Second power plant on way for Tallawarra

Sydney Morning Herald
15 January 2011, Page: 5

THE chances of a power shortfall in NSW are set recede further with Hong Kong-backed TRUEnergy receiving the green light to build a second power station at Tallawarra, Wollongong, of up to 450MWs. The state government gave planning approval yesterday for the second-stage expansion of the station to proceed. TRUEnergy, the local unit of China Light and Power, is yet to make a final decision on the parameters of the plant.

It is studying either a 400MW combined-cycle gas-fired power station costing $330 million, or two or three 150MW units totalling 300MW-450MW of an open-cycle gas-fired station costing a more modest $200 million.

A combined-cycle unit is cheaper to operate and is typically used for extensive periods as either a baseload or intermediate load power station. An open-cycle unit is cheaper to build but more expensive to operate and is used as a "peaking" power station, to take advantage of surges in wholesale electricity prices.

Given the location, it is more likely that a combined-cycle station will be developed. TRUEnergy already operates the 400MW combined-cycle Tallawarra A unit on the site, which previously hosted a coal-fired power station.

"A final investment decision on the timing for a new power station development and the type of development will depend on a number of factors, including a study into the future electricity demand of our customers and the energy market in NSW, and policy settings such as any carbon price signal", TRUEnergy's director operations and construction, Michael Hutchinson, said.

Last month, TRUEnergy agreed to pay an estimated $1.5 billion for the largest electricity retailer in NSW, EnergyAustralia, and $500 million for the right to output from two power stations near Lithgow operated by Delta Energy, the Wallerawang power station and Mount Piper power station, as well as buying sites for power stations at Mount Piper and Marulan, south-west of Sydney.

TRUEnergy is planning to raise funds locally by listing on the stock exchange, although the timing and the amount to be raised are unclear. It needs to pay $2 billion to the NSW government on March 1 for the acquisitions, and is committed to investing up to another $330 million for the Tallawarra expansion. The increased role of wind power in the national electricity market is boosting demand for peaker units, which supply power when wind units are becalmed.

Tallawarra sources its gas via the eastern gas pipeline, owned and operated by Singapore Power's local unit, Jemena. The pipeline capacity was raised last year to 98 petajoules annually, and planning for a rise to 121 petajoules is under way. Last year, the Australian Energy Market Operator forecast NSW faced shortages by 2016/17 without additional generation capacity. It would take about three years to build the Tallawarra B station.

Wind farm, heart attack link (beat-up)

Herald Sun
17 January 2011, Page: 21

PEOPLE who live close to wind farms at Cape Bridgewater and Cape Nelson may need to begin monitoring their blood pressure, according to South Australian doctor Sarah Laurie. Dr Laurie said there was a link between early morning high blood pressure, heart attacks and the turbines at wind farms.

She said anyone who lived within 5km of a wind farm should consider buying their own blood pressure monitoring equipment and see a doctor if they had a reading above 140/80. General manager of local wind farm operator Pacific Hydro, Lane Crockett, said facts gathered suggested wind farms were safe and there was no need for alarm.


More scare tactics from Dr Sarah Lourie who seems to confuse causation with correlation. Let's see if the good doctor has any real evidence to support her claim or if she is just pandering to the anti-windfarm paranoia of a noisy minority?

Santos green-lights $16b CSG project

Courier Mail
14 January 2011, Page: 28

ABOUT $31 billion of investment is to be unleashed in Queensland after Santos and its partners yesterday announced the go-ahead for a $US16 billion ($A16.2 billion) coal seam gas development, the second of the controversial projects to be approved.

Adelaide-based oil and gas explorer Santos, which owns 30% of the Gladstone LNG (GLNG) project, and offshore partners Petronas, Total and Kogas, said the decision to proceed meant orders would immediately be placed for pipes, compressors and LNG plant components. Up to 1500 jobs are expected to be created between now and June.

Last October, UK-based BG Group became the first to give final investment clearance to a major project to convert coal seam gas from the Surat and Bowen Basins into LNG for Asian and domestic energy markets at processing plants at Gladstone. Its Queensland Curtis LNG project, to be operated by BG Group unit QGC, involves $US15 billion spent on two LNG processing lines or trains and wells, field facilities and pipelines.

BG Group expects first LNG exports from 2014. Santos's schedule sees first shipments from its two-train project in 2015. Santos chief executive David Knox said he didn't expect any impacts on the project from Queensland's flood disaster. "We're confident we will achieve first gas in 2015. We've got sufficient flexibility in our schedule. We will gradually ramp up this year in terms of staff numbers. Our peak employment isn't until 2013", Mr Knox said.

State and federal environmental approvals granted last year had cleared the way for the GLNG and QCLNG partners to take their final investment decisions. The environmental approvals came despite calls from agricultural industries, water management groups and environmentalists for a comprehensive scientific analysis of water impacts from CSG mining to be conducted.

The National Water Commission last month issued a major report on CSG mining risks in areas such as the Surat Basin, which is part of the Murray-Darling Basin and lies above the Great Artesian Basin. National Water Commissioner Chloe Munro said the CSG industry "risks significant, long-term and adverse impacts on surface and groundwater systems". She stressed that the potential impacts of CSG projects over a significant time period "are not well understood".

CSG mining involves bringing saline underground water to the surface in order to release trapped gas, and there are fears that water networks will be depleted or contaminated. The NWC raised major concerns with water practices proposed by CSG miners and issued recommendations for state and federal governments, including that CSG miners obtain licences for any water extracted.

The NWC said the CSG industry could extract 7500 gigalitres of water from groundwater systems over 25 years, or about,300GL a year. Currently, Australia's total extraction from the Great Artesian Basin is about 540GL a year Mr Knox said that he was not aware of the NWC recommendations.

New England MP Tony Windsor has said he will use his balance of power position in Federal Parliament this year to force CSG miners to conduct assessments of long-term, regional impacts of their controversial practices, either before exploration licences are granted or if necessary before mining proceeds. Santos shares closed up 2.2%, or 29¢, at $13.45.

It's time to talk of climate change

Age
14 January 2011, Page: 11

What kind of world are we going to leave for the next generation?

IN APRIL 2009 the Los Angeles Times ran the headline: "What will global warming look like? Scientists point to Australia". The article said events unfolding in Australia record-breaking droughts, killer bushfires and devastating floods gave a snapshot of our future in a globally warmed world. Nearly two years on, it seems very little has changed.

The floods that have led to most of Queensland being declared a disaster zone are a disturbing reminder that living in one of the richest countries in the world does not shield us from the devastation of natural disasters. The footage of death and destruction we are seeing on our TV screens is gut-wrenching. Most dinner table conversations in Australia this week will undoubtedly focus on these floods and their horrific consequences.

But while we are talking about the immense loss and what we can do to help, there is another conversation that we should be having: the conversation about climate change. When we talk about climate change, we mostly talk about complicated economic policy, markets and reports. But we need to start talking about what climate change actually looks like and we don't need to look much further than Queensland.

We know that any one single extreme weather event cannot be attributed just to climate change. But we can look at the climate models and predictions, which all say that in a climate-changed world extreme weather events will become more frequent and intense. The La Nina phenomenon, the major cause of the increased rain in south-east Queensland, gets stronger as sea surface temperatures increase. Warmer air also holds more water than colder air, and this water eventually has to come down somewhere. Hence increased rain and floods.

Scientists such as Professor Vicky Pope, head of climate change advice at Britain's Met Office, and Dr Kevin Trenberth from the US National Centre for Atmospheric Research have pointed to the evidence showing a warmer world is a wetter world, due to increased water vapour and energy in the atmosphere leading to more frequent and intense storms.

In The Age this week, Professor David Karoly from University of Melbourne's school of earth sciences was quoted as saying that the wild weather extremes were in keeping with scientists' forecasts of more flooding and more droughts as a result of high temperatures and more evaporation. This is not confined to Australia. Insurance agency Munich Re showed climate change was linked to 21,000 deaths in the first nine months of 2010 double the number of deaths caused by extreme weather in 2009.

Last year was the warmest since measuring began, and the previous decade was also the warmest decade on record. There is also evidence to suggest that climate change is responsible for the extreme cold winters across Europe and the US in the past two years. When I talk about the frustratingly slow pace of climate action in this country, people often tell me that it is going to take a disaster to snap us out of our inertia.

Many people believe that once we really feel the effects of climate change personally, the population will spring to action. Sure, we've seen terrible floods in Pakistan and we know about the plight of low-lying Pacific Islands, but it's going to need to hit us at home before we wake up. If this is true, then these floods should be a deafening wake-up call. As a young person who will inherit the world being created now, I want us to start talking about what needs to happen to prevent this kind of tragedy from occurring again and again. I don't want to live in the kind of world we are previewing right now.

We need fundamental change, and it starts with a price on pollution that rids our economy of polluting energy and creates clean energy instead. It starts with increased funding for healthy, renewable energy. It starts with a serious commitment from all political parties to do what is right and significantly reduce Australia's greenhouse gas emissions. I hope some good can come out of this tragedy, and that we use it to have the conversation about what we are going to do this year to make these solutions a reality.

Ellen Sandell is national director of the Australian Youth Climate Coalition and joint Banskia young environmentalist of the year in 2009.

Survey blows off wind farm syndrome

www.adelaidenow.com.au
27 December 2010

AN Adelaide-based acoustic firm has seemingly debunked the theory that wind farms can make you sick. wind farm giant Pacific Hydro says a survey of infrasound levels at three of its farms, in Adelaide's CBD Energy and various sites in SA and Victoria, proves "wind turbine syndrome" is a myth.

Anti-wind farm campaigners say the syndrome is caused by infrasound and produces symptoms including dizziness, headaches and nausea. The study, conducted by acoustic experts Sonus, found the highest readings of infrasound in the CBD Energy, followed by Cape Bridgewater beach.

Infrasound measurements at Pacific Hydro's Clement's Gap and Cape Bridgewater wind farms were significantly lower. Pacific Hydro's general manager Australia Lane Crockett admitted the study wasn't exhaustive, but said it backed up a Federal Government review that also concluded wind farms didn't make people sick.

He said infrasound emissions at wind farms were "too low to be of concern and could not cause health effects". "There's infrasound all around us and the infrasound produced at wind farms is not even as high as ... you will find standing on the street in the middle of a city or if you're by the beach," he said.

"If infrasound makes you sick then people living by the sea and people who live in cities should be sick." Earlier this month The Advertiser reported on Eyre Peninsula residents who are revolting against an expected 5000 new wind turbines in their region, arguing they are making people sick.

California solar plant big enough to power 71,000 homes

solar.calfinder.com
10 January 2011

It's being billed as the largest solar photovoltaic (PV) plant in the Northern San Joaquin Valley, and at 1,000 acres it certainly won't have a small footprint. But the power it generates is essential to Southern California Edison (SCE) meeting the state's renewable energy mandate of 33% of electricity supplies (from renewables) by 2020

For California public utilities, of which SCE is one of the biggest, this means buying power from solar and wind developers, and the Santa Nella project, near the San Luis Reservoir, will add 110MWs (MW) to SCE's renewable energy portfolio.

The Santa Nella project, reportedly enough to power about 71,000 homes, will be built by San Jose-based SunPower Corp., which is also planning another 25-MW plant on North McHenry Avenue to help power the Modesto Irrigation District.

The Santa Nella project, whose power SCE will buy on a power purchase agreement, or PPA, is only one of seven solar purchases the utility announced this week. The others, which bring the grand total to 831MW, are in Kern and Los Angeles counties, but a newspaper report using the word "also" confuses the issue considerably, since San Joaquin is close to San Francisco, while Kern and Los Angeles counties are,....well, near Los Angeles.

In spite of being geographically challenged, however, it's clear that SCE, which serves almost 5 million customers, is leading the pack in solar power purchases - a leadership which reflects positively on the utility, which as few as five years ago was perceived by some renewable energy activists as balking at the concept of renewable energy.

That impression has now been cleared up, and as SCE VP Marc Ulrich notes, the past few years have shown impressive stats for solar PV, which is overcoming previous deficiencies to deliver clean, renewable energy that would meet market parity for both price and availability if solar power did not generate premium prices as a way of encouraging greater uptake.

The Santa Nella project is slated for former ranch land about 50 miles due east of Santa Cruz. The land is currently owned by River East Holdings, and SunPower hopes to complete the project in 2014. The only other significant solar array in the area is one by the Dept, of Veterans Affairs slated for the San Joaquin Valley National Cemetery, a 136-kW solar PV array whose funds were awarded last year.

Storing solar and wind power is a base-load conundrum

solarhbj.com
13 January 2011

Here in Colorado we have an abundance of both sun and wind, so it's no surprise that our state Renewable Portfolio Standard was recently raised to 30% by the year 2020, from the 10% that was enacted in 2004 by constitutional amendment.

So with the excellent solar and wind resources here, why not increase our RPS MetOcean to 50%, 80% or even 100%? The problem is "base load". That's the minimum amount of power that must be available from the utility at all times, and it changes with daily and hourly predictions based on historical data and current trends. Unfortunately, the sun isn't always shining and the wind isn't always blowing, so 24/7/365 energy sources are always required.

Hydroelectric generation is a renewable base-load option in some areas, but Colorado doesn't have much of a hydro resource. Coal- and nuclear-fired power plants are the most common base-load generation sources throughout the United States, because they are cheap to operate and consume inexpensive fuel.

When energy needs spike (such as during a hot summer day when everyone turns on their air conditioners, or on a cold winter night when electric heaters are running full blast) utilities turn to "peaking" generation systems that can be spun up and generating within minutes.

You can't just flip the "on" switch to get a coal or nuclear generator working -- they take hours or even days to fire up from cold to producing energy. Hydroelectric plant operators can quickly increase the water flow and the number of generators operating, but only if there's enough water available at the time. In most areas, natural gas turbines are used to handle peaking loads, but the fuel is too expensive to use for providing constant base-load capacity.

Energy Storage
The answer to using solar or wind for utility base load seems obvious. Just store any excess energy produced and release it when the renewables are not generating, just like in an off-grid home. All you need is a really big battery! Therein lies the rub.

Until recently, America's biggest battery was located in Fairbanks, Alaska. Called "BESS" (Battery Electric Storage System), it was built and installed by the ABB Group for the Golden Valley Electrical Association in 2003 at a cost of $35 million. This half-acre, 1,435-ton battery bank provides 27MWs of base-load backup power for GVEA's 90,000 customers in the event that grid power from Anchorage is interrupted. Unfortunately, BESS can only do that for 15 minutes -- just long enough to get Fairbanks' diesel backup generators spun up and on line.

The town of Presidio, Texas, also had a problem -- frequent blackouts due to the now-undersized 1940s-vintage transmission lines still feeding the town. Extra energy could be purchased from Mexico, but with hours-long blackouts common, changes were made. In April 2010, Electric Transmission Texas put "BOB" (Big Ol' Battery) into commission. BOB weighs over 320 tons, costs about $25 million, and can provide 4MWs of base-load power to Presidio for about eight hours.

Those battery numbers are all pretty depressing when viewed in a cost-vs.-storage capacity perspective. Right now, the only other real storage option on a utility scale is hydroelectric -- excess generation powers giant pumps that move massive amounts of water up a steep hill to a large reservoir, to be released through hydro turbines to generate electricity again when peaking generation is needed. The problem with this method is that the efficiency is dismal, with close to 70% of the incoming energy wasted.

Battery technology is rapidly improving, thanks in part to greater public interest in plug-in electric vehicles. BOB in Texas employs new technology, sodium-sulphur cells, instead of the more traditional nickel-cadmium cells used in BESS. But the cost per kW of electrochemical energy storage remains tremendously high, especially when compared to current methods that store the most amount of energy for the least cost -- a lump of coal, uranium pellets, or a barrel of oil. Are there other options? The future

Certain recent industrial-scale solar power projects employ some energy storage. These solar thermal plants use mirrors to heat molten salts, which are used to flash water into steam and power conventional steam turbine generators. The salts hold heat for quite some time, and the turbines continue to run after the sun sets. While this represents great progress, it's still tricky. The storage part of the system is far more complex and expensive than the generation side, and heat cannot be stored long enough to provide a source of base-load capacity.

Of course hydrogen production, storage and generation have been touted for many years, and these might well be our future for energy storage. The "hydrogen economy" hype of the past few years has died down, though, mostly because hydrogen is notoriously difficult and inefficient to produce, store and use. It can escape through the tiniest gaps, it turns regular steel unsafely brittle and is explosive when mixed in the right proportion with air.

These problems will all be solved -- eventually -- but at great cost and over a long time frame. Compressed air energy storage on a large scale has been discussed too, but suffers similar technology cost and efficiency problems.

Flywheel energy storage has recently received media attention, and with good reason. Spin a heavy wheel up to tens of thousands of RPM in a near vacuum to reduce air friction and float it on magnetic levitation bearings, and you have a formidable energy storage system. But flywheel storage remains a very high-tech and expensive possibility on a utility scale for base-load storage. It's currently used only in specialized applications.

A better mousetrap?
As I sit here 11 miles off the grid and gaze at my (literally) ton of home backup batteries, the thought crosses my mind that I'm looking at 1915-era technology -- and that it's still the most efficient, cost-effective choice for me. And when I float in Pinewood Reservoir with my fly rod each summer, it occurs to me that this massive, inefficient pump, water storage and hydro turbine system is about the most efficient and cost-effective way for the utility to store its energy, too.

It's a good bet that future utility-scale, renewable energy storage systems will use some variation of the methods we have already imagined. Scientists understand the basic laws of physics pretty well these days. The winner won't be the company that invents the most high-tech and efficient energy storage mousetrap -- it will be the company that builds the one that stores the most energy at the lowest cost.

China first in wind power capacity

www.upi.com
Jan. 13, 2011

China has surpassed the United States as the country with the largest wind power installation in the world, China's state-run news agency Xinhua reports. China installed 16GWs of wind power capacity in 2010, a 62% increase from the previous year, said the Chinese Renewable Energy Industries Association, Xinhua reports.

That brings the country's total installed capacity to 41.8GWs, giving China -- the world's top emitter of greenhouse gases -- the potential to replace 31.3 million tons of coal, slashing emissions of more than 90 million tons of CO₂, Xinhua reports.

The United States, by contrast, installed about 5GWs of new wind-power capacity in 2010, bringing its total installed capacity to 40.2GWs, says the Global Wind Energy Council. Yet China's grid-connected capacity lags behind installed capacity by more than 30%, CREIA says, which is considerably higher than the 10% gap in advanced countries and affects wind power efficiency.

To translate the country's wind power installations into massive utilization, Greenpeace said the government must introduce effective incentive policies and completely overhaul the national grid. "This shortfall in generation tells us that China still has a long way to go to reach its full potential in wind and other renewable energy", said Yang Ailun of Greenpeace East Asia in a news release.

"Despite a renewable energy policy requiring grid companies to purchase all available electricity generated by wind farms, wind power access to the grid is impeded by an unstable, outdated grid infrastructure", he said. Other problems, Yang said, include a lack of incentives and penalties for grid companies and slow progress in additional wind power technologies.

An Ernst & Young report released in November indicated China, which has surpassed the United States as the world's biggest consumer of energy, is the leader in the global renewable energy market. In the second quarter of 2010, the report said, China invested around $10 billion in wind power, about half of the global total of $20.5 billion.

If the Chinese Cabinet approves a proposed $758 billion energy industrial development plan, $227 billion of investment would flow into China's wind power sector, Xinhua reports. Half of the wind turbines expected to come online this year around the world will have been manufactured in China. Analysts say Chinese President Hu Jintao's scheduled visit to Washington to meet with US President Barack Obama next week is likely to push the issue of China's wind power subsidies into the spotlight.

Multiquip introduces first hydrogen fuel cell powered light tower

www.forconstructionpros.com
1 December 2011

Las Vegas - Multiquip introduces the first light tower powered by a hydrogen fuel-cell, part of a planned series of hydrogen-fuel-cell-powered products. The light tower is environmentally friendly, fuel efficient and virtually pollution free, allowing it to be operated indoors. It can be operated for up to 50 hours at a noise level of 43 dBs at 23 feet. The light tower uses plasma light technology, which is filament-free, producing a clean, natural light. The plasma light bulb produces 22,000 lumens with extremely high efficiency, consuming only 255 watts with a life expectancy of up to 50,000 hours.

"The implications of the product's technology beyond lighting are tremendous", said Torsten Erbel, vice president product management, engineering and customer support for Multiquip. "It's reliable due to the lack of moving parts; durable; does not contaminate due to fuel spills; there is very low maintenance; and it is user friendly, using an automotive-style fuel nozzle".

Using a process discovered more than 150 years ago, fuel-cells began supplying electric power for spacecraft in the 1960s and were pursued for commercial use in the 1970s. fuel-cells are an alternative to the internal combustion engine with an energy efficiency of more than 50%. Internal combustion engines, on average, convert only 20% of fuel BTU to the desired work.

Prototypes of the light tower have been and will be used by the California Department of Transportation, film and entertainment companies at high profile media events and by NASA during the upcoming shuttle launch. The Multiquip hydrogen-powered light tower will be on display at World of Concrete in Las Vegas, January 18-21, 2011, in booth # C4813. Product will be available in Q2 2011. Pricing for the units will be provided by quote only, due to the availability of energy and tax credits, which vary from state-to-state, as well as multiple configuration options.

Founded in 1973, Multiquip is one of the largest, most diversified manufacturers and suppliers of products and solutions for the construction, telecom, government, non-commercial, entertainment, and oil and gas exploration markets. Multiquip's product portfolio encompasses light to medium construction equipment, power generators and lighting. Servicing customers worldwide, Multiquip distributes its products in more than 70 countries through thousands of authorized distribution partners.

For more information, visit http://www.multiquip.com/.

Nuclear energy to take place in Malaysia soon

www.mmail.com.my
13 January 2011

The government is confident that Malaysians will eventually buy into nuclear power, said Energy, Green Technology and Water Minister Datuk Seri Peter Chin Fah Kui today. Chin said through proper process of disseminating information and by practising transparency, the rakyat will understand why the country may have to rely on nuclear technology in the future for its energy needs.

"If we (the government) are transparent, and if information on the benefits of nuclear power is disseminated well, I believe the rakyat will understand the need for nuclear power", said Chin at a Press conference this morning. "Only yesterday, I received a delegation from Japan. They offered us their assistance and expertise on nuclear power. "In Japan and South Korea, nuclear technology is used. But their people don't feel worried. I'm convinced if we explain well to the Malaysian public, they will understand", he said.

Last Tuesday, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak announced the formation of the Malaysian Nuclear Development Corporation to study the feasibilities of implementing nuclear technology. Chin said although the corporation is under the purview of the Prime Minister's Department, his ministry is involved in assisting the corporation, especially in the aspects of building public confidence. "We will do whatever we can to assist the corporation".

Chin said at this point, the ministry have only "scratched the surface" in building public confidence. "We've only just begun", he said. Minister in the Prime Minister's Department, Datuk Seri Idris Jala, had said last Tuesday that the formation of the nuclear corporation was important to prepare for an alternative fuel source for the country in the future - especially with the imminent decline in fossil fuels.

Chin this morning officiated the contract signing ceremony of raw water channel project from Pahang to Selangor. The launch kicks-off works on the Lot 1-3B pipe that will be used to channel raw water from Semantan river to Selangor. Meanwhile, Chin told reporters that Selangor Menteri Besar, Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim, had already promised to approve the Langat 2 water treatment plant project.

"He gave his promise in December and by the end of this month, we expect to receive his approval in black and white", said Chin. "I appreciate and thank the MB for his approval. Once this is signed, the last hurdle for the Langat 2 project will be removed".

The Langat 2 water treatment plant is part of the Pahang-Selangor Interstate Water Transfer Project, which is meant to ease the water shortage problem in Selangor and Kuala Lumpur by transporting 1,890 million litres of raw water from Pahang daily. Chin said if the Langat 2 project is not completed by 2014, Selangor will suffer water shortage. The transfer of raw water from Sungai Semantan in Pahang is scheduled for early 2014. The project is expected to supply raw water daily via a 44.6-km tunnel through the Main Range to Selangor.

Gamesa wins contract to build Syria’s first wind energy plant

www.evwind.es
14 January 2011

The wind farm will be located southwest of the central city of Homs. Vestas, the world's largest maker of wind turbines, will develop a wind power project with generation capacity of 50 to 100MW. Gamesa, one of the world's leading companies in the design, manufacture and maintenance of wind turbines and a top wind farm developer.

Syria awarded Gamesa a contract to build the country's first wind power plant and Germany's Sunset Energietechnik GmbH another for a solar power plant The National Energy Research Center selected Gamesa out of five bidders to build a 60-million euro wind farm for power generation that will have a capacity of 50MWs. The wind farm will be located southwest of the central city of Homs.

Vestas, the world's largest maker of wind turbines, will develop a wind power project with generation capacity of 50 to 100MW south of Damascus. The country's demand for power stood at 44.5 billion kWs in 2009, up 5.9% from the previous year, according to figures from the state-run Public Establishment for Electrical Generation and Transfer. Power supply reached 43.3 billion kWs last year, an increase of 5.6% from 2008.

Toyota advances hydrogen fuel cell plans amid industry's battery-car push

www.bloomberg.com
Jan 13, 2011

Toyota Motor Corp., the world's largest seller of hybrid vehicles, said it's on schedule to sell hydrogen cars by 2015 or sooner in California, Japan and Germany as an alternative to battery-powered models coming to market.

Toyota, which also aims to sell plug-in hybrid and battery-only autos in 2012, is overcoming the cost and technical hurdles that have kept hydrogen fuel-cell cars from being sold to retail customers, said Takeshi Uchiyamada, Toyota's executive vice president for research and product development. The carmaker has cut the cost to make hydrogen models to less than $100,000 and aims to halve that price by the time sales begin, he said.

"I have high expectations for fuel-cell vehicles as a candidate for next-generation cars", Uchiyamada said this week in an interview at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. "Over the past several years, we've seen many of the outstanding technical issues solved".

Enthusiasm a decade ago for hydrogen cars faded because of costs estimated by some manufacturers at about $1 million a vehicle, as well as a lack of fueling stations. While Nissan Motor Co.'s battery-powered Leaf and General Motors Co.'s plug-in Volt target drivers who want to use little or no gasoline, Toyota, Honda Motor Co., Daimler AG, Hyundai Motor Co., GM and Nissan continue developing hydrogen cars, which offer greater range and faster refueling.

Comparable Cruising Distance
"When it comes to fuel-cell cars, the cruising distance is almost comparable to conventional gasoline-engine cars", Uchiyamada said. Toyota's cost reductions for the models come from improvements in making high-pressure hydrogen tanks and fuel-cell stacks, he said.

Separately, Toyota and 12 other Japanese companies including Honda, Nissan and JX Nippon Oil & Energy Corp, plan to build 100 hydrogen fueling stations in the Asian nation by 2015, according to a statement on Toyota's website. Toyota rose 1% to close at 3,535 yen in Tokyo trading today. The stock declined 17% in 2010.

Fuel-cells, layers of plastic film coated with platinum sandwiched between metal plates, make electricity in a chemical process combining hydrogen and oxygen. fuel-cell vehicles share components such as electric motors and power controls with battery-only models, Uchiyamada said.

Honda has leased FCX Clarity hydrogen sedans to Los Angeles area drivers since 2008, and Daimler began a similar California program for its Mercedes-Benz F-Cell hatchback last year. Toyota will initially focus on selling hydrogen models in California, Japan and Germany, which have the most developed fueling infrastructure. "We'd like to gradually expand regionally to a global basis", Uchiyamada said.

Since the program initially will focus on large urban markets, "all we need is a small number of stations", he said. Toyota's first hydrogen cars for retail buyers "will arrive in 2015 or sooner", Akio Toyoda, the company's president, said Jan. 10 in Detroit. "Over the years customers will choose which technology is best for their needs".

Toyota is still working on details of how it will market hydrogen vehicles and hasn't decided whether the initial model will be sold under the Toyota brand or as luxury Lexus vehicle, considering a likely retail price of about $50,000, he said. "We'll be able to talk about performance specifications and other details reasonably soon", Uchiyamada said without elaborating.

Wave power backers are buoyant

West Australian
11 January 2011, Page: 11

The phrase "wave of the future" has rarely been more apt. A renewable energy project to be launched this year is set to transform WA into the world's biggest centre for turning waves into electricity. The State is blessed with some of the strongest and most reliable waves in the world and that could turn out to be a boon for renewable energy as well as surfers in the coming decade.

Within months, Perth-based company Carnegie Corporation Wave Energy will install a network of 30 huge underwater buoys, each 7m across, covering a 200m² patch of seabed off Garden Island. The buoys, named CETO after the Greek goddess of the ocean, will use the energy of the surging waves to drive turbines and create electrical power. The project could generate up to 5MW of grid-connected power, roughly the same amount as a community wind farm, Carnegie Corporation chief executive Michael Ottaviano said.

If it works, wave energy could take off like no other renewable technology in Australia. CSIRO researchers have calculated that our nation which, let's not forget, is girt by sea has enough surf to generate 146GW of wave energy, almost three times the country's total power demand. The WA Government has already invested $12.5 million in Carnegie Corporation's efforts to bring the technology to market, not just in WA but on the world stage, much as Scandinavian companies led the charge into wind power in the 1990s.

Projects running out of steam

Adelaide Advertiser
12 January 2011, Page: 55

Catch-22 as geothermals struggle to attract funding

Geothermal companies face a tough year as they work to attract enough funds to get their energy projects over the line. Two leading industry figures yesterday called for further government commitment to the "enormous potential" of the geothermal industry.

KPMG national leader, renewables, Matt Herring said geothermal faced a vicious cycle of needing to remove risk from projects to garner interest from the financial markets, but then needing to raise vital operating capital to reach government grant milestone requirements. Mr Herring, an Adelaide based partner at KPMG, said the Federal Government had supported the industry with $50 million in geothermal drilling grants.

But another $150 million announced under the Government's Renewable Energy Demonstration Program grants in November 2009 could not be accessed until the two recipients reached proof of concept - effectively showing they can circulate water through geothermal wells drilled more than 4km into the earth, and bringing it back to the surface where the heat it contains can produce electricity.

Geothermal company GeoDynamics was further advanced, but Adelaide-based Petratherm still needed to drill a second well at its Paralana geothermal energy project before it could access funds to build a pilot plant.

Petratherm reported this month it had successfully completed the first step toward fracturing the hot rocks at the base of its well located north of the Flinders Ranges. Once the rocks were fractured, scheduled for later this year, the second producer well could be drilled.

"While the industry has achieved an extraordinary level of progress in a very short period of time, it now faces a vicious cycle", Mr Herring said. "Investors are not prepared to provide funds until project risk is reduced and geothermal becomes more economically viable. "The Government could actually get much better value for money if it brought that money forward and actually increased the amount".

Australian Geothermal Energy Association chief executive Susan Jeanes said funding for the geothermal industry was minimal compared to the $1.5 billion committed to the solar industry. "Finance is the number one single biggest hurdle whether it's public or private", she said. "There are so many projects ready to go".

Ms Jeanes said it was prudent to support the development of clean energy technology in Australia, as many other renewable energy projects tended to rely on imported technology. "The technology question is whether the Australian resource can support a commercially viable project,.. there's a need to support the industry as it further refines the technology", she said.

A shameful WA lifestyle puts huge strain on planet

West Australian
11 January 2011, Page: 10

The great Aussie lifestyle isn't so great when you think about what it does to our planet.

If you're the archetypal West Australian you regularly fly to work at a mine site, perhaps, or have a job in the CBD Energy with a one-hour daily commute along the freeway; live in a pretty big house in the 'burbs with air-conditioning; run two cars for a family of four; and holiday interstate or jet off to Bali a couple of times a year your lifestyle is among the least environmentally sustainable in the world.

What's more, over the next years it is going to get increasingly costly to do the things you have done all your adult life, such as filling up the car, paying electricity bills and flying to a tropical resort. "If you exclude the ridiculous cities like Dubai, which is basically money built on sand, you can argue that WA is the most unsustainable developed economy in the world", Peter McMahon, a lecturer at Murdoch University's School of Sustainability, said.

Dr McMahon is director of its WA2020 Project, a research program that aims to address what he and his colleagues say is a "policymaking vacuum" in WA on sustainability issues. In the Australian Conservation Foundation's 2010 Sustainable Cities Index, which ranked Australia's 20 largest cities on criteria such as environmental performance, quality of life, and resilience to environmental changes, Perth came dead last.

According to the rankings, Perth has the worst over-reliance on cars, the highest water use relative to rainfall and the biggest ecological footprint per person in Australia. Perhaps the most alarming statistic is the ecological footprint an admittedly rough-and-ready calculation of the number of hectares of productive land (and sea) required to support one person with a given lifestyle.

The world has an estimated 1.8ha for every person alive. The Australian average ecological footprint is 8ha, which means if everyone in the world lived like an Aussie, we would need 3.8 Earths. Perth's average footprint is even bigger: it would take 4¼ globes to allow everyone to live life Perth-style. Dr McMahon said the "tyranny of distance" WA people lived thousands of miles from anywhere else had forced us to rely on planes and cars to get around.

Life is harsh in WA, and huge resources are needed for growing food or mining minerals. Perth came of age as a major city at a time when the car was king with predictably short-sighted planning decisions that are now locked into our urban fabric and it's no wonder our habits are among the dirtiest in the world. After all, most of us live in a sprawling city where cars and air-conditioning are widely seen as necessities, not luxuries. "We should question the whole premise that our growth is going to just continue", Dr McMahon said.

It might be surprising to learn, then, that according to many expert predictions, both household energy bills and motoring costs are set to plummet by 2020. "By the end of the decade, a lot of homes will have their own renewable energy" Ray Wills, chief executive of the Sustainable Energy Association of WA, said. "A lot of homes will have changed their building designs and, this will be surprising for most people, but I imagine by 2020 a lot of people will see a reversal in their energy bills and they will start to get cheaper".

Aided by government rebates, household solar power use has rocketed soaring from 500 homes with solar panels in mid-2008 to almost 20,000 today, In a decade, that figure is likely to be between 300,000 and 400,000, and the cost of domestic solar power could reach parity with grid power by 2015.

Solar power has been the first cab off the rank for powering city homes, but other technologies are following in its wake. Last December saw the launch of the WA Geothermal Centre of Excellence, which aims to harness the heating and cooling power of a geological formation called the Perth Basin.

Sitting hundreds of metres below the city is a reservoir of water naturally heated to 300C, which could provide electricity-free air-conditioning for large building complexes or even entire suburbs. Housing density is another area where Perth is poised to make big improvements. Unlike Melbourne or Sydney, where many homes are in strata developments, two-thirds of newly approved Perth homes are free-standing houses on individual blocks. Professor Wills predicts that will change as the city sprawl becomes unmanageable and as a new generation of homeowners looks for a home that isn't miles away from the metropolitan area.

But what about our love affair with the car, and our love-hate relationship with driving to work? "The outstandingly stupid thing about Perth is the peak hour", Dr McMahon said. "We shouldn't have it that everyone goes into the CBD Energy together". Dr McMahon predicts information technology will give us more flexibility in how we work and could eliminate that freeway slog.

When we do drive in 2020, however, it will hopefully do less environmental damage than it does now. A pilot network of 12 electric car charging stations around Perth was launched last November, as well as a fleet of 11 modified Ford Focus electric cars, including one owned by The West Australian.

'Sun King' bids for solar funding

Australian
10 January 2011, Page: 4

THE "Sun King", Chinese-born Zhengrong S hi, who is worth about $4 billion and is one of the world's wealthiest men, is behind a bid for $300 million in federal funding to build the first commercial solar farm in NSW. Mr Shi, a graduate of the University of New South Wales, is one of four directors of Infigen Energy Suntech Power one of seven companies competing for federal funding under round one of the government's $1.5bn Solar Flagships Program.

Infigen Energy Suntech Power's proposal is for crystalline-silicon solar photovoltaic energy farms at three sites in NSW and Victoria, generating a combined 195MW of power to go back into the grid. The NSW government yesterday gave planning approval for one of the sites, at Nyng an in northwestern NSW, where Infigen Energy Suntech Power plans to build a $300m solar farm covering 200ha.

The farm will feature 70 blocks, placed between lm and 3m off the ground, with a combined 300,000 solar photovoltaic panels. The state government planning approval pre-empts a final decision by the federal government, expected in June, on which project will receive funding under the Solar Flagships Program. Dr Shi's story is the classic rags to riches tale.

Born in China to a poverty stricken family, Dr Shi was adopted out as a boy. After receiving his masters degree in Shanghai, Dr Shi, then aged 23, enrolled in the University of New South Wales's School of Photovoltaic and Renewable Energy Engineering. While studying for his doctorate degree on solar power technology, he worked in cafes to pay his rent.

He became an Australian citizen and stayed in the country for 14 years, working in solar research, before returning to China and starting up Suntech Power. He is now known as the "Sun King". In November last year, Dr Shi was photographed alongside actress Cate Blanchett when he and his wife, Vivienne, made a $2m donation to the Sydney Theatre Company to install solar panels along its harbourside roof.

The Solar Flagships Program was designed to support the construction of up to four solar power plants across the country. The seven shortlisted applicants each received a slice of $15m in feasibility funding last May.

'Sun King' bids for solar funding

Australian
10 January 2011, Page: 4

THE "Sun King", Chinese-born Zhengrong S hi, who is worth about $4 billion and is one of the world's wealthiest men, is behind a bid for $300 million in federal funding to build the first commercial solar farm in NSW. Mr Shi, a graduate of the University of New South Wales, is one of four directors of Infigen Energy Suntech Power one of seven companies competing for federal funding under round one of the government's $1.5bn Solar Flagships Program.

Infigen Energy Suntech Power's proposal is for crystalline-silicon solar photovoltaic energy farms at three sites in NSW and Victoria, generating a combined 195MW of power to go back into the grid. The NSW government yesterday gave planning approval for one of the sites, at Nyng an in northwestern NSW, where Infigen Energy Suntech Power plans to build a $300m solar farm covering 200ha.

The farm will feature 70 blocks, placed between lm and 3m off the ground, with a combined 300,000 solar photovoltaic panels. The state government planning approval pre-empts a final decision by the federal government, expected in June, on which project will receive funding under the Solar Flagships Program. Dr Shi's story is the classic rags to riches tale.

Born in China to a poverty stricken family, Dr Shi was adopted out as a boy. After receiving his masters degree in Shanghai, Dr Shi, then aged 23, enrolled in the University of New South Wales's School of Photovoltaic and Renewable Energy Engineering. While studying for his doctorate degree on solar power technology, he worked in cafes to pay his rent.

He became an Australian citizen and stayed in the country for 14 years, working in solar research, before returning to China and starting up Suntech Power. He is now known as the "Sun King". In November last year, Dr Shi was photographed alongside actress Cate Blanchett when he and his wife, Vivienne, made a $2m donation to the Sydney Theatre Company to install solar panels along its harbourside roof.

The Solar Flagships Program was designed to support the construction of up to four solar power plants across the country. The seven shortlisted applicants each received a slice of $15m in feasibility funding last May.

China leads green war charge

Canberra Times
4 January 2011, Page: 11

The West is finding itself running on empty as Beijing powers ahead to become a clean energy giant, Michael Richardson writes:

As 2011 begins, leadership in clean-energy manufacturing is shifting from the West to Asia as countries their support renewable energy and development of new exportable technologies. Within the Group of 20 leading economies that includes Australia, four Asian powers China, India, Japan and South Korea are projected to account for about 40% of renewable energy investments in 2020, leaving the United States and Europe trailing.

China is the pacesetter. It is rapidly becoming a global colossus in "green" power as it seeks to reduce reliance on polluting fossil fuels and establish itself as the top clean energy manufacturer and exporter.

A recent survey by Bloomberg, in collaboration with the UN Environment Program, found that China became the largest recipient of renewable-energy financing in 2009, attracting more than 20% of the $US162 billion ($A159 billion) invested worldwide in wind, solar, biomass, small hydro, biofuel and marine energy.

While such investment in China grew by 53%, it shrank in the US by 45%. The US exported at least $US2 billion of renewable energy products in 2009, almost double the sum in 2007. But it ran a trade deficit in the sector, with imports of wind-power equipment alone amounting to more than $US3.6 billion.

Reasons given for the West's decline and China's rise are a new source of friction in Sino-US relations. Both Washington and Beijing consider the clean technology sector crucial to energy security and economic growth. However, renewable-energy companies in the US struggle to find investments. They've cut jobs and, in some cases, moved operations to China. US President Barack Obama maintains that the industry should be vibrant source of employment and exports for America. In September, Obama called for "a home-grown clean energy industry".

In October, the US Trade Representative's Office announced that it would investigate Chinese Government support for manufacturers of wind and solar power products, advanced batteries and energy-efficient vehicles the result of a petition from a powerful US union, the United Steelworkers, with 850,000 members in a range of energy-related jobs.

The petition claims that China protects and unfairly supports its clean-energy producers in breach of World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules. The main thrust is that the Chinese Government makes widespread use of cheap loans and land grants to subsidise exports of clean energy equipment.

In an angry reaction to the US probe, Zhang Guobao, head of China's National Energy Administration, implied that the Obama Administration deliberately courts protectionist sentiment in the US, where nearly one in 10 are unemployed.

Chinese President Hu Jintao is due to make a state visit to Washington on January 19. Both sides say they want to repair relations strained over trade, security, human rights and other issues. But clean energy is on the agenda. The US recently took the first step in filing a trade case against China at the WTO, alleging that Beijing has given several hundred million US dollars in wind power grants that exclude foreign-made parts and components.

China is illegally subsidising wind equipment production and the "subsidies effectively operate as a barrier to US exports to China", US Trade Representative Ron Kirk said in a statement on December 22. The US and China have 60 days to resolve the disagreement. If negotiations fail, Washington could ask for a VVTO dispute settlement panel to hear the complaint.

The US Government has belatedly recognised the China challenge and last month convened the first meeting of a high-powered private sector advisory committee charged with developing a clean-energy export expansion plan. At the same time, the US Export-Import Bank announced increased financing for "green" exports.

The US is destined to lose this battle for dominance if Congress refuses to pass an energy policy promoting renewables. As part of a compromise on the US tax bill, lawmakers agreed on December 17 to extend a tax-credit scheme for another year, offering clean power producers grants worth up to 30% of development costs.

But America needs a more coordinated approach if it's to compete with China in clean-energy manufacturing and exports. A study published by Harvard Kennedy School's Belfer Centre found that, unlike industrialised countries, China and most other emerging economies coordinate and support their energy R&D through government-owned enterprises. The study covered Brazil, China, India, Mexico, Russia and South Africa.

By some estimates, investments in renewable-energy assets may total $US2.3 trillion by 2020, yielding increased jobs and exports, as well as reduced greenhouse gas emissions, for countries that harness green technology. China's rise in key sectors of the green-energy business has been breath taking. In 1999, China made around 1% of the photovoltaic cells put into solar panels to generate electricity. A decade later, it's the world's leading producers, with a 40% share of the market.

Firms in China are expected to make more than half of all solar panels manufactured this year and nearly 80% of solar hot-water units. The world's second biggest economy is also on course to produce nearly half the world's wind power turbines, selling them at prices significantly lower than those of manufacturers in the West and preparing for large-scale exports.

If China becomes a green-power export juggernaut, it will consolidate its lead in global high-technology sales, leaving the US well behind. In 1998, the US share of worldwide high-tech exports was nearly 25% while China's was less than 10%. By 2008, China's share was 20%, with America's below 15%. The stakes in the green power race could hardly be higher.

The writer is a visiting senior research fellow at the Institute of South East Asian Studies in Singapore.

Carbon leadership

Summaries - Australian Financial Review
7 January 2011, Page: 47

The important conclusion that can be drawn from The Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering report on low carbon energy technology and Robin Batterham's elusive power panacea article (January 5) is that a rising carbon price alone will not stimulate investment in zero-carbon baseload energy alternatives such as concentrating solar thermal. Such industry requires support to grow in the short to medium term.

Direct government incentives such as investment tax credits or a feed-in tariff would be more effective than a blanket carbon price which is only useful when technologies are mature. Will the government show leadership or will we be left behind by the clean energy boom?

Patrick Hearps is a research fellow at the Melbourne Energy institute, University of Melbourne.

Lobby calls for peak oil plans

Adelaide Advertiser
4 January 2011, Page: 25

THE peak oil lobby has taken its views to Energy Minister Patrick Conlon, who says he will factor the finite nature of fossil fuels into planning. The head of the Global Energy Systems group at Uppsala University in Sweden, Kjell Aleklett, met Mr Conlon during a visit to Australia. Professor Aleklett warns that ongoing business-as-usual growth in oil usage will be impossible because of peak oil - the point at which global production reaches its all-time maximum and trends down.

Many forecasters predict the peak this decade. "Cities and businesses that prepare in advance for the probability of oil shortages will fare far better than those that believe the fairytales that oil production will keep increasing continuously", Prof Aleklett said. Mr Conlon said he met many energy experts, including Prof Aleklett.

"We have for a number of years kept under review the state's energy reserves and supplies and do not believe there is anything to be concerned about", Mr Conlon said. "Obviously in terms of fossil fuels, they aren't making any more, which is why this Government has been so active in implementing renewable and sustainable energy". Last year, the State Government announced a target of one third of energy produced in SA to be from renewable sources by 2020.

Solar 'thermostats' face gas competition

Weekend Australian
1 January 2011 Page: 26

SOMETHING new is headed for the southwest desert in the United States: solar power plants that can make electricity whether or not the sun is shining. Abengoa Solar expects to start construction in six months' time on a plant in Arizona that will store sun-generated heat to provide six extra hours a day of electric-generating capacity. The heat creates steam that is used to turn power turbines. Abengoa's SUS2 billion ($1.966bn) Solana plant is expected to be the first major stored heat plant in the US when it enters service in 2013. Some already exist in Spain and a few more are on the drawing board for Nevada and California.

On December 21, Abengoa Solar, a unit of Spanish utility company Abengoa, cleared a major hurdle when it announced it received a SUS1.45bn US loan guarantee for the 250-MW Arizona project. The Solana plant will be able to meet winter heating and lighting needs by putting electricity on the grid early in the morning before the sun is shining and help satisfy summer cooling demand by producing power after sunset.

The plant, which can power up to 70,000 houses, has signed a 30-year agreement to sell electricity to utility company Arizona Public Service. Such utility-scale solar plants use mirrors to focus the sun's rays on a liquid, contained in tubes, which can be heated to very hot temperatures.

The liquid is used to boil water and create steam. By using a conventional steam-turbine generator, electricity is produced. But the twist is that the Arizona facility will have two giant salt tanks, each 37 metres in diameter and 10.4m deep, that together can hold and store 40% of the heat created by the plant. Such storage technologies are expected to become more commonplace in the US at solar plants, as officials try to limit the release of CO₂ from fossil fuel power plants and make renewable power production more dependable.

Mark Mehos, a solar program manager for the National Renewable Energy Lab in Golden, Colorado, said such molten salt storage systems added about 20% to the construction cost of solar plants, but more than make up for it by boosting a plant's flexibility and productivity. Electricity from solar plants is expensive, especially at a time when natural-gas prices have plunged, making gas-generated electricity cheap by comparison.

Utilities, which are under state mandates to buy more clean power, say solar power may look more economical in the future if fossil fuel prices rise or if a tax is imposed on carbon emissions by power plants. When it comes to renewable energy, solar competes most heavily against wind power. A study by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, California, in February 2010 found that utility-scale solar plants with storage capacity were three times as costly to build as wind farms without energy storage.

But the study found that solar electricity was more valuable, because its output was more correlated to peak electricity demand. Still, experts say that unless costs come down, the number of solar projects that get built will be limited. SolarReserve, a power development company in Santa Monica, California, is working on two solar projects in Nevada and California that will have even more heat-storage capacity, relative to their size, than Abengoa's project.

These plants will put out 110MW and150MW in electricity, respectively, and will be able to store enough heat to run eight to 12 hours without additional sunlight. SolarReserve expects to have the two plants in service by 2014. Each will cost SUS650 million to SUS750m.

Don Brandt, chairman and chief executive of Pinnacle West Capital Corporation, parent of Arizona Public Service, said heat storage at the Abengoa project made it "an extremely attractive project for us". By 2015, Arizona Public Service wants to get 10% of its electricity from renewable sources, and Abengoa's plant is expected to contribute a third of that. Arizona's statewide goal is 15% renewable energy by 2025.

Mr Brandt said peak electricity demand for his utility typically hits about 4pm in the summer, but "we remain at elevated levels until around 10 o'clock at night" so getting renewable power later in the evening is valuable. The US National Renewable Energy Laboratory, part of the Department of Energy, says molten salt storage is "proven technology". "When you put heat into one of these tanks, you get 95% or 96% of the heat back out again", said Mr Mehos, at the federal energy lab. "It's a nice big Thermos".

Another plus of all three plants was they would produce power that could be tailored to a utility's specific needs, the president of Abengoa Solar, Santiago Seage said. That is an asset to electrical grid operators that like to know they can rely on certain amounts of power flowing on to lines.

Bligh's clean coal dream a nightmare

Sunday Mail Brisbane
2 January 2011 Page: 42

WHEN Chris Greig spoke at a clean coal industry forum in Melbourne in June, one of the chiefs of the Bligh Government's ZeroGen business let slip a juicy piece of news that went unnoticed back home in Queensland. "ZeroGen has proven the Denison Trough to be unsuitable for large-scale commercial storage", Greig told the carbon capture and storage World Australia Forum June 22. It didn't look like much but the meaning of the comment would have raised the alarm if anyone had noticed: the state-owned company's prospects were floundering.

After committing $150 million in taxpayer funds to the Bowen Basin project, ZeroGen had discovered the underground reservoirs for CO₂ emissions from its planned $4.3 billion clean coal power plant were not big enough. Yet no one noticed Greig's comment, a startling omission showing how little scrutiny ZeroGen has undergone in its four years as a corporation under state control with little of the accountability mechanisms required of normal government operations.

While the Weller review of government assets in April 2009 described ZeroGen as "speculative" and sparked the first questions about the business, the Sunday Mail today reveals the Government was told it was considered "very high risk" back in 2006. None of this was mentioned at the time while a conga line of ministers described the project as "world-first", a coup for jobs and "groundbreaking".

The Opposition now wants an inquiry into ZeroGen while the Government appears to be adopting the mantra of "moving right along now, nothing to see here". Premier Anna Bligh has quietly slashed her commitment to clean coal in favour of solar power said to be her climate-change bureaucrat husband's favourite area. It is a move that has exposed an administration flipping and flopping on energy policy.

In 2008 at the Coaltrans Australia Conference in Brisbane, Deputy Premier Paul Lucas warned that the failure to develop viable clean coal technologies would have a major impact on the state Budget and the profits of mining companies. Yet Bligh has pinched $100 million from her original $300 million clean coal fund to put into proposed solar power plants, all without announcing the cash raid and only a month after a Commonwealth report found solar cost between $300/MW and $750/MW to generate.

In comparison, the IGCC Black CCS type ZeroGen was dealing with and deemed to be too expensive was found to cost between $150/MW and $275/MW. Worse still, the clean coal fund that bankrolled the ZeroGen gamble is the same state cash from the 2006 privatisation of the state's electricity assets, a bad look when you are promising to use the proceeds from the current privatisation program wisely.

For her part, Bligh now insists the ZeroGen dream is not dead, though she doesn't want to be a part of it. Some insiders say Queensland Treasury chiefs have long been against the ZeroGen idea over its costs to the Budget bottom line and describe the Government's relations with potential Japanese investor in the project, Mitsubishi, as rude.

With its best friend, the state, now leaving the party as an owner and plenty of fuel for critics spouting the clean coal oxymoron line, some wonder what can become of ZeroGen when it returns to the drawing board after canning its major plant. ZeroGen's own financial outlook appears far from rosy. Its Brisbane office has suffered a staff exodus, with insiders saying there are about 15 left after originally hiring as many as 120 people. According to Auditor-General Glenn Poole, the company's ability to keep operating past November 30 last year was dependent on state support.

Not that we would have known because Poole's comments were in ZeroGen's recent financial year report not tabled in State Parliament nor on its website, as he noted was normal practice. Back in Melbourne in June, Greig was well aware of the risks involved with ZeroGen and others, noting that the new technology would bring some undone. We might expect to see some commercial disasters!" he joked at the end of his presentation. He didn't realise how close to home that comment may prove to be.