nuclear is just one of a range of options being considered, his environment minister has recently blocked a $200 million wind farm in Victoria.
Greens leader Bob Brown warned yesterday that Australia risked seeing the alternative energy technologies it has developed exported overseas. Brown points out Australia has only a 2% target for renewable energy while China is chasing 15%. He also accused the government of squeezing funding for solar research.
Opposition leader Kim Beazley, meanwhile, used a school visit to argue that renewables, not reactors were the answer to Australia's future.
It appears that suddenly power, water and the drought are on everyone's lips.
Monday, 16 October 2006
Denmark embraces wind energy: HREA
Hepburn Shire Advocate
Wednesday 11/10/2006, Page: 4
COMMUNITY-owned wind farms are a normal part of life in Denmark, according to Hepburn Renewable Energy Association secretary Brett Dutton. On his trip to Denmark, Mr Dutton learnt about the wind farms of which Denmark has 5500.
"I've met lots of local people and they all say pretty much the same thing - that the wind farms are just a normal part of their lives," he said.
"One person has two turbines on their property and says they've never had a problem with noise or shadows." The idea for the small-scale wind farm in the Daylesford area, proposed by HREA, came from the Danish model where 20 per cent of electricity produced comes from wind.
It is estimated that some 150,000 Danes have already invested in wind power and own wind turbines or shares in wind turbine co-operatives. "I'm very inspired by what I've seen," Mr Dutton said.
People are so positive about renewable energy. The turbines are a part of the landscape and a step in the right direction towards a sustainable future."
Community owned wind farms in Denmark:
Inquiries: Per Bernard on 5348 1298 or visit the HREA website on www.hrea.org.au
Wednesday 11/10/2006, Page: 4
COMMUNITY-owned wind farms are a normal part of life in Denmark, according to Hepburn Renewable Energy Association secretary Brett Dutton. On his trip to Denmark, Mr Dutton learnt about the wind farms of which Denmark has 5500."I've met lots of local people and they all say pretty much the same thing - that the wind farms are just a normal part of their lives," he said.
"One person has two turbines on their property and says they've never had a problem with noise or shadows." The idea for the small-scale wind farm in the Daylesford area, proposed by HREA, came from the Danish model where 20 per cent of electricity produced comes from wind.
It is estimated that some 150,000 Danes have already invested in wind power and own wind turbines or shares in wind turbine co-operatives. "I'm very inspired by what I've seen," Mr Dutton said.
People are so positive about renewable energy. The turbines are a part of the landscape and a step in the right direction towards a sustainable future."
Community owned wind farms in Denmark:
- 75 per cent are privately owned by local co-operatives
- 86 per cent of Danes support wind energy when compared with existing fuel sources.
- Denmark's use of clean wind energy is saving the atmosphere from about 5.2 million tonnes of C02.
- The Danish economy saves 2.3 million tonnes of coal worth more than 100 million Euro.
Inquiries: Per Bernard on 5348 1298 or visit the HREA website on www.hrea.org.au
Newfield wind farm application delay
Cobden Times
Wednesday 11/10/2006, Page: 2
Two months have passed since the Newfield wind farm project open day in Port Campbell and a planning application is yet to be lodged with Corangamite Shire Council.
Acciona Energy, the company behind the $45 million proposal, was expected to hand in a planning application to council this month. However project manager Julien Gaschignard said he was unsure when an application would be lodged.
"It will probably be before the end of the year," he said. "The main reason is the State election." Mr Gaschignard said the company had lodged information from the public open day in August to planning minister Rob Hulls.
Mr Gaschignard said the minister was expected to make a decision on whether the project needed an 'environment effects statement' which would require the company to provide more detail on the proposed project.
"This creates a bit of a delay but it's part of the planning process we have to follow," he said. Mr Gaschignard confirmed another Community Reference Group meeting was held yesterday for members to add comments and address issues about the project.
Wednesday 11/10/2006, Page: 2
Two months have passed since the Newfield wind farm project open day in Port Campbell and a planning application is yet to be lodged with Corangamite Shire Council.
Acciona Energy, the company behind the $45 million proposal, was expected to hand in a planning application to council this month. However project manager Julien Gaschignard said he was unsure when an application would be lodged.
"It will probably be before the end of the year," he said. "The main reason is the State election." Mr Gaschignard said the company had lodged information from the public open day in August to planning minister Rob Hulls.
Mr Gaschignard said the minister was expected to make a decision on whether the project needed an 'environment effects statement' which would require the company to provide more detail on the proposed project.
"This creates a bit of a delay but it's part of the planning process we have to follow," he said. Mr Gaschignard confirmed another Community Reference Group meeting was held yesterday for members to add comments and address issues about the project.
London hopes to stage greenest Games ever
Ballarat Courier
Saturday 14/10/2006, Page: 32
A giant wind turbine will provide power to the 2012 Olympics as organisers bid to make London's Games the greenest ever. At nearly 120 metres tail, the turbine will tower over some of London's best known landmarks, including Big Ben, St Paul's Cathedral and Nelson's Column.
The Olympic Delivery Authority said the proposed turbine, with its 40 metre blades, would provide enough energy to supply the equivalent of 1200 homes over an average year.
Construction of the turbine at Eton Manors at the-north end of the Olympia site in east London, is expected to start in early 2008, subject to planning permission, and be finished by 2010.
Saturday 14/10/2006, Page: 32
A giant wind turbine will provide power to the 2012 Olympics as organisers bid to make London's Games the greenest ever. At nearly 120 metres tail, the turbine will tower over some of London's best known landmarks, including Big Ben, St Paul's Cathedral and Nelson's Column.
The Olympic Delivery Authority said the proposed turbine, with its 40 metre blades, would provide enough energy to supply the equivalent of 1200 homes over an average year.
Construction of the turbine at Eton Manors at the-north end of the Olympia site in east London, is expected to start in early 2008, subject to planning permission, and be finished by 2010.
Senator in wind-farm storm
Sunday Times
Sunday 15/10/2006, Page: 28
FEDERAL Environment Minister Ian Campbell, known more for blocking wind farms in Australia than approving them, is happy to open them in China. Taxpayers footed the bill for the WA senator to go to China this week, where he will cut the ribbon of an Australian company's $300 million wind-farm project.
A Denmark group that wants to establish a wind farm says it is a shame Senator Campbell could not be more enthusiastic about wind farms in WA. Denmark Community Wind Farm Inc was angry Senator Campbell had written to Regional Services Minister Warren Truss telling him to freeze funding for the project.
They had received $247,000 in funding but were seeking another $1.3 million to build two turbines to generate 1.6MW of power a year.
"Will Senator Campbell stand on his high horse and crush an innovative community enterprise like ours or will he see the light, given the comments he has made about the necessity to throw everything we have at climate change?" chairman Craig Chappelle said.
Sunday 15/10/2006, Page: 28
FEDERAL Environment Minister Ian Campbell, known more for blocking wind farms in Australia than approving them, is happy to open them in China. Taxpayers footed the bill for the WA senator to go to China this week, where he will cut the ribbon of an Australian company's $300 million wind-farm project.
A Denmark group that wants to establish a wind farm says it is a shame Senator Campbell could not be more enthusiastic about wind farms in WA. Denmark Community Wind Farm Inc was angry Senator Campbell had written to Regional Services Minister Warren Truss telling him to freeze funding for the project.
They had received $247,000 in funding but were seeking another $1.3 million to build two turbines to generate 1.6MW of power a year.
"Will Senator Campbell stand on his high horse and crush an innovative community enterprise like ours or will he see the light, given the comments he has made about the necessity to throw everything we have at climate change?" chairman Craig Chappelle said.
Anger as Chinese wind farm lauded
Sun Herald
Sunday 15/10/2006, Page: 26
ENVIRONMENT minister Ian Campbell will attend the opening of a $300 million Australian wind farm in China on Tuesday, built by the same company forced to halt lucrative Australian projects because of his policies.
Wind farm specialists Roaring 40s announced six months ago it was stopping work on projects at Heemskirk in Tasmania and Waterloo in South Australia because of poor government support.
The projects were worth $550 million. It was estimated they would create 200 full-time construction jobs. A Roaring 40s' press release highlighted the Federal Governments' decision not to increase the Mandatory Renewable Energy Target as the key reason for halting work on the projects.
At the same time, Senator Campbell blocked another wind farm project, the multimillion-dollar Bald Hills venture in Wangaratta, Victoria, because he believed the wind turbines could kill one orange-bellied parrot every few years.
Other companies have shifted their investment projects offshore, citing a lack of government support for the renewable energy industry.
But tomorrow Roaring 40s will announce that Senator Campbell will attend the opening of the Chinese wind farm project. His attendance offshore to laud projects he has helped block in Australia has the Opposition jumping mad.
"For Australia's renewable energy industry, Senator Campbell's trip to China adds insult to injury," Labor environment spokesman Anthony Albanese said. "It is rank hypocrisy for Senator Campbell to celebrate investment and jobs in China after his damaging actions in Australia against the renewable energy industry.
"Government policies have lost hundreds of jobs and stalled the development of the renewable energy industry in Australia.
"Renewable energy companies are investing in China because China has a renewable energy target of 15 per cent, compared to Australia's pathetic 2 per cent target." Leading renewable energy company Pacific Hydro recently announced it might scrap plans for wind farms in Portland, Ararat and Ballan in Victoria.
Mr Albanese said the Vestas nacelle wind turbine assembly plant in northern Tasmania had also announced it would be closing, resulting in the loss of 100 jobs.
He also pointed to comments by Australia's fourth-richest man, Zhengrong Shi, who made his wealth from developing solar energy technology in China. Mr Shi said recently that if Australia had a similar incentive program to China's, he would have set up a local manufacturing plant.
Sunday 15/10/2006, Page: 26
ENVIRONMENT minister Ian Campbell will attend the opening of a $300 million Australian wind farm in China on Tuesday, built by the same company forced to halt lucrative Australian projects because of his policies.
Wind farm specialists Roaring 40s announced six months ago it was stopping work on projects at Heemskirk in Tasmania and Waterloo in South Australia because of poor government support.
The projects were worth $550 million. It was estimated they would create 200 full-time construction jobs. A Roaring 40s' press release highlighted the Federal Governments' decision not to increase the Mandatory Renewable Energy Target as the key reason for halting work on the projects.
At the same time, Senator Campbell blocked another wind farm project, the multimillion-dollar Bald Hills venture in Wangaratta, Victoria, because he believed the wind turbines could kill one orange-bellied parrot every few years.
Other companies have shifted their investment projects offshore, citing a lack of government support for the renewable energy industry.
But tomorrow Roaring 40s will announce that Senator Campbell will attend the opening of the Chinese wind farm project. His attendance offshore to laud projects he has helped block in Australia has the Opposition jumping mad.
"For Australia's renewable energy industry, Senator Campbell's trip to China adds insult to injury," Labor environment spokesman Anthony Albanese said. "It is rank hypocrisy for Senator Campbell to celebrate investment and jobs in China after his damaging actions in Australia against the renewable energy industry.
"Government policies have lost hundreds of jobs and stalled the development of the renewable energy industry in Australia.
"Renewable energy companies are investing in China because China has a renewable energy target of 15 per cent, compared to Australia's pathetic 2 per cent target." Leading renewable energy company Pacific Hydro recently announced it might scrap plans for wind farms in Portland, Ararat and Ballan in Victoria.
Mr Albanese said the Vestas nacelle wind turbine assembly plant in northern Tasmania had also announced it would be closing, resulting in the loss of 100 jobs.
He also pointed to comments by Australia's fourth-richest man, Zhengrong Shi, who made his wealth from developing solar energy technology in China. Mr Shi said recently that if Australia had a similar incentive program to China's, he would have set up a local manufacturing plant.
Beazley blueprint to tackle emissions
Australian
Monday 16/10/2006, Page: 6
KIM Beazley has pledged to cut the nation's greenhouse gas emissions by 60 per cent by 2050, establish a national greenhouse emissions-trading scheme and sign up to the Kyoto Protocol if Labor wins next year's federal election.
The Opposition Leader yesterday released his national Climate Change Blueprint, outlining steps that "middle Australia" could take to protect and restore the environment.
It will seize the economic benefits of the global trillion dollar industry in carbon-friendly technologies and emissions trading, at the same time encouraging industry to take up new and cleaner technologies," Mr Beazley told the South Australian Labor Party convention in Adelaide.
He said the national greenhouse emissions trading scheme would use a price signal as a long term incentive to cut emissions and provide a "mechanism for trading" to reward companies already adapting to a "carbon constrained world".
The blueprint includes installing solar panels in 10,000 public schools, making five-star energy efficiency provisions mandatory for new homes and providing a $2000 subsidy for hybrid cars.
Greg Bourne, chief executive of conservation organisation WWF Australia, yesterday applauded Mr Beazley's target of cutting greenhouse gas emissions.
But he said Mr Beazley needed to show leadership if elected by enshrining short- and long-term targets in legislation, following the example set by South Australian Premier Mike Rann.
"It's incredibly important that we get leadership in the nation both on the aspirational targets or 60 per cent cuts in emissions by 2050, but more importantly shorter-term targets of 2015 and 2030," Mr Bourne told The Australian.
"It's incredibly important that we do cost carbon into the economy and the introduction of a carbon-tax emissions-trading scheme appropriate to Australian conditions be brought in as quickly as possible." As part of the blueprint, Mr Beazley introduced a list of 10 steps families could take in tackling "dangerous" climate change, describing the simple initiatives as "nation-building around the kitchen table".
"It's a plan that doesn't just harness the power of the wind and the sun, it harnesses the enthusiasm and commitment of families in middle Australia," he said.
Mr Beazley also applauded the Rann Government's initiatives to slow climate change. South Australia currently provides 45 per cent of Australia's grid-connected solar power.
The state has erected inconspicuous wind turbines on Parliament House, the State Library, the South Australian Museum and its art gallery and supplies 51 per cent of the nation's wind power capacity.
"Across the state, wind farms ... will save 1.2 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions a year," Mr Beazley said. "That's the same as taking 300,000 cars off the road. "Compare my approach and your innovative, forward-looking Labor Premier with that out-of-touch, short-sighted Liberal Prime Minister."
Monday 16/10/2006, Page: 6
KIM Beazley has pledged to cut the nation's greenhouse gas emissions by 60 per cent by 2050, establish a national greenhouse emissions-trading scheme and sign up to the Kyoto Protocol if Labor wins next year's federal election.
The Opposition Leader yesterday released his national Climate Change Blueprint, outlining steps that "middle Australia" could take to protect and restore the environment.
It will seize the economic benefits of the global trillion dollar industry in carbon-friendly technologies and emissions trading, at the same time encouraging industry to take up new and cleaner technologies," Mr Beazley told the South Australian Labor Party convention in Adelaide.
He said the national greenhouse emissions trading scheme would use a price signal as a long term incentive to cut emissions and provide a "mechanism for trading" to reward companies already adapting to a "carbon constrained world".
The blueprint includes installing solar panels in 10,000 public schools, making five-star energy efficiency provisions mandatory for new homes and providing a $2000 subsidy for hybrid cars.
Greg Bourne, chief executive of conservation organisation WWF Australia, yesterday applauded Mr Beazley's target of cutting greenhouse gas emissions.
But he said Mr Beazley needed to show leadership if elected by enshrining short- and long-term targets in legislation, following the example set by South Australian Premier Mike Rann.
"It's incredibly important that we get leadership in the nation both on the aspirational targets or 60 per cent cuts in emissions by 2050, but more importantly shorter-term targets of 2015 and 2030," Mr Bourne told The Australian.
"It's incredibly important that we do cost carbon into the economy and the introduction of a carbon-tax emissions-trading scheme appropriate to Australian conditions be brought in as quickly as possible." As part of the blueprint, Mr Beazley introduced a list of 10 steps families could take in tackling "dangerous" climate change, describing the simple initiatives as "nation-building around the kitchen table".
"It's a plan that doesn't just harness the power of the wind and the sun, it harnesses the enthusiasm and commitment of families in middle Australia," he said.
Mr Beazley also applauded the Rann Government's initiatives to slow climate change. South Australia currently provides 45 per cent of Australia's grid-connected solar power.
The state has erected inconspicuous wind turbines on Parliament House, the State Library, the South Australian Museum and its art gallery and supplies 51 per cent of the nation's wind power capacity.
"Across the state, wind farms ... will save 1.2 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions a year," Mr Beazley said. "That's the same as taking 300,000 cars off the road. "Compare my approach and your innovative, forward-looking Labor Premier with that out-of-touch, short-sighted Liberal Prime Minister."
Sunday, 15 October 2006
Bird‑generated power
Australian Geographic.
Oct-Dec 2006, No 84
Where have all the orange‑bellied parrots gone?
WHAT'S 22 cm long, weighs just 50g and has the power to block a proposed wind farm development? With just 150 or so of its kind left, it's Australia's Orange-Bellied Parrots (OBP).
This little bird is about as close to extinction as you can get without actually vanishing. And in April, its precarious state gave the Federal Government a reason to knock back a proposal for a wind farm in South Gippsland, Victoria. The project was destined for a site near the parrot's coastal migration route. It would have been just one more development ‑ on top of houses, industrial complexes and farms ‑ that has made much of the OBP's mainland winter habitat inhospitable.
But not everyone agrees that this particular wind farm was a problem. Chris Tzaros of Birds Australia says: "That wind farm wasn't a danger to OBPs, but there are other sites that are right on the migratory route. It's not just wind farms though; it's all sorts of industrial development going on all the time that is potentially threatening." Further, bird‑lovers are worried about a mysterious drop in the number of Orange-Bellied Parrots turning up at some of their traditional wintering grounds since the early 1990s.
It's a paradox, since the parrot's total population hasn't fallen in the same period; ornithologists know this because the number returning to their summer breeding areas has been about the same every year. So where are the birds hanging out in winter? Until about 1992, bird spotters were counting up to 90 birds in the OBP's winter habitat of southern Victoria and south‑east SA. "Since then they've really dropped off and we're just not finding the numbers we used to," says Chris.
Chris is coordinating a three‑year project, funded by the Federal Government's Natural Heritage Trust, that hopes to pinpoint the kind of habitat OBPs prefer. Once this is known, the habitat can be protected ‑ if it isn't already ‑ so that the species' toehold on the planet can be made a little less precarious. The information may also lead ornithologists to OBP habitat they're not checking at the moment.
"It's too early to say much about habitat preferences other than what we already know ‑ that they prefer salt marsh close to water on complex coastlines," Chris says. "It might turn out that they're using what we know is the right habitat but in a completely different area that no‑one's researching." OBPs spend the summer in Tasmania's south‑west, feeding on seeds and fruit in button grass plains and roosting in copses of paperbark and tea‑tree. They breed between November and February, each female laying 4‑5 eggs in eucalypt hollows. Once the chicks have fledged, adults set off across Bass Strait, via King Island, to their winter habitat on the mainland coast. Youngsters follow a month or two later. On reaching the mainland, the birds radiate out from South Gippsland to the south‑eastern corner of SA, although 70 per cent stick around the western rim of Port Phillip.
At the time of European colonisation, the OBP used to range as far west as SA's Yorke Peninsula and east to Sydney. In Tasmania, early colonists reported seeing them on the island's east, around Hobart. In 1836, 1886 and 1918, the parrots were recorded in their thousands, and as late as the 1920s they were still common and locally abundant.
But after that the species went into a steep decline. The main cause was coastal development, cat and fox predation, and exotic seed‑eating birds such as sparrows and finches competing with them for food. These days a patchwork of reserves helps protect their remaining breeding and wintering habitats.
Oct-Dec 2006, No 84
Where have all the orange‑bellied parrots gone?
WHAT'S 22 cm long, weighs just 50g and has the power to block a proposed wind farm development? With just 150 or so of its kind left, it's Australia's Orange-Bellied Parrots (OBP).This little bird is about as close to extinction as you can get without actually vanishing. And in April, its precarious state gave the Federal Government a reason to knock back a proposal for a wind farm in South Gippsland, Victoria. The project was destined for a site near the parrot's coastal migration route. It would have been just one more development ‑ on top of houses, industrial complexes and farms ‑ that has made much of the OBP's mainland winter habitat inhospitable.
But not everyone agrees that this particular wind farm was a problem. Chris Tzaros of Birds Australia says: "That wind farm wasn't a danger to OBPs, but there are other sites that are right on the migratory route. It's not just wind farms though; it's all sorts of industrial development going on all the time that is potentially threatening." Further, bird‑lovers are worried about a mysterious drop in the number of Orange-Bellied Parrots turning up at some of their traditional wintering grounds since the early 1990s.
It's a paradox, since the parrot's total population hasn't fallen in the same period; ornithologists know this because the number returning to their summer breeding areas has been about the same every year. So where are the birds hanging out in winter? Until about 1992, bird spotters were counting up to 90 birds in the OBP's winter habitat of southern Victoria and south‑east SA. "Since then they've really dropped off and we're just not finding the numbers we used to," says Chris.
Chris is coordinating a three‑year project, funded by the Federal Government's Natural Heritage Trust, that hopes to pinpoint the kind of habitat OBPs prefer. Once this is known, the habitat can be protected ‑ if it isn't already ‑ so that the species' toehold on the planet can be made a little less precarious. The information may also lead ornithologists to OBP habitat they're not checking at the moment.
"It's too early to say much about habitat preferences other than what we already know ‑ that they prefer salt marsh close to water on complex coastlines," Chris says. "It might turn out that they're using what we know is the right habitat but in a completely different area that no‑one's researching." OBPs spend the summer in Tasmania's south‑west, feeding on seeds and fruit in button grass plains and roosting in copses of paperbark and tea‑tree. They breed between November and February, each female laying 4‑5 eggs in eucalypt hollows. Once the chicks have fledged, adults set off across Bass Strait, via King Island, to their winter habitat on the mainland coast. Youngsters follow a month or two later. On reaching the mainland, the birds radiate out from South Gippsland to the south‑eastern corner of SA, although 70 per cent stick around the western rim of Port Phillip.
At the time of European colonisation, the OBP used to range as far west as SA's Yorke Peninsula and east to Sydney. In Tasmania, early colonists reported seeing them on the island's east, around Hobart. In 1836, 1886 and 1918, the parrots were recorded in their thousands, and as late as the 1920s they were still common and locally abundant.
But after that the species went into a steep decline. The main cause was coastal development, cat and fox predation, and exotic seed‑eating birds such as sparrows and finches competing with them for food. These days a patchwork of reserves helps protect their remaining breeding and wintering habitats.
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