www.smh.com.au
February 3, 2010
Opinion
No wonder Australia is lagging behind Spain and China with renewable energy, writes Matthew Wright.
Renewable energy is the fastest growing power source in the world, and already generates baseload electricity on the scale of utilities. Large solar thermal plants with heat storage can dispatch power around the clock every day of the week regardless of whether the sun is shining, and make handsome profits during demand peaks.
Wind power is being installed on scales that dwarf Australian grid requirements. These and other clean energy technologies are replacing coal on modern grids. While Australia continues to throw money at 19th-century technologies, Spain, China, the US and others are charging ahead with zero-emissions power generation, and creating export markets.
Spain consumes about as much electricity as Australia, though its population is about twice as large. Like Australia, Spain is blessed with strong, consistent sunshine, and it uses this attribute to ensure energy security. Already it has built 24-hour baseload solar plants, using molten salt to store heat which is then used to create steam and turn turbines. It started with Andasol 1, a 50MW plant, and has now completed two similar projects. More than 1,800MW of projects are under construction and the government has just approved another 2,440MW for their feed-in tariff scheme for construction over the next three years.
The Gemasolar project is the shining light of the Spanish boom in baseload solar energy. This solar thermal plant has created 1500 jobs and will operate at 60 to 100 per cent of maximum turbine output for up to 90 per cent of hours each year. Very low maintenance shutdown requirements allow this efficiency, far greater than coal-fired power generators in NSW. When the turbine is idle, heat is bled off the ''cold'' 290-degree salt storage tank to keep the turbine seals warm, allowing fast starting - as seen in the best hydro and gas plants. This capacity for baseload and fast-start ''dispatchable'' power generation places the Gemasolar plant among the highest-value electricity plants, a fact not lost on investors.
This solar generation capacity is in addition to Spanish wind energy. Wind turbines supply 11 per cent of Spain's electricity demand, and this will more than double to 25 per cent by 2020. Another 6000MW of wind energy is approved for installation in the next three years. That is just shy of three plants the size of the Bayswater power station near Muswellbrook, with all the jobs but no emissions. Spain is phasing out coal and nuclear, and the companies that built the nuclear plants have re-tooled to build solar thermal plants with heat storage. These companies did not want to own the nuclear plants they built, but they have set up investment vehicles to own solar thermal plants.
Compared to the 10 years it takes to get a nuclear plant up and running, solar thermal plants with 24-hour baseload capacity have construction times as short as nine months, so such projects are not exposed to the same political, industrial and financial risks as nuclear plants. Envisaging a lucrative market for their solar infrastructure and expertise, the Spanish anticipate a healthy return on any subsidies for these technologies.
In China, solar hot water and photovoltaic (PV) panels have had huge commercial success. Maintenance-free evacuated tube solar hot water systems were developed in Australia. They are cheap - each tube wholesales for less than $5 and a system for a family costs less than $500. More than 50 million Chinese households now enjoy unlimited, free hot water from such systems. China produces solar PV panels on a huge scale, and is the leading manufacturer of this technology for domestic rooftops. This triumph also owes much to Australian innovation, and to Australian governments' failure to support the industry on home soil.
The University of New South Wales solar PV team is the world leader in its field and holds the global efficiency record for ordinary silicon cells. Much of the technology in China, particularly from the leading company, SunTech, leverages off this Australian innovation. The Chinese were also ahead of the game when the global financial crisis hit. Their government moved quickly to arrange for government buildings to purchase surplus industrial output. This meant the billions of dollars Chinese companies had invested in PV plants were not wasted when demand suddenly fell.
This is in stark contrast with the situation in Australia. Melbourne's Solar Systems has proven commercial success in displacing diesel in diesel/solar hybrid power generation for remote aboriginal communities. Solar Systems, a leader in its field, was unable to generate operational revenue and was forced into administration in August. With a bit of Chinese-style foresight, the Rudd government could have created a pipeline of projects for remote area power systems dependent on diesel. This would have been a responsible use of stimulus funds, and assured the company remained viable and ready for the boom after the global financial crisis.
Chinese wind energy blows us away, too. A total of 30,000MW of wind energy was planned to come online by 2020, but this target will be met early this year. China is now planning for 150,000MW of wind energy by 2020, and again it is likely that this will be achieved much earlier. Within the 150,000MW wind energy target is the ''Three Gorges of Wind'' project. Named after the world's biggest engineering project, the Three Gorges dam, it will produce 70,000MW at seven large sites and twice as much electricity as the Three Gorges Dam, but cost half as much. The Three Gorges of Wind will produce about the same amount of electricity as the electricity grid on Australia's eastern seaboard.
Denmark obtains 20 per cent of its electricity from wind, and this will increase to 50 per cent by 2025. Wind turbines from the 1980s will be replaced with new models that are 30 times larger and much more efficient in a wide variety of wind conditions. NSW alone is 19 times larger than Denmark. It has about the same population and experiences as much wind in any given place. Our national electricity grid extends from Tasmania and South Australia to far northern Queensland. With such a massive resource over a vast area, wind energy can make a large contribution to Australian energy security. Australia continues to rely on wasteful 19th-century technology. In periods of low demand, such as the dead of night, our antiquated coal-fired power stations throw energy away by blowing steam.
In Germany, policy decisions have boosted renewable energy sales and provided the environment for a high-tech manufacturing industry. This is despite the fact that, under often-grey northern skies, PV panels installed in Germany may produce 50 to 65 per cent less energy over their lifetime than equivalent panels in Australia. German households and businesses will add up to three GWs (GW) of photovoltaic generation by the end of this year, bringing the national total to eight GW. That is 86 per cent of the entire Hunter Valley generating capacity.
Planning authorities in the US are also swamped with plans for wind and solar thermal power. More than 97,000MW of solar thermal projects are seeking approval from the US Bureau of Land Management. In the south-west of the country, the bureau is doing a study that would speed up development of more than 100,000MW of right-of-way sites (degraded government lands) for solar thermal plants. There go another 38 Bayswater equivalents. An underdeveloped grid is the main obstacle to the expansion of wind energy in the US, but President Barack Obama has announced a huge modernisation plan.
The global financial crisis caused hold-ups with project finance, but with federal stimulus now behind many projects, thousands of MWs of solar thermal with storage will break ground this year. It includes a huge complex in Nevada by the Spanish multinational Abengoa and another in California by the Israeli constructor BrightSource Energy. These companies are now exporting their expertise, a far more valuable commodity than coal. With quick action, Australia could develop a solar thermal industry and join this lucrative market.
Those who perpetuate the myth that renewable energy cannot satisfy our electricity demand have an interest in long-established, emissions-intensive industries. These largely foreign-owned companies would prefer to see our energy keep coming from the same old dirty sources. The Rudd government seems more than happy to encourage this approach, signing up to the Coalition's version of the emissions trading scheme to offer $7 billion of compensation to coal-fired generators, while stonewalling on renewables. This strategy, like the Coalition's business-as-usual outlook, ignores the opportunities for jobs, export earnings, energy security and zero-emissions electricity on offer in the renewable sector.
With our advantages in sunshine, wind and expertise, Australia should move quickly to make up for lost time, and join the frontrunners in clean energy. Failure to act means Australians will remain stuck in the coal pit while the world prospers from a renewable energy boom.
Matthew Wright is executive director of Beyond Zero Emissions. It is developing plans that could shift Australia to zero emissions by 2020 using existing technologies.
Thursday, 4 February 2010
Feed-In Tariff Unveiled In U.K.
www.solarindustrymag.com
01 February 2010
The U.K.'s Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) plans to roll out a feed-in tariff (FIT) for solar energy projects and other forms of renewable energy. The FIT also includes what the DECC says is the world's first incentive for renewable energy heating technologies. PV feed-in tariffs will begin April 1, and the renewable heat incentive will be implemented on April 1, 2011.
Tariff levels vary according to technology and program year. A PV retrofit project under 4 kW, for instance, will receive 41.3 pence (p)/kWh from April 1, 2010 to March 31, 2011. A PV system between 100 kW and 5 MW, in contrast, will receive 29.3 p/kWh during the same time period. All PV FITs carry a 25-year lifetime. The full table describing FIT levels and timetables is available here.
The FIT for solar thermal projects providing heat varies from 17 p/kWh for installations between 20 kW and 100 kW to 18 p/kWh for installations up to 20 kW - both over a 20-year lifetime. According to the DECC, a typical 2.5 kW well-sited solar PV installation could offer a homeowner a reward of up to 900 British pounds and save him or her 140 British pounds per year on his or her electricity bill.
01 February 2010
The U.K.'s Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) plans to roll out a feed-in tariff (FIT) for solar energy projects and other forms of renewable energy. The FIT also includes what the DECC says is the world's first incentive for renewable energy heating technologies. PV feed-in tariffs will begin April 1, and the renewable heat incentive will be implemented on April 1, 2011.
Tariff levels vary according to technology and program year. A PV retrofit project under 4 kW, for instance, will receive 41.3 pence (p)/kWh from April 1, 2010 to March 31, 2011. A PV system between 100 kW and 5 MW, in contrast, will receive 29.3 p/kWh during the same time period. All PV FITs carry a 25-year lifetime. The full table describing FIT levels and timetables is available here.
The FIT for solar thermal projects providing heat varies from 17 p/kWh for installations between 20 kW and 100 kW to 18 p/kWh for installations up to 20 kW - both over a 20-year lifetime. According to the DECC, a typical 2.5 kW well-sited solar PV installation could offer a homeowner a reward of up to 900 British pounds and save him or her 140 British pounds per year on his or her electricity bill.
Silicon Valley makes big push into solar and smart-grid technologies
www.mercurynews.com
01/31/2010
Cleantech's vast ecosystem includes a dizzying array of emerging technologies, from green building materials to electric vehicles, lighting and wind energy. But as Silicon Valley reinvents itself as a global center of clean technology, two sectors - solar energy and "smart" upgrades to the electric grid - already are reshaping the valley and changing the way energy is produced and used.
The Bay Area is believed to have the nation's largest concentration of cleantech jobs, and much of that job growth has been in solar and smart grid, technologies that leverage the valley's formidable strengths. Next 10, a nonpartisan think tank, estimates that the Bay Area now has about 7,000 jobs in renewable energy alone.
"The skills that have been put to such good use in the valley with chips - engineering the processes to be more efficient, bringing costs down - are now being applied to solar," said San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed, who wants to create 25,000 new cleantech jobs and cut the city's per capita energy use in half by 2022. "And in order to make a smart grid smart, you've got to collect an enormous amount of information and manage it and network it. It's a huge market opportunity for what companies here are already doing."
Solar technology is an extension of the semiconductor industry - a solar cell is basically a simple, large and inexpensive chip, and some manufacturing processes are similar in both industries. Smart grid, meanwhile, builds on the telecommunications and software industries to improve the electric grid by making it more reliable, secure and efficient all the way from the power plant to the home and office.
Nationwide, demand for electricity is expected to grow 30% by 2030, according to the Department of Energy, and the nation's aging grid is struggling to keep up. There's currently no way to store electricity, so utility companies often crank up capacity to meet peak demand during the evening hours, when consumers come home from work and turn on their appliances. If consumers were given incentives and the means to reduce energy use at critical times, that could offset the need to build additional power plants.
There's an environmental opportunity as well: A mere 5% improvement in the grid's efficiency would be equal to eliminating the fuel and greenhouse gas emissions from 53 million cars, according to the Department of Energy.
Smart grid market
Morgan Stanley predicts that the smart grid market will grow from $20 billion in revenue this year to $100 billion - roughly three times Apple's current revenues - by 2030. Networking giant Cisco, which is positioning itself to be a major player, believes the communications infrastructure alone for the smart grid could be worth $20 billion a year within the next five years. A smart grid would also allow utilities to more nimbly manage renewable sources of power like wind and solar, which can be unpredictable and intermittent on cloudy days. And consumers would get real-time information about energy usage, so they could identify the electricity hogs among their appliances and adjust their behavior to reduce energy consumption and bills.
Creation of a smart grid is a top priority of the Department of Energy, which has funneled $4.5 billion in stimulus dollars to the effort, including $303 million to California utilities. Spurred on by federal dollars, utility companies across the country are rolling out smart meters to better monitor energy consumption at homes and businesses. More than 250 million of them will be installed worldwide by 2015, up from 46 million in 2008, according to Pike Research. In Northern California, PG&E is installing more than 12,000 smart meters every day toward a goal of having 10 million in place by 2012. Currently, they merely allow PG&E to collect data without meter readers but later will add useful energy-monitoring features.
The nationwide push for smart meters has been a boon to Silver Spring Networks, a Redwood City startup that makes software for several utilities, including Florida Power & Light, PG&E and the Sacramento Municipal Utility District. Silver Spring's software allows devices like meters, load management controllers and electric vehicle charging stations to communicate with each other and the utility. "Anything we can do to make energy usage and distribution more efficient so we don't need to build more power plants is a pretty big benefit for all of us," said Eric Dresselhuys, Silver Spring's executive vice president. "
A lot of people are talking about electric vehicles and rooftop solar. If we're going to adopt those technologies on a massive scale, we need a network in place to communicate with all of these devices." At least 40 to 50 companies in Silicon Valley, including startups and tech giants, are focused on smart grid development, said Mayor Reed. Experts in the utility industry stress this is just the beginning.
'Huge opportunity'
"There's a huge opportunity," said Don Von Dollen, director of the IntelliGrid program at EPRI, the Electric Power Research Institute in Palo Alto. "Everyone is trying to figure out how to mine the data that comes out of the smart meters and turn it into usable information that can help consumers save energy and reduce their bills. There are going to be lots of opportunities to develop apps, and that's Silicon Valley's sweet spot. Someone is going to come up with the iPod for in-home energy management."
Cisco veteran Laura Ipsen, who was chosen last fall to lead a new Smart Grid Business Unit of more than 100 people, says Cisco's utility customers were "clamoring for us to explore this area." Cisco wants to provide the communications infrastructure to connect all points on the grid, from power plants to homes, as well as tools to manage energy use. "If we can connect it," she added, "it can be more green."
Cisco has already rolled out its Building Mediator, a product that can automatically and remotely control a building's heating and air conditioning, lighting, security and other electricity use. NetApp, a maker of network storage equipment, uses Cisco's Building Mediator at its Sunnyvale headquarters and reduced energy costs for its 1.2 million square feet of office space by 25% - and $2 million - over an 18-month period. Another valley company pioneering smart grid technologies is San Mateo's eMeter, which is piloting a product to alert consumers by text message that they are about to blow their preset electricity budget unless they modify their behavior.
Redwood City startup EcoFactor, meanwhile, creates software that can continuously tweak the settings of a home thermostat - including adjusting heating or air conditioning based on variations in outside temperatures and local weather. The company, which recently announced $2.4 million in first-round financing, has a contract with the Texas utility Oncor.
Even Google has gotten into the act. The search giant has introduced PowerMeter, which allows consumers with smart meters to monitor their energy consumption from their iGoogle home page. "We can begin to see what a clean energy future will look like," President Obama said in an October speech announcing smart grid grants. "We can imagine the day when you'll be able to charge the battery on your plug-in hybrid car at night, because your smart meter reminded you that nighttime electricity is cheapest."
Many of those hybrid owners may be recharging their cars with solar energy, another cleantech sector with enormous potential and deep roots in Silicon Valley. The solar market - including modules, system components and installation - will grow from a $30 billion global industry in 2008 to $81 billion by 2018, according to Clean Edge, a cleantech research firm. Currently, the dominant solar company in Silicon Valley is San Jose-based SunPower, which assembles its panels at the historic Ford assembly plant in the East Bay city of Richmond, where tanks were built for World War II.
Powered by SunPower
Its recent projects include a solar energy system at Agilent's Santa Clara headquarters capable of generating one MW of electricity, about enough to power 750 to 1,000 homes. SunPower also completed a 1-MW system at the University of California-Merced campus expected to produce two-thirds of the campus' electricity on summer afternoons. SunPower's panels, like most others, use sunlight to excite electrons in silicon to generate electricity. But several companies have created a lot of buzz by replacing silicon with other compounds to make so-called thin-film panels to drive down costs and improve efficiency.
The industry leader in thin film is FirstSolar, an Arizona company that makes cadmium telluride solar cells and has a deal with the Chinese government to build a 2-GW solar plant in Mongolia, enough to power about 3 million Chinese households. But Silicon Valley has a cadre of thin film startups that manufacture solar panels using a compound known as CIGS - shorthand for copper indium gallium selenide- that they say will represent a great leap in solar technology.
Fremont-based Solyndra, a CIGS company founded by veterans of Applied Materials, has filed for a $300 million initial public offering. Several other local companies, including SoloPower, Nanosolar, and MiaSolé, are also racing to bring thin-film CIGS into volume production. Santa Clara-based MiaSolé got a big boost last month when it received $101.7 million in federal cleantech manufacturing tax credits. The company doubled its workforce to 300 last year and is ramping up production at its Santa Clara factory. "The first CIGS company to deliver will be an enormous hit," said Stephen O'Rourke, a solar industry analyst with Deutsche Bank. "A lot of people bought tickets, and now it's time to deliver."
01/31/2010
Cleantech's vast ecosystem includes a dizzying array of emerging technologies, from green building materials to electric vehicles, lighting and wind energy. But as Silicon Valley reinvents itself as a global center of clean technology, two sectors - solar energy and "smart" upgrades to the electric grid - already are reshaping the valley and changing the way energy is produced and used.
The Bay Area is believed to have the nation's largest concentration of cleantech jobs, and much of that job growth has been in solar and smart grid, technologies that leverage the valley's formidable strengths. Next 10, a nonpartisan think tank, estimates that the Bay Area now has about 7,000 jobs in renewable energy alone.
"The skills that have been put to such good use in the valley with chips - engineering the processes to be more efficient, bringing costs down - are now being applied to solar," said San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed, who wants to create 25,000 new cleantech jobs and cut the city's per capita energy use in half by 2022. "And in order to make a smart grid smart, you've got to collect an enormous amount of information and manage it and network it. It's a huge market opportunity for what companies here are already doing."
Solar technology is an extension of the semiconductor industry - a solar cell is basically a simple, large and inexpensive chip, and some manufacturing processes are similar in both industries. Smart grid, meanwhile, builds on the telecommunications and software industries to improve the electric grid by making it more reliable, secure and efficient all the way from the power plant to the home and office.
Nationwide, demand for electricity is expected to grow 30% by 2030, according to the Department of Energy, and the nation's aging grid is struggling to keep up. There's currently no way to store electricity, so utility companies often crank up capacity to meet peak demand during the evening hours, when consumers come home from work and turn on their appliances. If consumers were given incentives and the means to reduce energy use at critical times, that could offset the need to build additional power plants.
There's an environmental opportunity as well: A mere 5% improvement in the grid's efficiency would be equal to eliminating the fuel and greenhouse gas emissions from 53 million cars, according to the Department of Energy.
Smart grid market
Morgan Stanley predicts that the smart grid market will grow from $20 billion in revenue this year to $100 billion - roughly three times Apple's current revenues - by 2030. Networking giant Cisco, which is positioning itself to be a major player, believes the communications infrastructure alone for the smart grid could be worth $20 billion a year within the next five years. A smart grid would also allow utilities to more nimbly manage renewable sources of power like wind and solar, which can be unpredictable and intermittent on cloudy days. And consumers would get real-time information about energy usage, so they could identify the electricity hogs among their appliances and adjust their behavior to reduce energy consumption and bills.
Creation of a smart grid is a top priority of the Department of Energy, which has funneled $4.5 billion in stimulus dollars to the effort, including $303 million to California utilities. Spurred on by federal dollars, utility companies across the country are rolling out smart meters to better monitor energy consumption at homes and businesses. More than 250 million of them will be installed worldwide by 2015, up from 46 million in 2008, according to Pike Research. In Northern California, PG&E is installing more than 12,000 smart meters every day toward a goal of having 10 million in place by 2012. Currently, they merely allow PG&E to collect data without meter readers but later will add useful energy-monitoring features.
The nationwide push for smart meters has been a boon to Silver Spring Networks, a Redwood City startup that makes software for several utilities, including Florida Power & Light, PG&E and the Sacramento Municipal Utility District. Silver Spring's software allows devices like meters, load management controllers and electric vehicle charging stations to communicate with each other and the utility. "Anything we can do to make energy usage and distribution more efficient so we don't need to build more power plants is a pretty big benefit for all of us," said Eric Dresselhuys, Silver Spring's executive vice president. "
A lot of people are talking about electric vehicles and rooftop solar. If we're going to adopt those technologies on a massive scale, we need a network in place to communicate with all of these devices." At least 40 to 50 companies in Silicon Valley, including startups and tech giants, are focused on smart grid development, said Mayor Reed. Experts in the utility industry stress this is just the beginning.
'Huge opportunity'
"There's a huge opportunity," said Don Von Dollen, director of the IntelliGrid program at EPRI, the Electric Power Research Institute in Palo Alto. "Everyone is trying to figure out how to mine the data that comes out of the smart meters and turn it into usable information that can help consumers save energy and reduce their bills. There are going to be lots of opportunities to develop apps, and that's Silicon Valley's sweet spot. Someone is going to come up with the iPod for in-home energy management."
Cisco veteran Laura Ipsen, who was chosen last fall to lead a new Smart Grid Business Unit of more than 100 people, says Cisco's utility customers were "clamoring for us to explore this area." Cisco wants to provide the communications infrastructure to connect all points on the grid, from power plants to homes, as well as tools to manage energy use. "If we can connect it," she added, "it can be more green."
Cisco has already rolled out its Building Mediator, a product that can automatically and remotely control a building's heating and air conditioning, lighting, security and other electricity use. NetApp, a maker of network storage equipment, uses Cisco's Building Mediator at its Sunnyvale headquarters and reduced energy costs for its 1.2 million square feet of office space by 25% - and $2 million - over an 18-month period. Another valley company pioneering smart grid technologies is San Mateo's eMeter, which is piloting a product to alert consumers by text message that they are about to blow their preset electricity budget unless they modify their behavior.
Redwood City startup EcoFactor, meanwhile, creates software that can continuously tweak the settings of a home thermostat - including adjusting heating or air conditioning based on variations in outside temperatures and local weather. The company, which recently announced $2.4 million in first-round financing, has a contract with the Texas utility Oncor.
Even Google has gotten into the act. The search giant has introduced PowerMeter, which allows consumers with smart meters to monitor their energy consumption from their iGoogle home page. "We can begin to see what a clean energy future will look like," President Obama said in an October speech announcing smart grid grants. "We can imagine the day when you'll be able to charge the battery on your plug-in hybrid car at night, because your smart meter reminded you that nighttime electricity is cheapest."
Many of those hybrid owners may be recharging their cars with solar energy, another cleantech sector with enormous potential and deep roots in Silicon Valley. The solar market - including modules, system components and installation - will grow from a $30 billion global industry in 2008 to $81 billion by 2018, according to Clean Edge, a cleantech research firm. Currently, the dominant solar company in Silicon Valley is San Jose-based SunPower, which assembles its panels at the historic Ford assembly plant in the East Bay city of Richmond, where tanks were built for World War II.
Powered by SunPower
Its recent projects include a solar energy system at Agilent's Santa Clara headquarters capable of generating one MW of electricity, about enough to power 750 to 1,000 homes. SunPower also completed a 1-MW system at the University of California-Merced campus expected to produce two-thirds of the campus' electricity on summer afternoons. SunPower's panels, like most others, use sunlight to excite electrons in silicon to generate electricity. But several companies have created a lot of buzz by replacing silicon with other compounds to make so-called thin-film panels to drive down costs and improve efficiency.
The industry leader in thin film is FirstSolar, an Arizona company that makes cadmium telluride solar cells and has a deal with the Chinese government to build a 2-GW solar plant in Mongolia, enough to power about 3 million Chinese households. But Silicon Valley has a cadre of thin film startups that manufacture solar panels using a compound known as CIGS - shorthand for copper indium gallium selenide- that they say will represent a great leap in solar technology.
Fremont-based Solyndra, a CIGS company founded by veterans of Applied Materials, has filed for a $300 million initial public offering. Several other local companies, including SoloPower, Nanosolar, and MiaSolé, are also racing to bring thin-film CIGS into volume production. Santa Clara-based MiaSolé got a big boost last month when it received $101.7 million in federal cleantech manufacturing tax credits. The company doubled its workforce to 300 last year and is ramping up production at its Santa Clara factory. "The first CIGS company to deliver will be an enormous hit," said Stephen O'Rourke, a solar industry analyst with Deutsche Bank. "A lot of people bought tickets, and now it's time to deliver."
Wednesday, 3 February 2010
China surges past rivals and faces gripes of unfair advantages
Sydney Morning Herald
Monday 1/2/2010 Page:
CHINA vaulted past competitors in Denmark, Germany, Spain and the United States last year to become the world's largest maker of wind turbines, and is poised to expand even further this year. China has also leapfrogged the West in the past two years to emerge as the world's largest manufacturer of solar panels. It is pushing equally hard to build nuclear reactors and the most efficient types of coal power plants. These efforts to dominate the global manufacture of renewable energy technologies raise the prospect that the West may some day trade its dependence on oil from the Middle East for a reliance on solar panels, wind turbines and other equipment manufactured in China.
Most of the energy equipment will carry a brass plate, 'Made in China,'" said KK Chan, the chief executive of Nature Elements Capital, a private equity fund in Beijing that focuses on renewable energy. The US President, Barack Obama, in his State of the Union speech last week, sounded an alarm that the US was falling behind other countries, 1HEHSA1 BOA,, especially China, on energy. "I do not accept a future where the jobs and industries of tomorrow take root beyond our borders - and I know you don't either," he told Congress.
The US and other countries are offering incentives to develop their own renewable energy industries, and Mr Obama called for redoubling US efforts. Yet many Western and Chinese executives expect China to prevail in the energy technology race. Multinational corporations are responding to the rapid growth of China's market by building big, sophisticated factories in China. Vestas of Denmark has just built the world's biggest wind turbine manufacturing complex in north-eastern China, and transferred the technology to build the latest electronic controls and generators. "You have to move fast with the market," said the president of Vestas China, Jens Tommerup. "Nobody has ever seen such fast development in a wind market."
Renewable energy industries in China are adding jobs rapidly, reaching 1.12 million in 2008 and climbing by 100,000 a year, according to the government-backed Chinese Renewable Energy Industries Association. Yet renewable energy may be doing more for China's economy than for the environment. Total power generation in China is on track to pass the US in 2012, and most of the added capacity will still be from coal. China intends for wind, solar and biomass energy to represent 8% of its electricity generation capacity by 2020. That compares with less than 4% now in China and the US. Coal will still represent two-thirds of China's capacity in 2020, and nuclear and hydro power most of the rest.
China's leaders are intensely focused on energy policy. Last Wednesday the government announced the creation of a National Energy Commission composed of cabinet ministers as a "superministry" led by the Prime Minister, Wen Jiabao. Regulators have set mandates for power generation companies to use more renewable energy. Generous subsidies for consumers to install their own solar panels or solar water heaters have produced flurries of activity on rooftops across China. The country's biggest advantage may be domestic demand for electricity, rising 15% a year. To meet that in the coming decade, according to statistics from the International Energy Agency, China will need to add nearly nine times as much electricity generation capacity as the US.
So while Americans are used to thinking of themselves as having the world's largest market in many industries, China's market for power equipment dwarfs that of the US, even though the US market is more mature. That means Chinese producers enjoy enormous efficiencies from large-scale production. As in many other industries, China's low labour costs are an advantage in energy. Although wages have risen sharply in the last five years, Vestas still pays assembly line workers only $US4100 ($4600) a year.
China's commitment to renewable energy is expensive. Although costs are falling steeply through mass production, wind energy is still 20% to 40% more expensive than coal-fired power. solar energy is still at least twice as expensive as coal. With prices tumbling, the wind and solar industries are increasingly looking to sell equipment abroad - and facing complaints by Western companies that they have unfair advantages. The deputy managing director of China's renewable energy association, Ma Lingjuan, said: "Every country, including the United States and in Europe, wants a low cost of renewable energy. Now China has reached that level, but it gets criticised by the rest of the world."
Monday 1/2/2010 Page:
CHINA vaulted past competitors in Denmark, Germany, Spain and the United States last year to become the world's largest maker of wind turbines, and is poised to expand even further this year. China has also leapfrogged the West in the past two years to emerge as the world's largest manufacturer of solar panels. It is pushing equally hard to build nuclear reactors and the most efficient types of coal power plants. These efforts to dominate the global manufacture of renewable energy technologies raise the prospect that the West may some day trade its dependence on oil from the Middle East for a reliance on solar panels, wind turbines and other equipment manufactured in China.Most of the energy equipment will carry a brass plate, 'Made in China,'" said KK Chan, the chief executive of Nature Elements Capital, a private equity fund in Beijing that focuses on renewable energy. The US President, Barack Obama, in his State of the Union speech last week, sounded an alarm that the US was falling behind other countries, 1HEHSA1 BOA,, especially China, on energy. "I do not accept a future where the jobs and industries of tomorrow take root beyond our borders - and I know you don't either," he told Congress.
The US and other countries are offering incentives to develop their own renewable energy industries, and Mr Obama called for redoubling US efforts. Yet many Western and Chinese executives expect China to prevail in the energy technology race. Multinational corporations are responding to the rapid growth of China's market by building big, sophisticated factories in China. Vestas of Denmark has just built the world's biggest wind turbine manufacturing complex in north-eastern China, and transferred the technology to build the latest electronic controls and generators. "You have to move fast with the market," said the president of Vestas China, Jens Tommerup. "Nobody has ever seen such fast development in a wind market."
Renewable energy industries in China are adding jobs rapidly, reaching 1.12 million in 2008 and climbing by 100,000 a year, according to the government-backed Chinese Renewable Energy Industries Association. Yet renewable energy may be doing more for China's economy than for the environment. Total power generation in China is on track to pass the US in 2012, and most of the added capacity will still be from coal. China intends for wind, solar and biomass energy to represent 8% of its electricity generation capacity by 2020. That compares with less than 4% now in China and the US. Coal will still represent two-thirds of China's capacity in 2020, and nuclear and hydro power most of the rest.
China's leaders are intensely focused on energy policy. Last Wednesday the government announced the creation of a National Energy Commission composed of cabinet ministers as a "superministry" led by the Prime Minister, Wen Jiabao. Regulators have set mandates for power generation companies to use more renewable energy. Generous subsidies for consumers to install their own solar panels or solar water heaters have produced flurries of activity on rooftops across China. The country's biggest advantage may be domestic demand for electricity, rising 15% a year. To meet that in the coming decade, according to statistics from the International Energy Agency, China will need to add nearly nine times as much electricity generation capacity as the US.
So while Americans are used to thinking of themselves as having the world's largest market in many industries, China's market for power equipment dwarfs that of the US, even though the US market is more mature. That means Chinese producers enjoy enormous efficiencies from large-scale production. As in many other industries, China's low labour costs are an advantage in energy. Although wages have risen sharply in the last five years, Vestas still pays assembly line workers only $US4100 ($4600) a year.
China's commitment to renewable energy is expensive. Although costs are falling steeply through mass production, wind energy is still 20% to 40% more expensive than coal-fired power. solar energy is still at least twice as expensive as coal. With prices tumbling, the wind and solar industries are increasingly looking to sell equipment abroad - and facing complaints by Western companies that they have unfair advantages. The deputy managing director of China's renewable energy association, Ma Lingjuan, said: "Every country, including the United States and in Europe, wants a low cost of renewable energy. Now China has reached that level, but it gets criticised by the rest of the world."
Sweden’s Usitall brings landmark waste-to-energy project to Tulcea
www.actmedia.eu
23-10-2008
Usitall, a leading Swedish waste-to-energy company, has signed a memorandum of understanding with the local authorities in Tulcea for a landmark project to build a waste incinerator which will supply heating and electricity to the town at the mouth of the Danube River Delta, and will reduce significantly the population's energy bills and the city's dependence on imported fuel. The project is the first of its kind in Romania, and it is based on the Swedish model, which burns waste to replace oil and gas for the production of thermal heating and electricity.
Usitall is based in the southwestern city of Linkoping, home to Saab, the producer of the Gripen multirole fighter of the new generation which has been offered to Romania, to replace the old MiGs 21 of the ROAF. Saab is a significant shareholder of the company, owning 30% of its shares, the rest being owned by the Linkoping municipality. For us, it is a very important step which offers a lot of opportunities, because this project makes landfills unnecessary in the future and it helps the conservation of resources by replacing fossil fuels and reducing the need for imported fuel," Usitall CEO Stellan Jacobsson said after the signing ceremony in Tulcea.
Jacobsson also said that his company is now exploring the Romanian market, in order to duplicate the project with local municipalities. "We have found that there is a growing interest for this kind of solutions," Jacobsson added, mentioning that besides energy efficiency, such technology will help Romania to align with the strict EU regulations for the disposal of landfills.
23-10-2008
Usitall, a leading Swedish waste-to-energy company, has signed a memorandum of understanding with the local authorities in Tulcea for a landmark project to build a waste incinerator which will supply heating and electricity to the town at the mouth of the Danube River Delta, and will reduce significantly the population's energy bills and the city's dependence on imported fuel. The project is the first of its kind in Romania, and it is based on the Swedish model, which burns waste to replace oil and gas for the production of thermal heating and electricity.
Usitall is based in the southwestern city of Linkoping, home to Saab, the producer of the Gripen multirole fighter of the new generation which has been offered to Romania, to replace the old MiGs 21 of the ROAF. Saab is a significant shareholder of the company, owning 30% of its shares, the rest being owned by the Linkoping municipality. For us, it is a very important step which offers a lot of opportunities, because this project makes landfills unnecessary in the future and it helps the conservation of resources by replacing fossil fuels and reducing the need for imported fuel," Usitall CEO Stellan Jacobsson said after the signing ceremony in Tulcea.
Jacobsson also said that his company is now exploring the Romanian market, in order to duplicate the project with local municipalities. "We have found that there is a growing interest for this kind of solutions," Jacobsson added, mentioning that besides energy efficiency, such technology will help Romania to align with the strict EU regulations for the disposal of landfills.
Rural Nevada Farming Town Warms to New Solar Plan
www.kolotv.com
Jan 30, 2010
AMARGOSA VALLEY, Nev. (AP) - When it comes to finding a place to build a solar energy plant, a few miles can make a big difference. The latest solar plant plan for Amargosa Valley looks more popular with area residents than previous pitches, because it's farther out of town. Click here to find out more! For that same reason, it is likely to draw opposition from off-roaders and environmentalists.
Pacific Solar Investments, a Portland, Ore.-based subsidiary of the Spanish company Iberdrola Renewables, wants to build a 150-MW solar photovoltaic array on more than 1,500 acres of Bureau of Land Management land between U.S. 95 and the Big Dune recreation area on the north end of the Amargosa Valley. The company has requested a lease on more than 7,000 acres far from Amargosa's main drag, but next to an environmentally sensitive dune. The nearly 11 square miles that Pacific Solar wants to lease also overlaps a popular off-road race route.
The company says it will give back to the BLM all the land it doesn't use for its solar plant. But even so, the area could still be covered by solar panels. The Big Dune Project, as the locals call it, is one of numerous solar energy plants proposed for the valley, and some fear the plants will force off-roaders and desert creatures out of the area. Government planning maps show that tens of thousands of acres in the Amargosa Valley are sought by solar developers. If all the projects are approved and built, many rural ranches and homesteads would be surrounded by miles of mirrors and solar panels.
The landscape would be scraped clean of foliage, and desert animals would be forced to find new homes. Off-roading would be out, and a portion of the route used by the popular Best in the Desert Vegas-to-Reno race would be cut off. The contest winds through 1,000 miles of mostly open desert from Amargosa Valley to Carson City. Greg Helseth, BLM's renewable energy project manager for southern Nevada, said the agency will consider the potential cumulative effects of so many solar plants in one area.
At the BLM's first public meeting about the project, held in January at the Amargosa Valley Community Center, one thing seemed clear: Area residents are OK with solar, as long as it doesn't suck their aquifer dry, cause fleets of trucks to roll past the school and park, or create eyesores behind their back fences. About 40 residents braved a rainstorm to attend the meeting and offer their general support of the Pacific Solar plan. The company says it could provide enough clean energy to power about 30,000 southern Nevada homes, while creating hundreds of short-term construction jobs and some permanent jobs the company says it will try to award to locals.
The plant would be built in three 50-MW phases, decreasing dust problems and prolonging the jobs of construction workers. The company hopes to finish the first phase of construction in 2011 and wrap up a final phase in 2013. It also hopes to sell all the electricity to NV Energy through a long-term power purchase agreement. "We would like to create electricity in Nevada for Nevada," said Kim Fiske, Pacific Solar's international managing director.
Amargosa Valley residents at the meeting said they appreciated that the developer chose a location far from the town's main road, and its decision to develop the plant with the most water-conserving technology available. "You're welcome to my backyard," resident Gary Gulley said to polite applause. The mood was dramatically different during a meeting for a different project at the same building last August.
At that session, solar developer Solar Millennium unveiled plans for a proposed solar thermal power plant along Amargosa Farm Road. Neighbors criticized the proposed location between the school and senior center, and next to several residential properties. Some also objected to the amount of water the proposed plant's cooling system would use. The first phase of the proposed Pacific Solar array is near Big Dune, a place with unique and threatened plants and animals. The Bureau of Land Management has designated parts of the area for "critical environmental concern" protection.
Desert conservation organization Basin and Range Watch, a group with members concentrated in six western states including Nevada, is organizing opposition to the solar plant because of its potential effect on ancient creosote bushes, a rare weevil and three rare beetles, including one that lives only on Big Dune. The area is also populated by endangered desert tortoises. Officials say construction crews will have to scrape the ground clear of vegetation to create a flat, open space on which to build.
The discovery of rare flora and fauna wouldn't necessarily kill a project, but it does mean a developer would have to pay to offset the impact of its project. For example, a developer could agree not to demolish certain trees or to relocate tortoises. The BLM's Helseth said the company will have to address such issues as dust abatement, water supply and how to restore the site once the plant is decommissioned in 30 to 40 years. "We're looking at all aspects of this project," he said. "The desert takes a long time to recover, and this is a large area."
Jan 30, 2010
AMARGOSA VALLEY, Nev. (AP) - When it comes to finding a place to build a solar energy plant, a few miles can make a big difference. The latest solar plant plan for Amargosa Valley looks more popular with area residents than previous pitches, because it's farther out of town. Click here to find out more! For that same reason, it is likely to draw opposition from off-roaders and environmentalists.
Pacific Solar Investments, a Portland, Ore.-based subsidiary of the Spanish company Iberdrola Renewables, wants to build a 150-MW solar photovoltaic array on more than 1,500 acres of Bureau of Land Management land between U.S. 95 and the Big Dune recreation area on the north end of the Amargosa Valley. The company has requested a lease on more than 7,000 acres far from Amargosa's main drag, but next to an environmentally sensitive dune. The nearly 11 square miles that Pacific Solar wants to lease also overlaps a popular off-road race route.
The company says it will give back to the BLM all the land it doesn't use for its solar plant. But even so, the area could still be covered by solar panels. The Big Dune Project, as the locals call it, is one of numerous solar energy plants proposed for the valley, and some fear the plants will force off-roaders and desert creatures out of the area. Government planning maps show that tens of thousands of acres in the Amargosa Valley are sought by solar developers. If all the projects are approved and built, many rural ranches and homesteads would be surrounded by miles of mirrors and solar panels.
The landscape would be scraped clean of foliage, and desert animals would be forced to find new homes. Off-roading would be out, and a portion of the route used by the popular Best in the Desert Vegas-to-Reno race would be cut off. The contest winds through 1,000 miles of mostly open desert from Amargosa Valley to Carson City. Greg Helseth, BLM's renewable energy project manager for southern Nevada, said the agency will consider the potential cumulative effects of so many solar plants in one area.
At the BLM's first public meeting about the project, held in January at the Amargosa Valley Community Center, one thing seemed clear: Area residents are OK with solar, as long as it doesn't suck their aquifer dry, cause fleets of trucks to roll past the school and park, or create eyesores behind their back fences. About 40 residents braved a rainstorm to attend the meeting and offer their general support of the Pacific Solar plan. The company says it could provide enough clean energy to power about 30,000 southern Nevada homes, while creating hundreds of short-term construction jobs and some permanent jobs the company says it will try to award to locals.
The plant would be built in three 50-MW phases, decreasing dust problems and prolonging the jobs of construction workers. The company hopes to finish the first phase of construction in 2011 and wrap up a final phase in 2013. It also hopes to sell all the electricity to NV Energy through a long-term power purchase agreement. "We would like to create electricity in Nevada for Nevada," said Kim Fiske, Pacific Solar's international managing director.
Amargosa Valley residents at the meeting said they appreciated that the developer chose a location far from the town's main road, and its decision to develop the plant with the most water-conserving technology available. "You're welcome to my backyard," resident Gary Gulley said to polite applause. The mood was dramatically different during a meeting for a different project at the same building last August.
At that session, solar developer Solar Millennium unveiled plans for a proposed solar thermal power plant along Amargosa Farm Road. Neighbors criticized the proposed location between the school and senior center, and next to several residential properties. Some also objected to the amount of water the proposed plant's cooling system would use. The first phase of the proposed Pacific Solar array is near Big Dune, a place with unique and threatened plants and animals. The Bureau of Land Management has designated parts of the area for "critical environmental concern" protection.
Desert conservation organization Basin and Range Watch, a group with members concentrated in six western states including Nevada, is organizing opposition to the solar plant because of its potential effect on ancient creosote bushes, a rare weevil and three rare beetles, including one that lives only on Big Dune. The area is also populated by endangered desert tortoises. Officials say construction crews will have to scrape the ground clear of vegetation to create a flat, open space on which to build.
The discovery of rare flora and fauna wouldn't necessarily kill a project, but it does mean a developer would have to pay to offset the impact of its project. For example, a developer could agree not to demolish certain trees or to relocate tortoises. The BLM's Helseth said the company will have to address such issues as dust abatement, water supply and how to restore the site once the plant is decommissioned in 30 to 40 years. "We're looking at all aspects of this project," he said. "The desert takes a long time to recover, and this is a large area."
Obama Orders Government To Slash GHG Emissions 28%
www.environmentalleader.com
January 29, 2010
President Obama has ordered the government, the largest consumer of energy in the U.S., to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions 28% by 2020.
The move follows President Obama's signing of Executive Order 13514 in October, which set environmental performance goals for federal agencies. Each agency was required to submit a 2020 GHG pollution reduction target from its estimated 2008 baseline to the White House Council on Environmental Quality and to the Director of the Office of Management and Budget by January 4, 2010. The 28% target announced today is the aggregate of those 35 federal agency self-reported targets. By June, each federal agency must send the White House Office of Management and Budget a sustainability plan, the New York Times reports. The OMB will validate and score each agency's sustainability plan. Annual progress will be measured and reported online to the public.
The federal government, which occupies nearly 500,000 buildings, operates more than 600,000 vehicles, employs more than 1.8 million civilians, and purchases more than $500 billion per year in goods and services, spent more than $24.5 billion on electricity and fuel in 2008 alone. Achieving the federal GHG pollution reduction target will reduce federal energy use by the equivalent of 646 trillion BTUs, equal to 205 million barrels of oil, and taking 17 million cars off the road for one year. This is also equivalent to a cumulative total of $8 to $11 billion in avoided energy costs through 2020, according to the White House. To reach the goal, federal departments and agencies will measure current energy and fuel use, increase energy efficiency and shift to clean energy sources like solar, wind and geothermal.
Nancy Sutley, Chairwoman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, said that she believes most of the program is already paid for, the Times article reports. Stimulus funding has lead to an increase in government efficiency projects. Federal agencies spent more than $1.7 billion last year on energy-efficiency projects – an increase of 80% over 2008. About two-thirds of the investments were paid for with appropriated dollars, primarily from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, with the remainder financed by private-sector financing arrangements, such as Energy Savings Performance Contracts (ESPCs) and Utility Energy Services Contracts (UESCs). Under these programs, contractors pay for renovations upfront and are paid back over time with cost savings that result from reduced energy consumption. But ESPCs have their drawbacks – projects funded through ESPCs cost nearly 2 1/2 times what they would cost if funded through direct appropriations.
Executive Order 13514 calls for a 30% reduction in vehicle fleet petroleum use by 2020, 26% improvement in water efficiency by 2020, 50% recycling and waste diversion by 2015, 95% of all applicable contracts will meet sustainability requirements; The order won't affect combat operations, excluding more than 60% of the DOD's greenhouse gas emissions such as jet fuel for planes and diesel for tanks, The Wall Street Journal reports, pointing out that the DOD's energy consumption represents more than three-quarters of the federal government's total energy budget.
But the DOD is making cuts in other areas. Earlier this week it was announced that the United States Air Force has entered into a partnership with Fotowatio Renewable Ventures of San Francisco to lease part of the Edwards Air Force Base for a massive solar array with an estimated production capacity of up to 500 MWs. The Army has set a goal of cutting GHG emissions 30%.
The U.S. Navy reduced its overall energy consumption level by 12% in 2008 with projects centered on wind energy generation, solar photovoltaic systems, geothermal systems and ocean thermal energy conversion at military bases primarily in California. Secretary of the Navy, Ray Mabus recently announced five energy targets for the Navy and Marine corps, of which biofuels is a major component. In 2007, President Bush issued an executive order requiring federal agencies to reduce their overall energy use by three% annually through 2015 and to cut water consumption two% annually over the same period. It mandates that agencies expand procurement programs focusing on environmentally friendly products, including bio-based products.
January 29, 2010
President Obama has ordered the government, the largest consumer of energy in the U.S., to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions 28% by 2020.
The move follows President Obama's signing of Executive Order 13514 in October, which set environmental performance goals for federal agencies. Each agency was required to submit a 2020 GHG pollution reduction target from its estimated 2008 baseline to the White House Council on Environmental Quality and to the Director of the Office of Management and Budget by January 4, 2010. The 28% target announced today is the aggregate of those 35 federal agency self-reported targets. By June, each federal agency must send the White House Office of Management and Budget a sustainability plan, the New York Times reports. The OMB will validate and score each agency's sustainability plan. Annual progress will be measured and reported online to the public.
The federal government, which occupies nearly 500,000 buildings, operates more than 600,000 vehicles, employs more than 1.8 million civilians, and purchases more than $500 billion per year in goods and services, spent more than $24.5 billion on electricity and fuel in 2008 alone. Achieving the federal GHG pollution reduction target will reduce federal energy use by the equivalent of 646 trillion BTUs, equal to 205 million barrels of oil, and taking 17 million cars off the road for one year. This is also equivalent to a cumulative total of $8 to $11 billion in avoided energy costs through 2020, according to the White House. To reach the goal, federal departments and agencies will measure current energy and fuel use, increase energy efficiency and shift to clean energy sources like solar, wind and geothermal.
Nancy Sutley, Chairwoman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, said that she believes most of the program is already paid for, the Times article reports. Stimulus funding has lead to an increase in government efficiency projects. Federal agencies spent more than $1.7 billion last year on energy-efficiency projects – an increase of 80% over 2008. About two-thirds of the investments were paid for with appropriated dollars, primarily from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, with the remainder financed by private-sector financing arrangements, such as Energy Savings Performance Contracts (ESPCs) and Utility Energy Services Contracts (UESCs). Under these programs, contractors pay for renovations upfront and are paid back over time with cost savings that result from reduced energy consumption. But ESPCs have their drawbacks – projects funded through ESPCs cost nearly 2 1/2 times what they would cost if funded through direct appropriations.
Executive Order 13514 calls for a 30% reduction in vehicle fleet petroleum use by 2020, 26% improvement in water efficiency by 2020, 50% recycling and waste diversion by 2015, 95% of all applicable contracts will meet sustainability requirements; The order won't affect combat operations, excluding more than 60% of the DOD's greenhouse gas emissions such as jet fuel for planes and diesel for tanks, The Wall Street Journal reports, pointing out that the DOD's energy consumption represents more than three-quarters of the federal government's total energy budget.
But the DOD is making cuts in other areas. Earlier this week it was announced that the United States Air Force has entered into a partnership with Fotowatio Renewable Ventures of San Francisco to lease part of the Edwards Air Force Base for a massive solar array with an estimated production capacity of up to 500 MWs. The Army has set a goal of cutting GHG emissions 30%.
The U.S. Navy reduced its overall energy consumption level by 12% in 2008 with projects centered on wind energy generation, solar photovoltaic systems, geothermal systems and ocean thermal energy conversion at military bases primarily in California. Secretary of the Navy, Ray Mabus recently announced five energy targets for the Navy and Marine corps, of which biofuels is a major component. In 2007, President Bush issued an executive order requiring federal agencies to reduce their overall energy use by three% annually through 2015 and to cut water consumption two% annually over the same period. It mandates that agencies expand procurement programs focusing on environmentally friendly products, including bio-based products.
Insulation scheme rorted Owners hot under the collar
Herald Sun
Saturday 30/1/2010 Page: 27
Householders desperate to cut soaring energy bills are being fleeced by insulation cheats. Rogue companies cashing in on the Federal Government's $2.45 billion home insulation scheme are rorting the system by only partly lining ceilings. Heavy-handed installers smashing roof tiles, causing ceiling collapses or wrecking air conditioning and alarm systems have also left home owners with damage bills. Consumer Affairs Victoria has handled 115 complaints about insulation fitters since July last year.
Accused rogues have also been reported to federal authorities, who have the power to blacklist companies from the popular rebate scheme. CAV spokeswoman Heather Abbott confirmed most complaints were against businesses that had been registered to perform work. More than a million homes nationwide have received free or discounted ceiling insulation through the program. Environment Minister Peter Garrett stressed the overwhelming majority of installers were scrupulous.
However, any complaints were treated seriously. "All installers are on notice that we'll act swiftly if we find any evidence of improper or illegal activity," a spokesman said. "Action can include an immediate suspension, followed by deregistration, recovery of money and, if needed, referral to the police or other authorities for potential prosecution." Suspected frauds falsely billing for rebates of $1200 to $1600 a home are among those being investigated. The Herald Sun last month revealed concerns about 51 Victorian roof fires linked to botched jobs that fitted insulation too close to down lights.
CAV recommends consumers get at least two quotes from tradespeople, to quiz them on their safety measures, and to not sign off on a job until they are satisfied with the work. The Federal Government toughened the scheme's safety, training and registration rules late last year after a spate of fires and the deaths of three young workers from heat stress or electrocution while installing in NSW and Queensland. Consumers concerned about insulation quality should first contact the installer to rectify the issue.
For unresolved complaints, contact CAV on 1300 558 181 or the federal energy efficiency hotline on 1800 808 571. Registered tradespeople are listed on the program's website: environment.gov.au/energyefficiency
Saturday 30/1/2010 Page: 27
Householders desperate to cut soaring energy bills are being fleeced by insulation cheats. Rogue companies cashing in on the Federal Government's $2.45 billion home insulation scheme are rorting the system by only partly lining ceilings. Heavy-handed installers smashing roof tiles, causing ceiling collapses or wrecking air conditioning and alarm systems have also left home owners with damage bills. Consumer Affairs Victoria has handled 115 complaints about insulation fitters since July last year.
Accused rogues have also been reported to federal authorities, who have the power to blacklist companies from the popular rebate scheme. CAV spokeswoman Heather Abbott confirmed most complaints were against businesses that had been registered to perform work. More than a million homes nationwide have received free or discounted ceiling insulation through the program. Environment Minister Peter Garrett stressed the overwhelming majority of installers were scrupulous.
However, any complaints were treated seriously. "All installers are on notice that we'll act swiftly if we find any evidence of improper or illegal activity," a spokesman said. "Action can include an immediate suspension, followed by deregistration, recovery of money and, if needed, referral to the police or other authorities for potential prosecution." Suspected frauds falsely billing for rebates of $1200 to $1600 a home are among those being investigated. The Herald Sun last month revealed concerns about 51 Victorian roof fires linked to botched jobs that fitted insulation too close to down lights.
CAV recommends consumers get at least two quotes from tradespeople, to quiz them on their safety measures, and to not sign off on a job until they are satisfied with the work. The Federal Government toughened the scheme's safety, training and registration rules late last year after a spate of fires and the deaths of three young workers from heat stress or electrocution while installing in NSW and Queensland. Consumers concerned about insulation quality should first contact the installer to rectify the issue.
For unresolved complaints, contact CAV on 1300 558 181 or the federal energy efficiency hotline on 1800 808 571. Registered tradespeople are listed on the program's website: environment.gov.au/energyefficiency
Green Loans scheme close to collapse
Adelaide Advertiser
Saturday 30/1/2010 Page: 14
ONE of the Rudd Government's key climate change initiatives is close to collapse amid claims of widespread rorting and mismanagement. Just six months after its launch, the $70 million Green Loans scheme to get Australian households to install energy efficient products will be lucky to survive past March without millions more in taxpayer funding. Similarities are already being drawn between Green Loans and the Government's bungled $3.2 billion home insulation subsidy scheme, which is the subject of a Senate inquiry into allegations of malpractice and rorting. The Green Loans program was supposed to run for three years. So far, just 1000 households have applied for subsidised loans.
Saturday 30/1/2010 Page: 14
ONE of the Rudd Government's key climate change initiatives is close to collapse amid claims of widespread rorting and mismanagement. Just six months after its launch, the $70 million Green Loans scheme to get Australian households to install energy efficient products will be lucky to survive past March without millions more in taxpayer funding. Similarities are already being drawn between Green Loans and the Government's bungled $3.2 billion home insulation subsidy scheme, which is the subject of a Senate inquiry into allegations of malpractice and rorting. The Green Loans program was supposed to run for three years. So far, just 1000 households have applied for subsidised loans.
Monday, 1 February 2010
Australia’s first commercial scale wave energy project launched
ecogeneration.com.au
January 29, 2010
Wave energy developer Carnegie Corporation Wave Energy has formally launched its Perth Wave Energy Project, the first commercial-scale wave energy unit to be deployed in Australia. Western Australian Minister for Energy Peter Collier attended the launch, which was held at Carnegie Corporation's Wave Energy Facility in Fremantle.
When completed, the commercial demonstration project will have a capacity of 5 MW, enough to power 3,500 homes and prevent 500,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions. Stage one of the project has already commenced, involving the installation of a single stand-alone commercial scale CETO unit and data telemetry buoy in the Sepia Depression, between Garden Island and Five Fathom Bank.
The system will remain there for twelve months, during which periodic inspections and maintenance will take place. The CETO system is unique as it operates while submerged in the water, anchored to the ocean floor. The project will use Carnegie Corporation's $12.5 million Low Emissions Energy Development grant from the Western Australian government, which was announced earlier this year. Detailed cost and design activities associated with stage two of the project will be undertaken later this year, with construction and commissioning scheduled for 2011.
January 29, 2010
Wave energy developer Carnegie Corporation Wave Energy has formally launched its Perth Wave Energy Project, the first commercial-scale wave energy unit to be deployed in Australia. Western Australian Minister for Energy Peter Collier attended the launch, which was held at Carnegie Corporation's Wave Energy Facility in Fremantle.When completed, the commercial demonstration project will have a capacity of 5 MW, enough to power 3,500 homes and prevent 500,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions. Stage one of the project has already commenced, involving the installation of a single stand-alone commercial scale CETO unit and data telemetry buoy in the Sepia Depression, between Garden Island and Five Fathom Bank.
The system will remain there for twelve months, during which periodic inspections and maintenance will take place. The CETO system is unique as it operates while submerged in the water, anchored to the ocean floor. The project will use Carnegie Corporation's $12.5 million Low Emissions Energy Development grant from the Western Australian government, which was announced earlier this year. Detailed cost and design activities associated with stage two of the project will be undertaken later this year, with construction and commissioning scheduled for 2011.
Suniva and GS Battery to create solar energy storage device
solar.coolerplanet.com
January 29, 2010
While the Achilles heel of many power systems using solar energy has been their inability to retain energy without sunlight, and reliance on a backup form of energy, a new product by Suniva Inc, may help to alleviate the issue. The U.S.-based solar manufacturer announced on Thursday that it would be partnering with GS Battery, a U.S, subsidiary of the Japan-based GS Yuasa Group, to create a system that could store solar energy gathered by solar panels.
"Solar system owners that are able to store their energy output are also able to take advantage of many new economic opportunities," said Yasuyuki Nakamura, President of GS Battery. "Our state of the art approach allows customers to achieve better returns on investment with a more flexible and profitable solar energy supply." The two companies' first attempt at creating a solar energy storage device will utilize 30kW of Suniva's solar modules along with battery technology developed at the GS's headquarters in Roswell, Georgia. The project's solar array will be developed by Atlanta-based First Century Energy, making it the first power grid in the state to be connected to any type of energy-storing solar installation.
January 29, 2010
While the Achilles heel of many power systems using solar energy has been their inability to retain energy without sunlight, and reliance on a backup form of energy, a new product by Suniva Inc, may help to alleviate the issue. The U.S.-based solar manufacturer announced on Thursday that it would be partnering with GS Battery, a U.S, subsidiary of the Japan-based GS Yuasa Group, to create a system that could store solar energy gathered by solar panels.
"Solar system owners that are able to store their energy output are also able to take advantage of many new economic opportunities," said Yasuyuki Nakamura, President of GS Battery. "Our state of the art approach allows customers to achieve better returns on investment with a more flexible and profitable solar energy supply." The two companies' first attempt at creating a solar energy storage device will utilize 30kW of Suniva's solar modules along with battery technology developed at the GS's headquarters in Roswell, Georgia. The project's solar array will be developed by Atlanta-based First Century Energy, making it the first power grid in the state to be connected to any type of energy-storing solar installation.
Massive tidal energy project mooted for Darwin
www.abc.net.au
Jan 29, 2010
A Darwin-based company has plans for a tidal power energy project worth up to $900 million in the Clarence Strait between the Northern Territory mainland and the Tiwi Islands. Tenax Energy wants to install up to 450 turbines on the sea floor with an electricity cable running onshore to Glyde Point, to connect to the Darwin-Katherine grid. The company says there is also potential for 7,000 turbines in the Asia-Pacific region, with a possible base in Darwin. The company's director, Alan Major, says he also wants to install turbines at two other sites in Tasmania and Victoria, but the Clarence Strait has the most potential.
"We're in discussions with governments in each of the three locations," he said. "It's just that the Northern Territory is the first and foremost tidal power energy site in Australia. "It's the biggest and it's got the best commercial extraction potential and that's why we're focusing in on the Northern Territory." The company says it will start community consultation in the coming months as part of its environmental impact statement to gain Government approval.
Jan 29, 2010
A Darwin-based company has plans for a tidal power energy project worth up to $900 million in the Clarence Strait between the Northern Territory mainland and the Tiwi Islands. Tenax Energy wants to install up to 450 turbines on the sea floor with an electricity cable running onshore to Glyde Point, to connect to the Darwin-Katherine grid. The company says there is also potential for 7,000 turbines in the Asia-Pacific region, with a possible base in Darwin. The company's director, Alan Major, says he also wants to install turbines at two other sites in Tasmania and Victoria, but the Clarence Strait has the most potential.
"We're in discussions with governments in each of the three locations," he said. "It's just that the Northern Territory is the first and foremost tidal power energy site in Australia. "It's the biggest and it's got the best commercial extraction potential and that's why we're focusing in on the Northern Territory." The company says it will start community consultation in the coming months as part of its environmental impact statement to gain Government approval.
U.S. solar startup teams up with battery maker
www.reuters.com
Jan 28, 2010
LOS ANGELES, Jan 28 (Reuters) - U.S, solar start-up Suniva Inc said on Thursday it would partner with the U.S, unit of Japanese battery company GS Yuasa Corp to develop solar energyed energy storage systems. Financial details of the agreement were not disclosed. Under the deal, Suniva and GS Battery Inc would build renewable energy systems integrating solar energy panels and battery storage at various sites in the United States. The move seeks to solve a challenge faced by the emerging renewable energy sector: how to store electricity generated by wind and solar so that the clean power is available and reliable when the wind is not blowing or sun is not shining.
"One thing that will make solar for many applications much more reliable and available is having that storage capacity," said Suniva's Chief Marketing Officer Bryan Ashley. Ashley added that the solar panels could prove to charge batteries faster and better than the electrical grid. Instead of the alternating current from the grid, solar panels provide a direct electrical current straight to a battery, so that there is no loss of power in the change of currents, he said.
Capacity Expansion
Norcross, Georgia-based Suniva makes high-efficiency solar cells and modules, competing with modules made by U.S.-based SunPower Corp and Japan's Sanyo Electric Co Ltd, or SunTech Power Holdings Co Ltd's high-efficiency Pluto panels. Its customers include Germany's Solon AG SE and India's Titan Energy Systems Ltd.
Last year, the company raised $75 million in a financing round led by private equity firm Warburg Pincus LLC to expand its manufacturing capacity to 100 MWs. In the spring, the company will increase that capacity to 175 MW and it plans to open a second plant in 2011 with an annual capacity of 400 MW to 500 MW, Ashley said. For that second plant, the company expects to hire about 20 people, adding to its workforce of over 150 people; it is waiting for a loan guarantee from the U.S. Department of Energy to help fund the expected $250 million investment.
For the first project with GS Battery, Suniva would build a 30 kW solar array at the battery company's headquarters in Roswell, Georgia. The system would have 3,000 amp hours of storage and use nano-carbon, lead-acid batteries. The company said the projects would focus on commercial and industrial markets and potentially the residential market. The size of the projects would range from as large as 30 kWs to as small as 3 kWs.
Jan 28, 2010
LOS ANGELES, Jan 28 (Reuters) - U.S, solar start-up Suniva Inc said on Thursday it would partner with the U.S, unit of Japanese battery company GS Yuasa Corp to develop solar energyed energy storage systems. Financial details of the agreement were not disclosed. Under the deal, Suniva and GS Battery Inc would build renewable energy systems integrating solar energy panels and battery storage at various sites in the United States. The move seeks to solve a challenge faced by the emerging renewable energy sector: how to store electricity generated by wind and solar so that the clean power is available and reliable when the wind is not blowing or sun is not shining.
"One thing that will make solar for many applications much more reliable and available is having that storage capacity," said Suniva's Chief Marketing Officer Bryan Ashley. Ashley added that the solar panels could prove to charge batteries faster and better than the electrical grid. Instead of the alternating current from the grid, solar panels provide a direct electrical current straight to a battery, so that there is no loss of power in the change of currents, he said.
Capacity Expansion
Norcross, Georgia-based Suniva makes high-efficiency solar cells and modules, competing with modules made by U.S.-based SunPower Corp and Japan's Sanyo Electric Co Ltd, or SunTech Power Holdings Co Ltd's high-efficiency Pluto panels. Its customers include Germany's Solon AG SE and India's Titan Energy Systems Ltd.
Last year, the company raised $75 million in a financing round led by private equity firm Warburg Pincus LLC to expand its manufacturing capacity to 100 MWs. In the spring, the company will increase that capacity to 175 MW and it plans to open a second plant in 2011 with an annual capacity of 400 MW to 500 MW, Ashley said. For that second plant, the company expects to hire about 20 people, adding to its workforce of over 150 people; it is waiting for a loan guarantee from the U.S. Department of Energy to help fund the expected $250 million investment.
For the first project with GS Battery, Suniva would build a 30 kW solar array at the battery company's headquarters in Roswell, Georgia. The system would have 3,000 amp hours of storage and use nano-carbon, lead-acid batteries. The company said the projects would focus on commercial and industrial markets and potentially the residential market. The size of the projects would range from as large as 30 kWs to as small as 3 kWs.
Saturday, 30 January 2010
German company to set up 50 MW solar energy project
www.dawn.com
Wednesday, 27 Jan, 2010
ISLAMABAD: AZUR Energy Group of Germany will set up a 50 MW Solar project in Pakistan and a feasibility report in this regard has already been formulated. This was told by a German Energy Group delegation during a visit by the Board of Investment (BOI) on Wednesday. The delegation also called on Minister of State and Chairman BOI Saleem H. Mandviwala and discussed investment opportunities in various sectors of the economy including the energy sector in Pakistan.
The chairman of AZUR Energy Group of Germany said that his company has already prepared a feasibility report and a ground survey is being conducted at Multan and Bahawalpur areas and negotiations for the acquiring of land for the project is also in progress. He said that in the next step the AZUR Energy Group of Germany will bring solar energy technology in Pakistan. Speaking on the occasion, Saleem H Mandviwala said that Pakistan is an ideal location for investment in various sectors including the energy sector.
He said that Pakistan has adopted a liberal investor friendly policy, broad features of which include, proactive facilitation and guarantees of equal treatment of both local and foreign investors, easy tariff structures and a liberal regime on repatriation of profits. The minister also welcomed the German delegation and appreciated them for their interest in investing in Pakistan. He highlighted the policy parameters of investment in Pakistan. While stressing so he underlined the policy which allows 100 per cent foreign equity in the major sectors and full repatriation of profits and dividends in all the sectors.
It was further explained that the average rate of return is almost 30 per cent and in some cases up to 50 per cent. A detail presentation on investment opportunities available in Pakistan was also made. Saleem H Mandviwala also informed the delegation that currently Pakistan is facing power and energy shortage. This area provides a prime opportunity for German investors to look into. - APP
Wednesday, 27 Jan, 2010
ISLAMABAD: AZUR Energy Group of Germany will set up a 50 MW Solar project in Pakistan and a feasibility report in this regard has already been formulated. This was told by a German Energy Group delegation during a visit by the Board of Investment (BOI) on Wednesday. The delegation also called on Minister of State and Chairman BOI Saleem H. Mandviwala and discussed investment opportunities in various sectors of the economy including the energy sector in Pakistan.The chairman of AZUR Energy Group of Germany said that his company has already prepared a feasibility report and a ground survey is being conducted at Multan and Bahawalpur areas and negotiations for the acquiring of land for the project is also in progress. He said that in the next step the AZUR Energy Group of Germany will bring solar energy technology in Pakistan. Speaking on the occasion, Saleem H Mandviwala said that Pakistan is an ideal location for investment in various sectors including the energy sector.
He said that Pakistan has adopted a liberal investor friendly policy, broad features of which include, proactive facilitation and guarantees of equal treatment of both local and foreign investors, easy tariff structures and a liberal regime on repatriation of profits. The minister also welcomed the German delegation and appreciated them for their interest in investing in Pakistan. He highlighted the policy parameters of investment in Pakistan. While stressing so he underlined the policy which allows 100 per cent foreign equity in the major sectors and full repatriation of profits and dividends in all the sectors.
It was further explained that the average rate of return is almost 30 per cent and in some cases up to 50 per cent. A detail presentation on investment opportunities available in Pakistan was also made. Saleem H Mandviwala also informed the delegation that currently Pakistan is facing power and energy shortage. This area provides a prime opportunity for German investors to look into. - APP
Japan to cut emissions
Adelaide Advertiser
Friday 29/1/2010 Page: 34
TOKYO: Japan has decided to participate in the Copenhagen climate agreement and pledged to cut greenhouse gas emissions, including cutting carbon dioxide, by 25% from 1990 levels by 2020. The Government added a condition that major countries participate with aggressive reduction targets. Japan plans to submit a Bill on basic measures to fight global warming.
Friday 29/1/2010 Page: 34
TOKYO: Japan has decided to participate in the Copenhagen climate agreement and pledged to cut greenhouse gas emissions, including cutting carbon dioxide, by 25% from 1990 levels by 2020. The Government added a condition that major countries participate with aggressive reduction targets. Japan plans to submit a Bill on basic measures to fight global warming.
US adds record-breaking wind capacity in 2009
www.environmental-finance.com
29 January 2010
Almost 10GW of wind energy capacity was added last year in the US, according to figures from the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA), breaking all records – and despite the global economic strife in 2009. "The US wind energy industry shattered all installation records in 2009, chalking up the Recovery Act as a historic success in creating jobs, avoiding carbon and protecting consumers," said AWEA CEO Denise Bode. "From our perspective, it's the biggest year in terms of additional capacity ever," Tim Stephure, Massachusetts-based wind energy analyst at Emerging Energy Research (EER), told Environmental Finance. "It was impressive … especially in the face of recession and one of the worst economic crises of our time."
However, he warned that similar growth may be difficult this year, with power demand still lower than before the onset of recession, making it harder for wind energy generators to secure long-term power purchase agreements with utilities. "Any federal clarity in regard to policy with renewables would help," Stephure said, such as a federal Renewable Portfolio Standard that would oblige utilities to source a certain proportion of renewable energy.
In total, 9,922MW of capacity was built, upping the country's installed capacity by 39% to just over 35,000MW, said Washington, DC-based AWEA. Texas led the way, with an additional 2,292MW installed, more than double the 905MW installed in Indiana, the second-most last year. Texas also has the most total wind energy capacity of any other state, at 9,410MW. But Stephure at the EER warned not to take the figures at face value as the collapse of the financial system in 2008 forced around 4GW-worth of projects to delay construction until last year. "That said, it was still a strong year in 2009, driven especially by policy initiatives," he said.
He noted that wind energy projects were awarded an estimated $1.89 billion of the $2.1 billion of grants given by the US Treasury last year as investment tax credits instead of production tax credits, as a way of keeping the sector afloat by providing finance up-front. Wind manufacturers have also benefited seperately from grants of $350 million, Stephure added. However, the AWEA said that investment in US wind manufacturing dropped in 2009 compared with 2008. Bode called for "long-term policy certainty and market pull" to allow that segment to grow. "The wind energy sector is seen in many jurisdictions … as a way to revive the economy," commented Stephure.
29 January 2010
Almost 10GW of wind energy capacity was added last year in the US, according to figures from the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA), breaking all records – and despite the global economic strife in 2009. "The US wind energy industry shattered all installation records in 2009, chalking up the Recovery Act as a historic success in creating jobs, avoiding carbon and protecting consumers," said AWEA CEO Denise Bode. "From our perspective, it's the biggest year in terms of additional capacity ever," Tim Stephure, Massachusetts-based wind energy analyst at Emerging Energy Research (EER), told Environmental Finance. "It was impressive … especially in the face of recession and one of the worst economic crises of our time."
However, he warned that similar growth may be difficult this year, with power demand still lower than before the onset of recession, making it harder for wind energy generators to secure long-term power purchase agreements with utilities. "Any federal clarity in regard to policy with renewables would help," Stephure said, such as a federal Renewable Portfolio Standard that would oblige utilities to source a certain proportion of renewable energy.
In total, 9,922MW of capacity was built, upping the country's installed capacity by 39% to just over 35,000MW, said Washington, DC-based AWEA. Texas led the way, with an additional 2,292MW installed, more than double the 905MW installed in Indiana, the second-most last year. Texas also has the most total wind energy capacity of any other state, at 9,410MW. But Stephure at the EER warned not to take the figures at face value as the collapse of the financial system in 2008 forced around 4GW-worth of projects to delay construction until last year. "That said, it was still a strong year in 2009, driven especially by policy initiatives," he said.
He noted that wind energy projects were awarded an estimated $1.89 billion of the $2.1 billion of grants given by the US Treasury last year as investment tax credits instead of production tax credits, as a way of keeping the sector afloat by providing finance up-front. Wind manufacturers have also benefited seperately from grants of $350 million, Stephure added. However, the AWEA said that investment in US wind manufacturing dropped in 2009 compared with 2008. Bode called for "long-term policy certainty and market pull" to allow that segment to grow. "The wind energy sector is seen in many jurisdictions … as a way to revive the economy," commented Stephure.
Ice Energy rolling out utility-scale project
www.ncbr.com
January 27, 2010
WINDSOR - Ice Energy's energy storage technology will be rolled out in Southern California in what the partners are calling the first cost-effective, utility-scale distributed energy project in the nation. The Southern California Public Power Authority entered into an agreement with Windsor-based Ice Energy on the 53-MW project. Ice Energy's Ice Bear energy storage system shifts demand on the electrical grid from air conditioning units from peak to off-peak hours. In simple terms, energy generation during off-peak, evening hours is more efficient due to lower temperatures and reduced transmission line-stress.
SCPPA is a joint powers authority consisting of 11 municipal utilities with about 2 million customers in an area of 7,000 square miles. Citi Investment Researches covered under the authority include Anaheim, Burbank, Los Angeles and Pasadena. The installation will start in the first half of the year and take about two years to complete. It will include more than 5,000 Ice Bear units deployed on about 1,500 commercial and public buildings.
"Ice Energy's solution is a convenient and cost-effective solution for managing peak demand and aligns perfectly with our Smart Grid initiatives, enabling our member utilities to deliver reliable, competitively priced electric service to their customers in a sustainable, environmentally-sensitive manner," said Bill Carnahan, executive director of SCPPA, in a prepared statement. "By using storage to change how and more importantly when energy is consumed by air conditioning, we can offset enough peak demand in the region to serve the equivalent of 10,000 homes."
The units will be manufactured at the Windsor facility and also at another domestic site that has yet to be disclosed. The company most recently reported 55 employees. The impact of the California deployment on that number is a "moving target," according to a company spokesman. A fact sheet about the project states that about 300 new jobs will be created by the project. Ice Energy is in discussions with other utilities and is participating in testing programs.
January 27, 2010
WINDSOR - Ice Energy's energy storage technology will be rolled out in Southern California in what the partners are calling the first cost-effective, utility-scale distributed energy project in the nation. The Southern California Public Power Authority entered into an agreement with Windsor-based Ice Energy on the 53-MW project. Ice Energy's Ice Bear energy storage system shifts demand on the electrical grid from air conditioning units from peak to off-peak hours. In simple terms, energy generation during off-peak, evening hours is more efficient due to lower temperatures and reduced transmission line-stress.
SCPPA is a joint powers authority consisting of 11 municipal utilities with about 2 million customers in an area of 7,000 square miles. Citi Investment Researches covered under the authority include Anaheim, Burbank, Los Angeles and Pasadena. The installation will start in the first half of the year and take about two years to complete. It will include more than 5,000 Ice Bear units deployed on about 1,500 commercial and public buildings.
"Ice Energy's solution is a convenient and cost-effective solution for managing peak demand and aligns perfectly with our Smart Grid initiatives, enabling our member utilities to deliver reliable, competitively priced electric service to their customers in a sustainable, environmentally-sensitive manner," said Bill Carnahan, executive director of SCPPA, in a prepared statement. "By using storage to change how and more importantly when energy is consumed by air conditioning, we can offset enough peak demand in the region to serve the equivalent of 10,000 homes."
The units will be manufactured at the Windsor facility and also at another domestic site that has yet to be disclosed. The company most recently reported 55 employees. The impact of the California deployment on that number is a "moving target," according to a company spokesman. A fact sheet about the project states that about 300 new jobs will be created by the project. Ice Energy is in discussions with other utilities and is participating in testing programs.
Bid to win $100m in green power funding
news.smh.com.au
January 28, 2010
A Queensland consortium has been launched to bid for $100 million in federal funding for solar energy pilot projects. The consortium includes the Queensland government, energy companies Ergon Energy and Energex, the CSIRO, universities and Korean government-owned electricity giant KEPCO. Energy Minister Stephen Robertson said two key parts of the bid include a solar thermal storage technology pilot project, which captures heat from the sun and stores it for future electricity generation, and a trial of fitting solar photovoltaics to the power grid.
The Queensland Smart Communities bid proposes to build a large scale demonstration Smart Grid-Smart City project in Townsville, with several standalone projects at Zillmere in Brisbane's north and Toowoomba. Mr Robertson said KEPCO's involvement could create green business opportunities in Asia. The federal government will announce the winning bid of its National Energy Efficiency Initiative in April, with funds to be released in July 2010.
January 28, 2010
A Queensland consortium has been launched to bid for $100 million in federal funding for solar energy pilot projects. The consortium includes the Queensland government, energy companies Ergon Energy and Energex, the CSIRO, universities and Korean government-owned electricity giant KEPCO. Energy Minister Stephen Robertson said two key parts of the bid include a solar thermal storage technology pilot project, which captures heat from the sun and stores it for future electricity generation, and a trial of fitting solar photovoltaics to the power grid.
The Queensland Smart Communities bid proposes to build a large scale demonstration Smart Grid-Smart City project in Townsville, with several standalone projects at Zillmere in Brisbane's north and Toowoomba. Mr Robertson said KEPCO's involvement could create green business opportunities in Asia. The federal government will announce the winning bid of its National Energy Efficiency Initiative in April, with funds to be released in July 2010.
Spanish company plans New Mexico solar plant
www.washingtonpost.com
January 27, 2010
SANTA FE, N.M. -- A Spanish company plans to invest $1 billion to build a large solar energy production plant in New Mexico. Gov. Bill Richardson joined Wednesday with executives of GA-Solar and its parent company, Gestamp Corp., to announce the photovoltaic solar plant. It will cover 2,500 acres near Santa Rosa in eastern New Mexico. The plant will take four years to complete and will produce 300 MWs of electricity, enough to supply power to 50,000 households a year. The project will employ 300 construction workers and provide 75 permanent jobs. Power produced by the plant will qualify for state tax breaks for renewable energy. Madrid-based Gestamp Corp is a multinational company producing automotive and steel components and has renewable energy projects.
January 27, 2010
SANTA FE, N.M. -- A Spanish company plans to invest $1 billion to build a large solar energy production plant in New Mexico. Gov. Bill Richardson joined Wednesday with executives of GA-Solar and its parent company, Gestamp Corp., to announce the photovoltaic solar plant. It will cover 2,500 acres near Santa Rosa in eastern New Mexico. The plant will take four years to complete and will produce 300 MWs of electricity, enough to supply power to 50,000 households a year. The project will employ 300 construction workers and provide 75 permanent jobs. Power produced by the plant will qualify for state tax breaks for renewable energy. Madrid-based Gestamp Corp is a multinational company producing automotive and steel components and has renewable energy projects.
Friday, 29 January 2010
Archimede starts work on solar receiver plant
www.rechargenews.com
January 26 2010
Archimede Solar Energy has started construction of its new solar receiver manufacturing plant in the Italian town of Massa Martana in Umbria. Archimede is a joint venture between Angelantoni Industrie Spa and Siemens Energy, in which Siemens holds 28%. The plant will have a production capacity of around 75,000 solar receivers from 2011, which will later be increased to 140,000 tubes per year. The solar recievers will use molten salt as heat transfer medium instead of thermo oil. Siemens believes that the technology will allow a significant improvement in the efficiency of solar thermal plants using parabolic trough technology.
"Siemens has the broadest portfolio in the promising concentrated solar energy business," says René Umlauft, CEO of the Siemens´ Renewable Energy Division. "We can offer about 70% of the components of a solar thermal power plant as well as EPC solutions. In the future Siemens can offer two receiver technologies using either thermo oil or molten salt depending on customer requirements." "The new plant," said Federica Angelantoni, CEO of Archimede Solar Energy, "gives us the opportunity to supply large volumes of high temperature receivers for the use of molten salt. These tubes can reach a temperature of up to 550° Celsius."
The first commercial plant using the technology is under construction in Sicily, and is expected to be operation in the early summer of 2010. Siemens predicts that the market for solar thermal power plants will show annual double-digit growth rates and reach a value of over €20 billion by 2020, with the U.S., South Africa, Australia, Spain, Israel, India, North Africa and the Middle East constituting the primary growth regions.
January 26 2010
Archimede Solar Energy has started construction of its new solar receiver manufacturing plant in the Italian town of Massa Martana in Umbria. Archimede is a joint venture between Angelantoni Industrie Spa and Siemens Energy, in which Siemens holds 28%. The plant will have a production capacity of around 75,000 solar receivers from 2011, which will later be increased to 140,000 tubes per year. The solar recievers will use molten salt as heat transfer medium instead of thermo oil. Siemens believes that the technology will allow a significant improvement in the efficiency of solar thermal plants using parabolic trough technology."Siemens has the broadest portfolio in the promising concentrated solar energy business," says René Umlauft, CEO of the Siemens´ Renewable Energy Division. "We can offer about 70% of the components of a solar thermal power plant as well as EPC solutions. In the future Siemens can offer two receiver technologies using either thermo oil or molten salt depending on customer requirements." "The new plant," said Federica Angelantoni, CEO of Archimede Solar Energy, "gives us the opportunity to supply large volumes of high temperature receivers for the use of molten salt. These tubes can reach a temperature of up to 550° Celsius."
The first commercial plant using the technology is under construction in Sicily, and is expected to be operation in the early summer of 2010. Siemens predicts that the market for solar thermal power plants will show annual double-digit growth rates and reach a value of over €20 billion by 2020, with the U.S., South Africa, Australia, Spain, Israel, India, North Africa and the Middle East constituting the primary growth regions.
$300 cost for meter to measure solar feed
Sydney Morning Herald
Thursday 28/1/2010 Page: 3
THOUSANDS of people with solar panels will have to pay an extra $300 to get a new meter installed in their home to access the state's new solar feed-in tariff, eating up most of their annual return. But meters capable of measuring how much power a household feeds back into the electricity grid will not be available until next month, EnergyAustralia said, despite the scheme starting on January 1. From July, power companies must pay people the full rate of 60 cents per kW hour to comply with the solar tariff legislation, the Government said.
EnergyAustralia, the largest distributor in NSW, said it would provide the new meters free but people would not start receiving their solar tariff money until they are installed at the customer's expense. You need the gross meter to be paid under the gross system," a spokesman, Anthony O'Brien, said. "However, we don't anticipate that anyone will be in that scenario as long as they take the right steps to talk to a licensed electrician and have the meter installed."
The new metering equipment had to be imported, leading to the delay. "We will have meters that have been configured for the gross payment in stock from mid-to late February," Mr O'Brien said. "As soon as customers have those meters installed we will be able to pay them 60 cents gross from that date. We've been working hard to whittle the transitional time down to enable the customer to get the maximum benefit."
Many solar panel customers have contacted the Herald saying that the delay in switching to the gross tariff is costing them money. "I tried in December to get a meter so I could start measuring it, but the people in the industry knew nothing about it," said Michael Mobbs, who has a six kW solar panel system fitted on his Chippendale home. "I've been to a couple of energy providers and nobody can get any meters - apparently they're expected some time before June."
Mr Mobbs has a two-way meter, allowing him to take advantage of the transitional net tariff, but has calculated - based on his power consumption - that he will lose $385 in the transitional period before July, not including the cost of getting the meter installed to measure the gross tariff. solar panel installation companies the Herald spoke to said people were holding off from investing in rooftop panels until after July. The NSW Greens said the scheme should have featured gross tariff payments from the January 1 start date. The Greens MP, John Kaye, said the first six months of the NSW Government's Solar Bonus Scheme will mean solar households will be stuck on a far lower paying tariff plan.
The NSW Government's incompetence will cost the renewable energy sector as households delay taking up the scheme until the full gross tariff starts in July." The Government introduced the gross feed-in tariff scheme in November, saying it could mean households earn up to $500 a year from the renewable power they generate. The NSW Government said this month that it would move to close a loophole by which electricity utilities could keep crediting customers' bills, until they changed energy providers, instead of paying there in cash.
Thursday 28/1/2010 Page: 3
THOUSANDS of people with solar panels will have to pay an extra $300 to get a new meter installed in their home to access the state's new solar feed-in tariff, eating up most of their annual return. But meters capable of measuring how much power a household feeds back into the electricity grid will not be available until next month, EnergyAustralia said, despite the scheme starting on January 1. From July, power companies must pay people the full rate of 60 cents per kW hour to comply with the solar tariff legislation, the Government said.
EnergyAustralia, the largest distributor in NSW, said it would provide the new meters free but people would not start receiving their solar tariff money until they are installed at the customer's expense. You need the gross meter to be paid under the gross system," a spokesman, Anthony O'Brien, said. "However, we don't anticipate that anyone will be in that scenario as long as they take the right steps to talk to a licensed electrician and have the meter installed."
The new metering equipment had to be imported, leading to the delay. "We will have meters that have been configured for the gross payment in stock from mid-to late February," Mr O'Brien said. "As soon as customers have those meters installed we will be able to pay them 60 cents gross from that date. We've been working hard to whittle the transitional time down to enable the customer to get the maximum benefit."
Many solar panel customers have contacted the Herald saying that the delay in switching to the gross tariff is costing them money. "I tried in December to get a meter so I could start measuring it, but the people in the industry knew nothing about it," said Michael Mobbs, who has a six kW solar panel system fitted on his Chippendale home. "I've been to a couple of energy providers and nobody can get any meters - apparently they're expected some time before June."
Mr Mobbs has a two-way meter, allowing him to take advantage of the transitional net tariff, but has calculated - based on his power consumption - that he will lose $385 in the transitional period before July, not including the cost of getting the meter installed to measure the gross tariff. solar panel installation companies the Herald spoke to said people were holding off from investing in rooftop panels until after July. The NSW Greens said the scheme should have featured gross tariff payments from the January 1 start date. The Greens MP, John Kaye, said the first six months of the NSW Government's Solar Bonus Scheme will mean solar households will be stuck on a far lower paying tariff plan.
The NSW Government's incompetence will cost the renewable energy sector as households delay taking up the scheme until the full gross tariff starts in July." The Government introduced the gross feed-in tariff scheme in November, saying it could mean households earn up to $500 a year from the renewable power they generate. The NSW Government said this month that it would move to close a loophole by which electricity utilities could keep crediting customers' bills, until they changed energy providers, instead of paying there in cash.
Meridian wind farm in Waiouru gets green light
tvnz.co.nz
January 27, 2010
A controversial windfarm project in the central North Island has been given the go ahead by the Environment Court. The Meridian Energy project will see 52 wind turbines erected between Waiouru and Taihape across five privately owned rural properties. Many local residents and tourist operators opposed the project, saying it is on the edge of a national park and would ruin the wilderness experience.
But the Environment Court ruled that the windfarm would not have significant adverse effects on outstanding and significant landscapes, and that it was unlikely to diminish tourism or recreational opportunities in the area. Meridian Energy CEO Tim Lusk welcomed the decision saying the windfarm - which will generate enough energy to power up to 50,000 households - would contribute to the security of electricity supply in the North Island in a clean and renewable way. The Environment Court decision can be appealed in the High Court on points of law.
January 27, 2010
A controversial windfarm project in the central North Island has been given the go ahead by the Environment Court. The Meridian Energy project will see 52 wind turbines erected between Waiouru and Taihape across five privately owned rural properties. Many local residents and tourist operators opposed the project, saying it is on the edge of a national park and would ruin the wilderness experience.
But the Environment Court ruled that the windfarm would not have significant adverse effects on outstanding and significant landscapes, and that it was unlikely to diminish tourism or recreational opportunities in the area. Meridian Energy CEO Tim Lusk welcomed the decision saying the windfarm - which will generate enough energy to power up to 50,000 households - would contribute to the security of electricity supply in the North Island in a clean and renewable way. The Environment Court decision can be appealed in the High Court on points of law.
Thursday, 28 January 2010
Power from down under
www.physorg.com
January 26, 2010
Grants recently awarded to MIT researchers by the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) could help to pave the way for a method of generating electricity that produces no greenhouse gas emissions, and that could become a major contributor to meeting the world's energy needs.
Most energy analysts agree that geothermal energy - tapping the heat of bedrock deep underground to generate electricity - has enormous potential because it is available all the time, almost anywhere on Earth, and there is enough of it available, in theory, to supply all of the world's energy needs for many centuries. But there are still some unanswered questions about it that require further research. DoE last year awarded $336 million in grants to help resolve the remaining uncertainties, and three of those grants, totaling more than $2 million, went to MIT researchers.
Everywhere on Earth, a few miles below the surface, the bedrock is hot, and the deeper you go the hotter it gets. In some places, water heated by this hot rock comes naturally to the surface or close to it, where it can be easily tapped to drive a turbine and generate electricity.
But where naturally heated water is not available at or near the surface, this process can be recreated by drilling one very deep well to inject water into the ground, and another well nearby to pump that water back to the surface after it has been heated by passing through cracks in the hot rock. Such systems are known as Engineered Geothermal Systems, or EGS.
A 2006 report by an 18-member team led by MIT Professor Jefferson Tester (now emeritus, and working at Cornell University) found that more than 2,000 times the total annual energy use of the United States could be supplied, using existing technology, from EGS systems, and perhaps 10 times as much with improved technology.
Tracking cracks
Herbert Einstein, professor of civil and environmental engineering, was the recipient of one of the new DoE grants. Einstein studies fracturing in rocks, which is crucial in creating a new EGS site: After drilling the necessary wells, water must be pumped into one of them under very high pressure to create a network of fractures in the deep rock to allow the water to move from the injection well to the extraction well. But exactly how that process works at different depths and in different types of rock is not yet well understood.
Einstein is developing computer programs that can aid in the evaluation of geothermal sites, assessing both the potential power output and any potential risks, such as the triggering of seismic activity. Such triggering has already resulted in the premature closing two years ago of one test installation, in Basel, Switzerland, after some minor earthquakes (the largest being magnitude 3.4) were felt in the area. The planned software is based on programs Einstein has developed to assess proposed tunnel sites and landslide risks. "What these decision tools do is allow you to consider the uncertainties, of which there are a lot," he says.
As is the case with tunnel construction, a great deal of the uncertainty with EGS has to do with the kind of rock encountered in the drilling and how that rock will fracture under pressure. Einstein's software will be adapted to address the higher pressures encountered in the very deep boreholes needed for geothermal fields. Einstein suggests that the risks from seismic triggering are largely sociological, because the events seen so far, at least, are too small to produce any real damage.
"I think that's a red herring," agrees Professor of Geophysics M. Nafi Toksoz, another DoE geothermal grant recipient, referring to the issue of induced earthquakes. "We know that every time we drill into the Earth, we alter the state of the stress in the rock." As a result, small earthquakes do occur regularly near oil and gas wells, deep mine shafts for coal or minerals, and even from the pressure of water when a reservoir fills up behind a new dam. "Wherever there are existing faults, they will induce mostly minor quakes."
Toksoz's grant (with research scientists Michael Fehler and Haijian Zhang of MIT's Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences as collaborators) will fund research at a test EGS installations in Utah, Nevada and California to develop ways of detecting and analyzing the fractures that form in the deep rock and how water actually flows through them.
"Enhanced or Engineered Geothermal Systems (EGS) can be a enormous contributor to the world's renewable energy portfolio," says Curt Robinson, executive director of the Geothermal Resources Council in Davis, Calif., a nonprofit educational group. He says EGS could play a significant role in meeting energy needs if there are better ways of analyzing potential sites to improve the odds of success; government policies to create a favorable business climate for investors; and better technologies for identifying good sites and for lower-cost drilling under high-temperature conditions.
Einstein says geothermal electricity has the potential to take the place of essentially all stationary (that is, not transportation-related) power sources. "Basically, you could replace everything that's around," including the "baseload" power plants that can operate at any time, unlike sources such as solar or wind energy. "So that's certainly very promising," he says. "It's not completely infinite, but for all practical purposes it is."
Probing underground
One of the remaining questions in practice is whether an EGS plant will lose efficiency over time, as minerals carried by the water begin to clog up the cracks in the deep rock. While test plants have been operated in the United States and elsewhere for limited amounts of time, there has not yet been such a plant that has operated over a span of years, so "we don't know how long these things will work at their maximum output," Einstein says, and if their performance begins to drop, "can you restimulate the well?" to get it back to original levels. These questions require further research.
Seismologist Fehler, recipient of another of the DoE grants, uses small earthquakes as a tool: Like ultrasound used to get images inside the body, the natural vibrations from small earthquakes can be used as a way to probe the subsurface to understand how water is moving deep below the ground. "It's a remote-sensing tool," he says.
This is similar to a method used in oil exploration, where the subsurface is analyzed by measuring the way vibrations from explosions or surface "thumpers" are distributed through the soil and rock below. An array of microphones or micro-seismometers picks up the vibrations at various points, and computers then reconstruct an image of the subsurface from the relative timing of the vibrations from the source to the receiver.
At most geothermal installations built so far, Fehler says, earthquakes have been so small that "you can record them, but you don't feel anything at the surface." But seismic triggering is an issue because it has affected companies' ability to continue operations because of social, economic and political factors, he says. "We have to figure out how to try to control it," he says, mostly by choosing sites carefully, away from population centers. The U.S. Department of Energy is holding a workshop on that question in February.
The basic principles have been demonstrated. "We know it can be done," Toksoz says. "But quite a lot of technology still needs to be proven in terms of commercial feasibility." The remaining questions are essentially economic and engineering ones related to the costs and difficulties of deep drilling, not basic technology, he says.
January 26, 2010
Grants recently awarded to MIT researchers by the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) could help to pave the way for a method of generating electricity that produces no greenhouse gas emissions, and that could become a major contributor to meeting the world's energy needs.Most energy analysts agree that geothermal energy - tapping the heat of bedrock deep underground to generate electricity - has enormous potential because it is available all the time, almost anywhere on Earth, and there is enough of it available, in theory, to supply all of the world's energy needs for many centuries. But there are still some unanswered questions about it that require further research. DoE last year awarded $336 million in grants to help resolve the remaining uncertainties, and three of those grants, totaling more than $2 million, went to MIT researchers.
Everywhere on Earth, a few miles below the surface, the bedrock is hot, and the deeper you go the hotter it gets. In some places, water heated by this hot rock comes naturally to the surface or close to it, where it can be easily tapped to drive a turbine and generate electricity.
But where naturally heated water is not available at or near the surface, this process can be recreated by drilling one very deep well to inject water into the ground, and another well nearby to pump that water back to the surface after it has been heated by passing through cracks in the hot rock. Such systems are known as Engineered Geothermal Systems, or EGS.
A 2006 report by an 18-member team led by MIT Professor Jefferson Tester (now emeritus, and working at Cornell University) found that more than 2,000 times the total annual energy use of the United States could be supplied, using existing technology, from EGS systems, and perhaps 10 times as much with improved technology.
Tracking cracks
Herbert Einstein, professor of civil and environmental engineering, was the recipient of one of the new DoE grants. Einstein studies fracturing in rocks, which is crucial in creating a new EGS site: After drilling the necessary wells, water must be pumped into one of them under very high pressure to create a network of fractures in the deep rock to allow the water to move from the injection well to the extraction well. But exactly how that process works at different depths and in different types of rock is not yet well understood.
Einstein is developing computer programs that can aid in the evaluation of geothermal sites, assessing both the potential power output and any potential risks, such as the triggering of seismic activity. Such triggering has already resulted in the premature closing two years ago of one test installation, in Basel, Switzerland, after some minor earthquakes (the largest being magnitude 3.4) were felt in the area. The planned software is based on programs Einstein has developed to assess proposed tunnel sites and landslide risks. "What these decision tools do is allow you to consider the uncertainties, of which there are a lot," he says.
As is the case with tunnel construction, a great deal of the uncertainty with EGS has to do with the kind of rock encountered in the drilling and how that rock will fracture under pressure. Einstein's software will be adapted to address the higher pressures encountered in the very deep boreholes needed for geothermal fields. Einstein suggests that the risks from seismic triggering are largely sociological, because the events seen so far, at least, are too small to produce any real damage.
"I think that's a red herring," agrees Professor of Geophysics M. Nafi Toksoz, another DoE geothermal grant recipient, referring to the issue of induced earthquakes. "We know that every time we drill into the Earth, we alter the state of the stress in the rock." As a result, small earthquakes do occur regularly near oil and gas wells, deep mine shafts for coal or minerals, and even from the pressure of water when a reservoir fills up behind a new dam. "Wherever there are existing faults, they will induce mostly minor quakes."
Toksoz's grant (with research scientists Michael Fehler and Haijian Zhang of MIT's Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences as collaborators) will fund research at a test EGS installations in Utah, Nevada and California to develop ways of detecting and analyzing the fractures that form in the deep rock and how water actually flows through them.
"Enhanced or Engineered Geothermal Systems (EGS) can be a enormous contributor to the world's renewable energy portfolio," says Curt Robinson, executive director of the Geothermal Resources Council in Davis, Calif., a nonprofit educational group. He says EGS could play a significant role in meeting energy needs if there are better ways of analyzing potential sites to improve the odds of success; government policies to create a favorable business climate for investors; and better technologies for identifying good sites and for lower-cost drilling under high-temperature conditions.
Einstein says geothermal electricity has the potential to take the place of essentially all stationary (that is, not transportation-related) power sources. "Basically, you could replace everything that's around," including the "baseload" power plants that can operate at any time, unlike sources such as solar or wind energy. "So that's certainly very promising," he says. "It's not completely infinite, but for all practical purposes it is."
Probing underground
One of the remaining questions in practice is whether an EGS plant will lose efficiency over time, as minerals carried by the water begin to clog up the cracks in the deep rock. While test plants have been operated in the United States and elsewhere for limited amounts of time, there has not yet been such a plant that has operated over a span of years, so "we don't know how long these things will work at their maximum output," Einstein says, and if their performance begins to drop, "can you restimulate the well?" to get it back to original levels. These questions require further research.
Seismologist Fehler, recipient of another of the DoE grants, uses small earthquakes as a tool: Like ultrasound used to get images inside the body, the natural vibrations from small earthquakes can be used as a way to probe the subsurface to understand how water is moving deep below the ground. "It's a remote-sensing tool," he says.
This is similar to a method used in oil exploration, where the subsurface is analyzed by measuring the way vibrations from explosions or surface "thumpers" are distributed through the soil and rock below. An array of microphones or micro-seismometers picks up the vibrations at various points, and computers then reconstruct an image of the subsurface from the relative timing of the vibrations from the source to the receiver.
At most geothermal installations built so far, Fehler says, earthquakes have been so small that "you can record them, but you don't feel anything at the surface." But seismic triggering is an issue because it has affected companies' ability to continue operations because of social, economic and political factors, he says. "We have to figure out how to try to control it," he says, mostly by choosing sites carefully, away from population centers. The U.S. Department of Energy is holding a workshop on that question in February.
The basic principles have been demonstrated. "We know it can be done," Toksoz says. "But quite a lot of technology still needs to be proven in terms of commercial feasibility." The remaining questions are essentially economic and engineering ones related to the costs and difficulties of deep drilling, not basic technology, he says.
Coalition, Greens talk alternative power
Australian
Wednesday 27/1/2010 Page: 5
Kevin Rudd could be forced to redraft renewable energy targets, because the Australian Greens and the Coalition are considering joining forces to boost incentives for commercial development of alternative power sources. The Greens climate change spokeswoman, Christine Milne, will announce today plans for a private member's bill to prevent the government from counting solar hot water systems and solar cells on roofs in accounting for its target of 20% renewable energy use by 2020.
Senator Milne will argue that the accounting system has stymied the development of commercial-scale renewable energy projects, leading to a collapse in the price of renewable energy certificates and undermining potential for development of large-scale commercial alternative energy projects. Coalition climate action spokesman Greg Hunt backed the move, saying he was prepared to talk with the Greens because the development of alternative energy sources was crucial to addressing climate change.
The comments came as Tony Abbott began finalising his plan to reduce emissions using practical measures rather than a market based scheme such as Labor's proposed emissions trading scheme. They followed former government adviser Ross Garnaut who said the government must press on with a market based scheme. Late last year, the country's biggest renewable energy company, AGL Energy, said it would not invest in alternative energy forms until the government addressed a 50% collapse in the price of certificates issued to companies and households that produced renewable energy.
The Greens hope talks with the Coalition will find common ground. Senator Milne said under her bill, hot-water systems and solar cells would attract renewable energy certificates but would not count towards the 20% renewable energy target. "This would ensure that the technologies are supported, but do not crowd out large-scale renewable energy," she said. "This is not the perfect policy, but it is an achievable way to fix this problem quickly."
Mr Hunt said the Coalition was keen to talk to the Greens but it could not make firm commitments. "We moved an amendment to ensure there was space for the solar, geothermal and tidal power projects within this target," he said. "Alternative energy industries are being stymied by pigheadedness." Professor Garnaut said yesterday he still favoured an ETS with a fixed price.
Wednesday 27/1/2010 Page: 5
Kevin Rudd could be forced to redraft renewable energy targets, because the Australian Greens and the Coalition are considering joining forces to boost incentives for commercial development of alternative power sources. The Greens climate change spokeswoman, Christine Milne, will announce today plans for a private member's bill to prevent the government from counting solar hot water systems and solar cells on roofs in accounting for its target of 20% renewable energy use by 2020.
Senator Milne will argue that the accounting system has stymied the development of commercial-scale renewable energy projects, leading to a collapse in the price of renewable energy certificates and undermining potential for development of large-scale commercial alternative energy projects. Coalition climate action spokesman Greg Hunt backed the move, saying he was prepared to talk with the Greens because the development of alternative energy sources was crucial to addressing climate change.
The comments came as Tony Abbott began finalising his plan to reduce emissions using practical measures rather than a market based scheme such as Labor's proposed emissions trading scheme. They followed former government adviser Ross Garnaut who said the government must press on with a market based scheme. Late last year, the country's biggest renewable energy company, AGL Energy, said it would not invest in alternative energy forms until the government addressed a 50% collapse in the price of certificates issued to companies and households that produced renewable energy.
The Greens hope talks with the Coalition will find common ground. Senator Milne said under her bill, hot-water systems and solar cells would attract renewable energy certificates but would not count towards the 20% renewable energy target. "This would ensure that the technologies are supported, but do not crowd out large-scale renewable energy," she said. "This is not the perfect policy, but it is an achievable way to fix this problem quickly."
Mr Hunt said the Coalition was keen to talk to the Greens but it could not make firm commitments. "We moved an amendment to ensure there was space for the solar, geothermal and tidal power projects within this target," he said. "Alternative energy industries are being stymied by pigheadedness." Professor Garnaut said yesterday he still favoured an ETS with a fixed price.
Wednesday, 27 January 2010
Solar-driven Stirling engines get to work
news.cnet.com
January 22, 2010
Business and government officials on Friday cut the ribbon on a solar array in Arizona that uses giant parabolic dishes to generate electricity from the sun. Solar plant developer Tessera Solar installed 60 solar collectors, called the SunCatcher from Stirling Energy Systems, in Peoria, Ariz. Each dish is rated at 25 kWs and the entire facility will have a capacity of 1.5-MWs of generation.
Utilities installing large-scale solar energy generation are typically using arrays of flat photovoltaic panels or concentrating solar energy systems, where mirrors or reflective troughs create heat to make electricity. The Stirling Energy Systems technology also captures heat by using a mirrored parabolic dish that moves to track the sun. But instead of heating a liquid to make steam for a turbine, the heat is directed at a hydrogen gas-filled piston, which drives a Stirling engine to make electricity.
The company claims its technology delivers electricity more efficiently and uses less water than other technologies. Inifinia is another company that has built a solar energyed Stirling engine using a parabolic dish, although it is smaller. Tessera Solar said that it has contracts to install as much as 1,600 MWs' worth of capacity in California and Texas.
January 22, 2010
Business and government officials on Friday cut the ribbon on a solar array in Arizona that uses giant parabolic dishes to generate electricity from the sun. Solar plant developer Tessera Solar installed 60 solar collectors, called the SunCatcher from Stirling Energy Systems, in Peoria, Ariz. Each dish is rated at 25 kWs and the entire facility will have a capacity of 1.5-MWs of generation.Utilities installing large-scale solar energy generation are typically using arrays of flat photovoltaic panels or concentrating solar energy systems, where mirrors or reflective troughs create heat to make electricity. The Stirling Energy Systems technology also captures heat by using a mirrored parabolic dish that moves to track the sun. But instead of heating a liquid to make steam for a turbine, the heat is directed at a hydrogen gas-filled piston, which drives a Stirling engine to make electricity.
The company claims its technology delivers electricity more efficiently and uses less water than other technologies. Inifinia is another company that has built a solar energyed Stirling engine using a parabolic dish, although it is smaller. Tessera Solar said that it has contracts to install as much as 1,600 MWs' worth of capacity in California and Texas.
NY air base to get solar energy farm
www.wcax.com
January 25, 2010
NEWBURGH, N.Y. (AP) - Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) says a new solar energy farm at Stewart Air National Guard Base will serve as a model for other military installations and demonstrate that solar panels are a cost-effective energy source. The project, to be built this year, is funded by a $4 million federal investment under the 2010 Defense Appropriations bill.
Congress and the Pentagon have set new requirements that each branch of the military must purchase or generate at least 25% of the energy they consume from renewable sources by 2025. The Stewart Air National Guard base solar farm will be constructed by The Solar Energy Consortium using Applied Materials thin-film solar photovoltaics technology. It's expected to generate the amount of electricity used by 100 homes.
January 25, 2010
NEWBURGH, N.Y. (AP) - Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) says a new solar energy farm at Stewart Air National Guard Base will serve as a model for other military installations and demonstrate that solar panels are a cost-effective energy source. The project, to be built this year, is funded by a $4 million federal investment under the 2010 Defense Appropriations bill.
Congress and the Pentagon have set new requirements that each branch of the military must purchase or generate at least 25% of the energy they consume from renewable sources by 2025. The Stewart Air National Guard base solar farm will be constructed by The Solar Energy Consortium using Applied Materials thin-film solar photovoltaics technology. It's expected to generate the amount of electricity used by 100 homes.
Premier re-emphasises King Island commitment
Sunday Tasmanian
Sunday 24/1/2010 Page: 4
PREMIER David Bartlett has continued his love affair with King Island, flying in, media in tow, for his third visit to the Bass Strait Island in 10 months. Declaring it "was good to be back", the campaigning Premier opened his bag of goodies. He re-announced $800,000 for the island's school, promised to rebuild the senior citizens club that was damaged by fire last year and reopened the Naracoopa Jetty, made safe by a $700,000 upgrade funded by the State Government. "This Labor Government is a government that generally cares about all areas of Tasmania, whether they be the Bass Strait Islands or regional areas of our community." Mr Bartlett said.
He used the trip to tell voters the Government's renewable energy board had recommended the Government commit $21 million to boost green energy on the Bass Strait Islands. The plan would involve Hydro building new solar, wind and biodiesel energy-generation facilities on the Islands to enhance their clean green images. Mr Bartlett said the Government would "consider" funding the plan in the coming weeks. "Tasmania has the strongest knowledge in wind and water energy anywhere in South-East Asia," he said. "Under this proposal, Tasmania will become a global leader, with the Bass Strait Islands the focal point." Mr Bartlett's past two trips to the North-West Island of 1600 people have involved the abattoir, which has stayed open because of a $12 million government loan to the operator, the world's biggest meat company, JBS Swift.
Sunday 24/1/2010 Page: 4
PREMIER David Bartlett has continued his love affair with King Island, flying in, media in tow, for his third visit to the Bass Strait Island in 10 months. Declaring it "was good to be back", the campaigning Premier opened his bag of goodies. He re-announced $800,000 for the island's school, promised to rebuild the senior citizens club that was damaged by fire last year and reopened the Naracoopa Jetty, made safe by a $700,000 upgrade funded by the State Government. "This Labor Government is a government that generally cares about all areas of Tasmania, whether they be the Bass Strait Islands or regional areas of our community." Mr Bartlett said.
He used the trip to tell voters the Government's renewable energy board had recommended the Government commit $21 million to boost green energy on the Bass Strait Islands. The plan would involve Hydro building new solar, wind and biodiesel energy-generation facilities on the Islands to enhance their clean green images. Mr Bartlett said the Government would "consider" funding the plan in the coming weeks. "Tasmania has the strongest knowledge in wind and water energy anywhere in South-East Asia," he said. "Under this proposal, Tasmania will become a global leader, with the Bass Strait Islands the focal point." Mr Bartlett's past two trips to the North-West Island of 1600 people have involved the abattoir, which has stayed open because of a $12 million government loan to the operator, the world's biggest meat company, JBS Swift.
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