Shine a light on solar deals

Adelaide Advertiser
7 February 2011, Page: 37

INVESTING in solar power for your home will cost thousands initially and it could take the better part of a decade to see financial benefits, so being an informed consumer is vital. In the nine months to October 2010, more than 105,000 household solar panel systems were installed in Australian homes, according to the Clean Energy Council.

The most common household systems are either 1 or 1.5 kW and, depending on the state you live in, could reduce the average electricity bill by up to 40%. The price for a 1.5 kW system is about $13,000, according to the CEC, but this is reduced by various government rebates and feed in tariffs paid by electricity companies.

Solar power firm Energy Matters' general manager of sales, Nick Brass, says consumers need to research thoroughly before purchasing solar panels to ensure they're buying from a credible manufacturer. He says most of the well known electronics manufacturers consumers know such as Sanyo Electric and GE make solar panels, along with specialist manufacturers but there are also some "fly by nighters" to be wary of. "It's coming out of China most of the time and a brand that none of us really know", Brass says.

But not all solar panels made in China are of poor quality which is why doing your homework is essential. "People talk about warranties a lot and everyone claims to offer a warranty, but the real question is are they going to be around to service the warranty so looking for just a warranty isn't enough anymore", he says. "It's important to look at the credibility of the supplier".

Brass says people should not be dazzled by advertisements that look incredibly cheap. "We are all tempted by price but at the end of the day you don't get payback without buying quality", he says. Brass also says consumers should question the experience of their installer, even if they hold the required Clean Energy Council accreditation.

A recent report by national consumer group Choice notes that there have been concerns about the quality of some cheap imported panels and their level of safety. "Make sure your panels meet the international standards and that you're using an accredited installer", it says. "This is vital to the safety and reliability of your solar system installation". It says manufacturer warranties on solar panel systems range from five to 25 years.

"Solar systems should last at least 25 years obviously, a warranty or guarantee for that length of time from a company you trust is best" The CEC's consumer guidelines says people can work out the size of the solar power system they need by analysing their latest electricity bill and calculating average daily electricity consumption. However, the use of available north facing roof space is also an important factor, with a 1 kW solar system requiring about 8 to 10m² of space.

Questions you should ask:

• Are the designer and the installer accredited? All installers should have photo identification cards.
• How many systems has the installer completed?
• What kinds of warranties come with the products?
• How long have the manufacturers been in the industry? Long warranties are useless if manufacturers aren't around in five years.
• If something goes wrong, who pays for repair or replacement costs?

Missing out on benefits

The Saturday Age
5 February 2011, Page: 23

Julia Gillard tells us a carbon price will drive another sweeping technological revolution ("Labor's plan to tackle emissions", Online, 3/2). Unfortunately, this revolution will occur in other countries. The government continues to discriminate against local investment in voluntary emission cuts through energy efficiency, many forms of renewable energy, and waste management.

For example, I will spend $500 and cut emissions by making my house more energy efficient, this simply leaves more room under our Kyoto cap (and future trading cap) for other emitters to pollute more. Any business, household or government agency that wants to make a difference to global emissions through these actions must buy certified "additional" permits from overseas. It is perverse that the government is disempowering Australians.

At least the government gave some ground. Under its proposed carbon farming initiative, emission abatement through farming and agriculture will make a difference.

Alan Pears, Brighton

.. but here's a story with a clean ending

Sydney Morning Herald
5 February 2011, Page: 18

GO YOU good thing! Bloomberg New Energy Finance late last month showed worldwide investment in clean energy jumped by 30% last year to a record $US243 billion, driven by massive investment in China, offshore wind and rooftop solar in Europe, and increased spending on research and development generally. Another strong year is expected.

The US President, Barack Obama, offered more cheer with a new goal: America would get 80% of its energy from "clean" sources (he included clean coal, gas and nuclear) by 2035. Trillions will be spent.

ArkX Investment Management, part owned by Westpac's "incubator" division Ascalon, views the sector as a top performer for 20 to 30 years and as a great hedge for Australian super funds, which are heavily overweight in fossil fuels.

This week the ArkX Clean Energy fund reported encouraging three year performance figures the minimum needed to win super fund clients. The tiny fund, with just $8 million invested and not yet open to retail investors, benchmarks itself against the New Energy Index (NEX), which tracks 80 listed clean energy firms worldwide earning at least half of their revenue by reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

ArkX looks for companies with proven technologies, strong balance sheets and positive cash flows. These aren't speccy start ups: the median market value of companies in its portfolio is $US3 billion. Some are indeed cleaning up, as ArkX director Tim Buckley pointed out on the Climate Spectator website, citing Siemens, Johnson Controls and NextEra Energy Resources.

Over three tough years to the end of calendar 2010, the fund returned -6.8% trouncing the sorry NEX return of -52.4% and also beating the MSCI world share index, which fell 19.8%. There are 25 companies in the ArkX portfolio, none of them Australian. "It's embarrassing", says its managing director, Geoff Evison, who blames our policy settings. "They need 'TLC': transparency, longevity and certainty".

Turbines almost here...

Hebburn Wind
11 February 2010

The cargo ship 'SE Panthea' left Singapore on Australia Day and is expected to dock in Albany today. The ship will arrive in Melbourne in approximately two weeks, where the turbines will clear customs and undergo a series of checks before being transported up to Leonard's Hill.

The first foundation is complete...

We poured the first foundation last Thursday, and the second is being poured today (February 10, 2011). We're delighted that almost all the concrete came from the local batching plant in Daylesford - their busiest day ever.


Are you a member?
We've grown to almost 1600 members and with the works at Leonard's Hill progressing quickly, we are in the most exciting phase to date!

Now is a great time to join the Hepburn Wind community - we are still able to accept new members and investment from Victorian residents. (Unfortunately we are not permitted to accept interstate investors at the present time - see FAQs).

If you, or someone you know, has been considering joining or increasing an existing investment, please take action now to support Australia's first community-owned wind farm.

Details on investing in Hepburn Wind are available in our Membership and Share offer.

10 Electric cars that were actually produced

February 2011

The following article was forwarded to me by Alison Doyle, it's an interesting and slightly quirky look at electric vehicles - with a bit of history mixed in.

A look at some of the earlier electric vehicles clearly shows the notion of streamlined design hadn't quite caught on as yet.

Thanks Alison.

Nuclear energy debate resumes

Sydney Morning Herald
5 February 2011, Page: 10

The Energy Minister, Martin Ferguson, says nuclear power is a proven source of clean energy that is likely to become cheaper in the future. "There will be a very serious debate in Australia at some time in the future as to how we reduce our CO₂ emissions whilst maintaining a reliable supply of energy at the cheapest possible cost", he said. An update by the federal government's top climate change adviser, Ross Garnaut, released on Thursday, said there was evidence overseas that the cost of nuclear power was falling.

"There is anecdotal evidence that the switch from batch to continuing production of nuclear power stations in China has reduced the costs of new nuclear power capacity more rapidly than had been assumed in the 2008 models, or expected in China itself", the update said. A Greens' nuclear spokesman, Scott Ludlam, said the government should not only rule out nuclear power but also uranium mining, which he said threatened mine workers, local communities and water courses.

Doing well for state

Hobart Mercury
4 February 2011, Page: 20

The Mercury does itself, and the ongoing debate over power prices, no favours with its attempt to drag in Hydro Tasmania's Victorian retail business and its support of the Geelong Cats ("Cats lap up Hydro cash", February 2). To attempt to tie in this successful commercial business with concern over Tasmanian power prices is a very long bow. The fact that the story is supported by incorrect information only adds to the confusion.

Most importantly, the claim that Hydro Tasmania is selling power to Victoria cheaper than it sells it to Aurora Energy is nonsense. The price Hydro Tasmania receives for electricity exported to the rest of the national market is the same as or higher than the price received for electricity consumed in Tasmania.

The electricity sold by Momentum Energy comprises a variety of components and is at a lower price than in Tasmania because it is a completely different process. The cost of domestic electricity in Victoria is based on market prices for energy and regulated prices for other components such as distribution and transmission, which is quite different to Tasmania where each component of domestic prices is set by regulation.

The success of Momentum Energy is creating considerable value for the people of Tasmania.

Roy Adair CEO, Hydro Tasmania

APY solar generator lying idle

Adelaide Advertiser
4 February 2011, Page: 39

A solar power station in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands in the state's Far North has been idle for more than a year, leaving it out of action for four of the past seven years. The Government owned $3.7 million power plant at Umuwa was upgraded in 2008, but was switched off just over a year later because of safety concerns.

Originally built in 2003, it also was shut down in 2005, for three years, before receiving a $1.2 million taxpayer funded upgrade. The 715 MW station was built to cut the community's dependence on diesel and was supposed to save 140,000 litres of diesel and 400 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions each year.

Opposition MP Steven Marshall, who is a member of the Aboriginal Lands Committee, said the Government needed to fix the problem before "moving on to the next photo opportunity". "This is an example of complete ineptitude, wrong priorities and tokenism,.. combining to leave Aboriginal people at a disadvantage", he said.

Uniting Care Wesley indigenous policy officer Jonathan Nicholls said he had been "frustrated" a request for information on the project's status last year from Aboriginal Affairs Minister Grace Portolesi had been unanswered. "We accept it is difficult to repair and maintain certain things in remote communities, but we are not comfortable with this sweeping things under the carpet", he said.

Ms Portolesi said the plant had been out of action because of "complex issues relating to meteorological conditions", including electrical storms and wind blown dust. She said maintenance of the plant had been the responsibility of a private company which went into administration about a year ago.

Ferguson to push uranium

Summaries - Australian Financial Review
3 February 2011, Page: 3


Resources Minister Martin Ferguson yesterday said Australia would pursue testing of alternative renewable energies, such as clean coal technology, solar power, geothermal, biomass, ocean and wind power, before using nuclear power as a method of combating climate change. However, Mr Ferguson said, "I am supportive of international efforts to strengthen,.. the safer use and proper development of the nuclear industry".

Australian Workers Union national secretary Paul Howes and Queensland Premier Anna Bligh have encouraged the Australian Labor Party to revise its stance on nuclear power. Prime Minister Julia Gillard's climate change committee is due to resume meetings next week, and the government is also in the midst of working through methods of pricing carbon. Mr Ferguson, however, was advised by the Resources Department in their "red book" to boost Australian uranium markets through more international engagement on nuclear power, like a greater participation in the International Framework for Nuclear Energy Cooperation.

The minister recently revealed that Indian Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna had urged him to allow India to receive Australian uranium shipments. Michael Angwin, chief executive of the Australian Uranium Association, also urged the Australian government to foster a domestic nuclear power industry, saying, "there is no reason for Australia not to give consideration to a nuclear industry here".

Solar cut 'will deter overseas investors'

Sunday Canberra Times
30 January 2011, Page: 14

THE GILLARD Government's $250 million cut to its Solar Flagships program means Australia has little chance of attracting serious foreign investment for large scale clean energy projects, a national solar research body says. Australian Solar Energy Society chief executive John Grimes said the funding cut signals to investors that Australia has "no coherent solar development policy" and is driven by short term budget targets. "What confidence can industry have to invest in the major solar utility scale projects we need to abate carbon emissions in the future, if major changes are constantly made in this way?" he asked.

Earlier this week, Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced funding for solar power programs would be cut by around $500 million to offset the Government's flood reconstruction spending in Queensland. The cuts include $250 million from the Solar Flagships program, $160 million from the Solar Hot Water rebate and a cap on a further funding for the Solar Homes and Communities program. Mr Grimes said solar power seemed to be "the honey pot the government raids whenever it needs short term funding".

"During last year's election campaign, we saw $220 million pulled out of the Solar Flagships program to fund the cash for clunkers scheme, which has now been scrapped to fund the flood rebuilding effort in Queensland. "But the funding taken from Solar Flagships hasn't been returned, so in effect that's a $500 [million] cut to the program".

The Cleaner Car Rebate Scheme, dubbed "cash for thinkers", was launched during the 2010 federal election campaign as part of a package of climate change initiatives. It was to provide grants of $2000 to scrap pre 1995 cars to purchase new low emission, fuel efficient vehicles.

Mr Grimes said climate research indicated Australia could expect more extreme weather events, but instead of supporting technologies to help mitigate climate change, the Government "kept raiding its renewable energy budget to fund other projects". Clean Energy Council chief executive Matthew Warren said it made no sense to fund "the cleanup of the worst floods in Australia's history by cutting investment in climate change solutions".

"Australia has the potential to be a world leader in developing affordable large scale solar power. We need more investment in its development, not less. "Yet Labor's own Solar Flagships program to accelerate development of this technology has already been trimmed twice before the program has even started". Mr Warren said.

Beholden to lobbyists

Age
31 January 2011, Page: 12

THERE is an explanation for Julia Gillard's seemingly bizarre decision to cut renewable energy programs to pay for the flood damage. She did so for the same reason all federal governments have failed to adopt any decent climate change policies.

Gillard and her team are heavily influenced by the fossil fuel lobby and the free market ideology of some bureaucrats working in the Department of Climate Change. These people continue to push the erroneous idea that once you have a price on carbon, you can eliminate all other measures to support emissions reductions and renewable energy.

Those who trade in coal, oil and gas know that a price on carbon by itself will not be enough to create the urgent shift to renewable energy we need. The big polluters and extremist ideologues continue to dominate the development of climate change policy at our expense.

Pablo Brait, Richmond

Leaders fiddle while the world burns

Sydney Morning Herald
29 January 2011, Page: 16

THE word is, new modelling is being done on a 10% by 2020" target for greenhouse gas reductions - double that of last year - suggesting that, despite all the wailing, the climate debate moves only one way: ever more pressing, ever more expensive. Even so, the question of targets is in the too - hard basket of the Climate Change Minister, Greg Combet. At a speech to institutional investors in Sydney before Christmas, Combet was keen to emphasise the government could initially put a price on carbon - say at a fixed, rather than market rate - without stipulating an emissions reduction target.

That would skirt an ugly stoush with the Greens, soon to hold the balance of power in the Senate, as Combet later explained: "What's evident from the debate we've had over the last few years is it's certainly going to be testing for the government and the Greens to ever come to an accommodation over the level of the target. So what I'm really saying is we need to focus on the carbon price mechanism and not go down [the path of] an argument that can't be resolved over targets".

It seemed possible the Gillard government had a cunning plan to tackle climate change in 2011: put exactly the same emissions trading scheme back to the Parliament and dare the Greens to block it again. How bad would the Greens look: making easy yards on gay marriage and ATM fees,.. deadset against action on climate change!

Combet certainly sounded that way last month, paying tribute to the "top - quality" work done by his department in developing the failed Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme of 2009, concluding "we won't need to reinvent the wheel". But for now there seems a willingness on both sides to try to avoid the Labor - Greens stalemate witnessed last time around, strike an agreement this year and aim for implementation by mid - 2012. The Greens leader, Bob Brown, certainly believes there is room for compromise.

The then secretary of the Department of Climate Change, Dr Martin Parkinson - now head of the Prime Minister's own department - said after Combet's Sydney speech that the government was "not putting CPRS 2.0 out there". It's just that in the design of the new carbon price, whatever form it takes, a lot of the fundamental analysis, reporting framework and so on has been done.

Targets isn't the only thorny issue the government is tippy toeing around. A Citigroup analyst, Elaine Prior, threw Combet a two pronged question about (a) whether a carbon price might at first be imposed just to cover the electricity sector, the source of most emissions; and (b) the level of compensation for emissions - intensive, trade - exposed industries such as steel and aluminium, and the electricity generation sector in the transition phase.

"I'm wondering", she said to nervous laughs, "whether the negotiations held a year ago in terms of transitional assistance, whether that was likely to be as good as it would get for industry - whether the current makeup of Parliament means perhaps industry will regret not agreeing, in a sense, to the proposals that were put forward last year?" Without a pause, and to more laughter, Combet replied that was a "highly pertinent question that as a budding politician I'd sidestep a bit".

Which he expertly did: these after all are some of the most sensitive issues before the multiparty committee on climate change and Combet wasn't going to preempt that process. The meeting broke up with a good sense that the minister was getting on with it.

But the body doesn't lie and it was the last question at the subsequent press conference that dried Combet's mouth. How is doubling our coal exports consistent with action on climate change? Combet's answer: "Coal is extremely important to our economy and it's one of the reasons why in fact I had a number of discussions to this effect with my counterparts [at the latest UN climate talks] in Cancun there is a great degree of interest in trying to develop things such as carbon capture and storage technology, which our government has got behind very firmly, because the future for fossil fuels ultimately will also be dependent on our capacity to utilise them on a much lower emissions pathway. So improving energy efficiency in coal fired power stations, improving our capacity to explore CCS technology, will all be very important".

The truth? It just isn't. A real climate policy would see the government stepping in where the states won't: denying export approval for new coalmines. In response to the floods, as the Climate Institute points out, we'd be axing fossil fuel subsidies which are part of the problem like the diesel fuel rebate and fringe benefits tax for car use instead of funding for solar power stations, which is part of the solution.

A real climate policy would see Australia target emissions reductions of at least 25% by 2020 our fair share of the effort needed to give us all a 2 in 3 chance of keeping warming below 2°, as world leaders agreed at Copenhagen. And that's being optimistic. Policy - makers are now thinking in earnest about a world that is 4° warmer by 2070 - 2100 as we're tracking if every country does everything they've promised so far and the scenarios are apocalyptic. There is no science on how we might adapt.

paddy.manning@fairfaxmedia.corm.au

Funding cuts upset industry

Summaries - Australian Financial Review
29 January 2011, Page: 8

Following the Federal Government's decision to cut funding to green programs, with $250 million to but cut or deferred from a solar program, the solar power industry said key projects may be cancelled or curtailed and a major opportunity for the nation to reduce its carbon impact may be hurt. Chief executive of the Australian Solar Energy Society John Grimes says a major opportunity for Australia in decarbonising its electricity sector will be prejudiced by the decision.

The government has taken $250 million away from the utility scale solar flagships program to help pay for reconstruction after the floods. Two residential solar schemes were also hit with caps placed on them costing $225 million. The industry believes it has not received the policy support from the Labor Party.

Managing director of renewable power company CBD Energy Gerry McGowan said the move further shows the government's shallow commitment to renewables. The view of Steve Loxton, chief executive of Transfield Services Infrastructure Fund, is that the decisions may further diminish the confidence of the finance sector in government initiatives designed to support long-term investment in the renewable energy sector.

The $1.5 billion solar flagships scheme, designed to create commercial-scale solar power facilities, has also had a funding cut. Renewable power group Infigen Energy has bid in the solar flagship scheme as part of a consortium with China's Suntech Power Holdings in the first round of funding.

When solar power plants and wind farms talk to the grid

www.greentechmedia.com
27 January 2011

A new full power converter for renewables from Finland is all about communication.

Vanguard engineers at The Switch, a world-class Finnish company that specializes in machines that transform energy into electricity, have advanced power conversion by making the communication between a wind turbine or solar power plant and the transmission line to which it is connected more effective. Climate change, peaking fossil fuels and energy security issues make the better engineering done by The Switch urgent. Just do the math.

Replacing U.S, fossil fuels would, it is estimated, require four million wind turbines (twelve three-MW turbines every hour for three decades), or 160 billion m² of PV or CSP. A recent International Energy Agency plan said that to beat climate change, the world must build, every year between 2010 and 2050, 35 carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) coal plants and 20 CCS-equipped natural gas plants, 30 nuclear plants, 12,000 onshore and 3,600 offshore wind turbines, 45 geothermal facilities, 325 million m² of PV and 55 solar power plants. That's a lot of engineering.

The Switch took its name, Jukka-Pekka Maekinen, President and CEO of the company, said, "from the big change that will take place in how people consume energy and in how it's produced". Foreseeing a global switch to distributed renewable energy generation, three Finnish engineering innovators formed the company in 2006 to apply their skills to renewables.

Expertise with advanced drives, generators and motors made The Switch a fit with Europe's booming wind industry. "Permanent magnet motors have been applied by Kone Elevator Company for fifteen years", Maekinen said. Such permanent magnet direct drive transmissions, on a much larger scale than those in elevators, are now the cutting edge in wind turbines. Maekinen said he has been working with such drives since 1986.

"The penetration of the permanent drive generator will be four times bigger in three years", Maekinen said. Adoption of the technology for wind turbines is limited only by the logistics of the drive's size. "Our bet was very much technology-driven", Maekinen said. The new power converter The Switch is debuting, which Maekinen said costs in the hundreds of thousands of dollars and weighs on the order of 2.5 tons, is designed to make direct drive technology capable of delivering more output.

"The generator makes the raw power and the power converter matches it to the line and makes it compatible with the requirements of the utilities", Maekinen explained. This includes changing the power from a variable frequency direct current (DC) to 50 or 60 Hertz alternating current (AC). The Switch's new converter, equipped with a new level of information technology, is at least two% to four%, and perhaps as much as seven%, more efficient than those currently in use, according to Maekinen.

Sensors and measuring capabilities in the full power converter, he said, make it able to communicate both with ongoing conditions in turbine operations and fluctuations in the transmission system. Through enhanced intelligent operations, it can get the turbine to adjust output to "faults in the line" or make adjustments in turbine operations to keep power flowing.

"You could say it's smarter", Maekinen said. With the full power converter, a turbine processes more about its surroundings. "Nobody likes it if the turbine isn't turning", he said. "In some cases, by reducing five or ten% of the power, you may be able to continue running".

"A wind turbine is a pretty complex operation", Maekinen said. "We have a couple of thousand turbines running with our power converters and we have collected all that application information". The engineers brought that experience, he explained, "and made a new generation product".

The product has undergone rigorous testing, Maekinen said. "It's not like we make a new product just to see how it flies in the marketplace", he said of the product's acceptance. "With the combination of the permanent magnet generator and the full power converter, we are saying you can get up to seven% more power per turbine". Customers include world-class turbine manufactures such as US-based GE Wind and China's Xinjiang Goldwind.

A similar kind of conversion is needed to feed electricity from a utility-scale PV installation into the grid, Maekinen said. The Switch's technology can serve that need in a way that similarly enhances efficiency. In both utility-scale solar and wind applications, the challenge is matching output to what is happening in the transmission system. The new full power converter from The Switch is designed to address that challenge.

Though The Switch has not, Maekinen said, "delved into" concentrating solar power (CSP) plants, he was confident the new full power converter could produce increased outputs, though not as large, in "behind-the-fence solar" PV and CSP applications. "Traditional solar inverters are moving into this arena", he said. "We are already in this arena".

"The neatest thing we've done", Maekinen added in describing what is next for The Switch, "is the fusion drive", a hybridization of the industry-standard gearbox. "Inside of the gearbox, we put the permanent magnet generator". Industry insiders say the gearbox is going the way of the stagecoach, ceding to the direct drive permanent magnet transmission. Maekinen said the fusion drive might give the stagecoach "chrome alloy wheels."

US braced for gust of wind power in 2011

www.businessgreen.com
27 January 2011

After a year in the doldrums, more wind projects now under construction than built during 2010

US wind may be on the verge of a recovery from a lacklustre 2010, after figures revealed more wind power capacity is currently being built than was installed in the whole of last year. Over 5.6GW is now under construction after only 5.1GW was built in 2010, less than half the 2009 figure, the American Wind Energy Agency (AWEA) said in its Fourth Quarter Market Report.

Around 3.2GW came online in the fourth quarter of 2010, down on the 2009 figures, but dwarfing the previous quarter when only 670MW (0.6GW) was installed, the stats said, emphasising the gap to be bridged in order to meet President Obama's 80% clean energy challenge. The AWEA attributed this rush to a one-year extension of the 1603 Investment Tax Credit for renewable energy to the end of 2011, which is likely to lend impetus to other projects eager to meet the construction deadline.

Elizabeth Salerno, AWEA director of industry data and analysis, added that electricity generated by wind is now cost-competitive with natural gas "Wind's costs have dropped over the past two years, with power purchase agreements being signed in the range of five or six cents per kW recently", Salerno said. "With uncertainty around natural gas and power prices as the economy recovers, wind's long-term price stability is even more valued. We expect that utilities will move to lock in more wind contracts, given the cost-competitive nature of wind in today's market".

However, the AWEA bemoaned what it saw as uncertainty over national policy holding the sector back and allowing China to overtake the US in installed wind capacity for the first time, posting a total of 41.8GW, compared with 40.2GW in the States. "Our industry continues to endure a boom-bust cycle because of the lack of long-term, predictable federal policies, in contrast to the permanent entitlements that fossil fuels have enjoyed for 90 years or more", said Denise Bode, chief executive of AWEA.

But the AWEA praised state-level efforts, which saw Texas pass the 10GW mark for total installations, accounting for a quarter of the country's wind capacity. A total of 38 states now have utility-scale wind projects, it said, with Iowa on 3.6GW, California on 3.2GW, Minnesota on 2.2GW and Washington on 2.1GW, completing the top five behind Texas.

Wind power can help ease Lebanon's energy woes: report

www.dailystar.com.lb
27 January 2011

BEIRUT: Onshore wind power can alleviate the country's constant and growing energy needs, a report released this week has found. "The National Wind Atlas of Lebanon" concludes that harnessing the green power source could realistically generate up to 6.1 GWs each year, or about 75% of the country's 2010 electricity consumption.

"We have huge potential and we can really benefit from [green and wind power]", caretaker Energy and Water Minister Jibran Bassil told a conference held Tuesday at the Metropolitan Grand Hotel in Sin al-Fil. "These findings and this study give us hope". "We always used to hear different figures,.. one international firm said it expected that [5 GWs] of energy could be produced from wind, and we thought this number was exaggerated". "No one should expect that the solution to [Lebanon's energy problems] will come from wind alone", Bassil continued, saying a diverse energy basket would help ensure "energy security".

The map is the first of its kind and is expected to entice private firms to invest in the energy sector. It was carried out in cooperation with the ministry, the United Nations Development Program and the internationally funded Country Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Demonstration Project for the Recovery of Lebanon (CEDRO), which aims to see Lebanon meet its target of generating 12% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2020.

Lebanon suffered severe power shortages last summer with parts of the country staying without electricity for up to 18 hours a day. As much as 96% of national energy needs are imported, with the World Bank estimating that existing capacity will have to double within the next five years to meet rising demand. Lebanon's wind potential lies in four principal areas: a strip extending from roughly the Cedars in Bsharri to the region of Qobeiyat in Akkar, and three small pockets along Lebanon's eastern border with Syria, each one located roughly due east of Baalbek, Zahle and Rashaya.

On the coast some small capacity has been identified in the Amioun area of Koura while offshore potential is very small and only possible in the northernmost tip of the country, at distances of 10 to 20 kilometers from the coast. Heavily populated areas or those containing protected woodlands were excluded from the map.

Spanish Ambassador Juan Carlos Gafo said Spain was playing a "key role in transferring expertise to Lebanon, and it has funded the three stages [of CEDRO], with $10 million going to reducing the cost of producing energy and improving lighting methods". "What Spain is doing affirms the country's commitment to enabling Lebanon to combat climate change".

However, the current data will need to be built upon in order to obtain a more accurate picture of Lebanon's wind potential, according to Garrad Hassan, the company responsible for drafting the map. Time constraints forced measurements to be taken from existing wind masts that only captured wind speeds at heights of 10 meters, and not 50 and 80 meters as needed for electricity generation, the report said.

The findings were also taken as monthly averages instead of daily values, further decreasing the accuracy of the findings, which Garrad Hassan admits could be as much as, and possibly, more than 10% off in either direction of the projected result. It is hoped that the guidelines will be sufficient to attract funding, with investors being called upon to conduct their own additional studies if needed. Issues such as political instability, grid inefficiency, electricity theft, low fee collection levels and graft have previously discouraged international firms and donors from pouring money into the underdeveloped energy sector.

Storm over interstate power deal

Hobart Mercury
28 January 2011, Page: 3

MOST cut-price power bought by the State Government from a Queensland electricity retailer will come from Tasmanian dams and then be sold back at a discount rate. It has raised questions about why power from Tasmanian taxpayer owned electricity companies. Hydro Tasmania and Aurora Energy cannot be sold at the same price, given residents and small businesses do not have the option to shop around for electricity.

The Greens yesterday accused Labor of betraying electricity users by signing the "grubby" deal to buy the cheap power from Queensland retailer ERM Power instead of struggling Aurora Energy. The Mercury yesterday revealed that the State Government will buy $16.4 million of electricity from Queensland company ERM Power at half the price it would pay Aurora Energy.

The tender, awarded in January, gives ERM Power supply rights to some of the state's biggest departments, including Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment, Police and Emergency Management, Economic Development, Tourism and the Arts, Premier and Cabinet, Education and Justice. The 160GWs of energy will mostly be generated here but extra can be imported via the Bass Strait power cable Basslink, which costs Hydro Tasmania about $92 million a year.

Based on the average price of 06¢/kW charged by Aurora Energy for business customers, the new government contract is less than half price at an average rate of 10¢/kW and will provide the equivalent of the power used by 16,000 homes a year. Cabinet minister Nick McKim has been outspoken against Basslink and use of non-renewable power but now, under the new deal, all of Mr McKim's departments are powered by ERM Power.

Opposition energy spokesman Matt Groom asked why power at Hydro Tasmania and Aurora Energy cannot be sold at the same price. "How is it that ERM Power can buy power from the State Government's own taxpayer-funded generators and sell it back to the very same people at a bargain basement price?" Mr Groom said. Energy Minister Bryan Green attacked the Liberals for opposing the deal, given that they supported the state entering the competitive energy market.

"ERM Power's power-price contracts with Tasmanian customers will not affect the source of power supply, rather power will continue to be largely generated by renewable sources from within Tasmania", Mr Green said. He said a review into the state's energy sector was under way and would report by August.

Greens MP Kim Booth was infuriated: "I'm absolutely stunned and horrified that the Government would engage in a secret deal to effectively betray the mum and dad electricity consumers in Tasmania, who are the ones who will pay the cost for this grubby deal".

Gillard's response a climate clunker

Age
28 January 2011, Page: 4

THIS is an odd message from a government struggling to win credibility on climate policy. The horrific floods of the past month cannot be directly blamed on the increasing greenhouse gas concentration in the atmosphere the La Nina over the Pacific is the primary culprit. But they are in line with what scientists have been warning is coming.

As recently as November, the Queensland government released advice on how to plan for the greater flood risk due to extreme events linked to manmade climate change. The world's biggest reinsurer, Munich Re, says the number of natural catastrophes has already increased dramatically nearly tripling around the globe over three decades. In Australia in the 1980s, there were regularly fewer than 10 extreme events a year, and never more than 27. Since 1998 there have been no fewer than 28, and regularly more than 40.

How then to respond to an extreme flood? According to Prime Minister Julia Gillard: by cutting nearly $1.6 billion from programs that were supposed to reduce emissions. As some green industry leaders wryly noted, climate programs have been stripped of funding to fix railways needed for Queensland's coal industry. Subsidies for fossil fuel industries remained untouched. In fairness, some of the programs abandoned were dogs.

Few will mourn the loss of cash-for-clunkers, which would have done next to nothing for the environment. But it is not unreasonable to think the clunkers money could have been redirected into developing renewable energy and the money for flood recovery found elsewhere. The government appears to have accepted the counsel of its climate committee adviser, Rod Sims, who believes a carbon price will enable other climate policies to be dropped. Gillard isn't waiting for a carbon price to get started.

Jobs outcry over green fund cuts

Age
28 January 2011, Page: 4

THE car industry and unions have reacted fiercely to the abolition of the green car innovation fund, warning jobs were at risk, as the federal government whittled its environmental focus to a carbon price. The solar industry also said it was astonished that the Labor government had again ripped funding from programs to develop its technologies.

"You don't assist those affected by floods by causing damage to other industries", said Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries chief executive Andrew McKellar. "It is a bitterly disappointing decision". "The manufacturing industry is under significant pressure at the moment with the high Australian dollar and cutting any program that has potential to attract investment is the wrong way to go", said AMWU national secretary Dave Oliver, who immediately protested over the decision to Industry Minister Kim Carr.

The axing of the federal government's $1.3 billion Green Car Innovation Fund "came out of the blue", industry sources told The Age. "There was no forewarning of this", a source said. Mr McKellar said contracts already in place will be honoured, but several projects in the pipeline, including one in Victoria, were now under a serious cloud. The government had already moved to wind back the fund in August, after the Gillard government recommitted to the goal of a carbon price. The Australian Industry Group chief executive Heather Ridout welcomed the scrapping and scaling back of a raft of green programs that she said were inefficient. "If we are going to have a market-based mechanism, we don't need them. They are very, very expensive", Mrs Ridout said.

But the Climate Institute's chief executive, John Connor, said putting a price on carbon didn't replace the need for investment in clean energy technology. "No one is shedding a tear for the demise of the 'cash-for-clunkers' program, but slashing investment in utility scale solar or carbon-capture-and-storage technologies, let alone solar hot water programs, is extremely shorted-sighted", Mr Connor said.

Australian Solar Energy Society chief executive John Grimes said the cuts would undermine investment certainty for businesses looking to build largescale solar power plants. Funding for the long promised solar flagships program to build four large solar plants has now been cut twice. Another $190 million has been deferred to beyond 2014-2015.

Cuts announced by Prime Minister Julia Gillard also included $160 million from a solar hot water rebate program and $85 million that would have been spent on unprocessed claims for the $8000 rooftop solar panels rebate cancelled in June 2009. Mr Grimes said the solar flagship program which was raided last year to pay for the now abandoned "cash for dunkers" scheme seemed to be the first pot the government drew on when it needed cash. "We are not creating an environment where the solar industry can plan and invest to grow for the future", he said.

He said sales of solar hot water systems were likely to ride the same roller coaster as rooftop photovoltaic panels after the government program was cut short. "You will see the industry crash", he said. Clean Energy Council chief executive Matthew Warren said it was ironic that the government's first response to a climate change disaster was to cut funding for climate programs.

World economy going green

West Australian
27 January 2011, Page: 19

Around the world, growth in renewable energy is now greater than any other energy investment but not in Australia. In 2009, 48% of new energy generation capacity worldwide was renewable. The emerging data for last year shows as much as two-thirds of global energy installation was renewable. Even in some places where action on energy is not primarily about climate change, but rather about ensuring a secure energy supply, countries are overwhelmingly choosing energy that is also free of greenhouse-gas emissions.

Australia, in contrast, is far behind. Just 25% of new energy-generation capacity is renewable. Why? The traditional economic modelling in Australia flies in the face of global predictions and assumes only negative impacts on the economy for energy pricing based on our reliance on carbon-based fuels, and makes little reference to the nation-building, economic values of the development of renewable energy.

Generally, Australian projections are silent on the positive economic impact of the mandated renewable energy target. Renewable energy - a mix of established, new and emerging technology - is for the most part at the top of a product cost curve. This means electricity from renewable sources will only get cheaper. The best strategy is to establish a carbon price, providing certainty to the market that allows businesses to make decisions on the best low-emissions and no-emissions technologies.

This is in some ways understandable with the wealth of non-renewable resources that Australia has, and with companies who have licences to those assets and the desire to profit from them. Many argue that Australia must do all it can to export fossil fuel and nuclear power, but the dilemma is that if the world energy markets turn rapidly to renewables, our economy will be exposed to declining energy export markets. As the nation with the world's best renewable energy resources, all Australian governments need to be more ambitious in support of renewable energy generation and provide the added certainty of a carbon price.

Ray Wills is chief executive of the Sustainable Energy Association of Australia

King coal will be dethroned, and BHP should align itself with the carbon revolt

Sydney Morning Herald
27 January 2011, Page: 6

This decade will mark the beginning of the end of the fossil fuel era, writes Matthew Wright.

Countries that are taking rapid action on climate change are reshaping the global commodities market. Coal is now among Australia's largest exports but demand for the commodity will drop as the global economy shifts to renewable energy. This represents a risk and an opportunity for Australia and its miners.

The largest importers of Australian coal, Japan, Korea, and China, have ambitious plans to decarbonise their economies. Japan, our single biggest importer of coal, has a 25% emission reduction target by 2020. South Korea is investing about $85 billion over five years (2% of GDP per year) in renewable energy and other clean technologies in its "green new deal". And China, while increasing its consumption of Australian coal over the last few years, aims to source 15% of its energy from nonfossil fuel sources by 2020. For Australia, this would be the equivalent of a 70% renewable energy target.

These powerful Asian economies will decarbonise through the mass deployment of renewable energy, electric vehicles and other clean technologies. These combined efforts mean that demand for Australian coal will decline dramatically in the decades ahead. Companies such as BHP Billiton must get out of the coal supply chain sooner rather than later. As the impacts of climate change worsen and the calls to hold fossil fuel companies accountable grow louder, coalmining is shaping up as the asbestos liability of the 21st century. BHP Billiton's $11 million donation to the Queensland flood appeal shows that it is feeling exposed after public calls for coalminers to pay for the flood damage.

BHP Billiton needs to reassess its investments in steaming coal (less than 4% of annual profits). The company can instead service demand for 21st century commodities by taking a leadership position as the world moves towards renewable energy sources. It can replace its income stream from coal with increasingly valuable rare earth minerals. It has an additional opportunity to bolster its alumina, iron ore and other important mineral operations that are needed in the renewable energy industrial revolution now taking place in Europe, China and the US.

China controls almost 95% of rare earth supplies. It is trying to maintain this control by imposing export quotas that limit the supply of rare earths to the global market. This underscores the fantastic opportunities that exist for firms that break China's grip on supplies, not to mention the positive security outcomes of such a move. As Australia's biggest company and the world's third largest, BHP Billiton should be pursuing this security agenda that aligns so well with its future profitability.

BHP Billiton's attempt to purchase Canada's Potash Corp was on the right track. Potash is involved in rare earth mining operations, extracting minerals needed for solar panels, wind turbines, electric vehicles, and consumer electronics such as tablet computers and smart phones. Potash Corp is also a supplier of potassium and sodium nitrate, the core ingredients of the molten salt energy storage used in the now booming solar thermal power industry in the US and Spain.

Coking coal is a bigger issue for BHP Billiton. Comprising about 10% of its profits, the company is at risk because of the steel sector's move away from blast furnaces that need coking coal. Emerging best practice for steel-making uses direct reduced iron (DRI) production methods that require either natural gas, low-grade steaming coal or can be migrated to Syngas" target="_blank">syngas produced from biomass or hydrogen. Half of the new steelmaking facilities in India use DRI. If shareholders knew this they would demand action before their stock loses value.

Industrialisation over the last 200 years has provided Australia and the world well, but our mistakes are catching up with us. Miners such as BHP Billiton can move from being part of the problem to part of the solution by implementing mining best practice and funding research to improve it further. The opportunities are for a sophisticated, wired economy based on wind and solar power and computers and electronics improving human connectedness and well-being. By choosing an unpopular and dangerous polluting route, BHP Billiton is not only letting its shareholders down but people the world over.

This decade marks the start of the winding down of the fossil fuel industry. The shift is being driven by efforts to address climate change, energy security and build clean energy economies. In 2011 we look forward to seeing the beginning of the shift of Australia's major mining companies to reorient their operations to deal with the challenges of decarbonising the world economy.

Matthew Wright is executive director of Beyond Zero Emissions

Gas plan may trip up on science

Courier Mail
27 January 2011, Page: 11

QUEENSLAND'S multibillion-dollar plunge into the gas industry could be based on a major flaw in the science, with doubts raised in the US this week over its greenhouse gas emissions. Reports from Cornell University and the US Government's Environmental Protection Agency said there had been a dramatic underestimation of emissions and gas could be similar to coal as a greenhouse polluter.

The apparent environmental benefits from gas have been a major selling point for the coal seam gas industry and the $30 billion it is ploughing into the state over the next four years to build export facilities in Gladstone. Gas has long been considered to have about half the greenhouse gas emissions of coal and for that reason it has been thought to be an ideal stop-gap as the world attempts to make renewable energy, such as solar and wind, more viable.

But the EPA said previous estimates of gas emissions had not included a significant number of issues, had left out the effect of methane and that emissions were about double what they were considered in 2006. The Australian gas industry said it stood by a number of reports, including those by the CSIRO and Worley, which backed gas as a low-polluting alternative and said the US EPA report did not relate to the local industry.

In a second report, a professor of ecology and environmental biology at America's Cornell University, David Aktinson, said the combustion emissions were only part of the story and the favourable comparison to coal was "quite misleading".

WA well placed to 'grow' new fuel supplies

West Australian
26 January 2011, Page: 19

Biofuels have an important place in the mix of renewable and sustainable energy sources for the 21st century. Although other renewable energy sources such as wind, solar and hydro can be used to produce electricity, biofuels are essential for the production of the liquid fuels necessary for road transport, shipping, heavy mining machinery and aviation. Biofuels are basically the result of photosynthesis which captures the energy from sunlight and converts it to organic molecules rich in energy.

The oils from oil seed plants such as canola and oil palms are already being converted to biodiesel, and sugar and starches from sugar cane, corn and wheat are being fermented to produce ethanol, which is blended with petrol for motor vehicles. The cellulose from plants such as eucalypts, wheat straw and forestry waste also can be processed to make ethanol. The use of biofuels also results in much lower net carbon emissions compared with fossil fuels. There has been some debate on whether biofuels will compete with food crops or will lead to the destruction of rainforests to create palm oil plantations.

However, many new biofuel crops are being developed on marginal land unsuited for normal food crops. For example, mallee in WA can be grown between crops where it not only serves as wind breaks but also produces biomass for biofuel production. Other new eucalyptus varieties are being developed with superior properties for conversion to biofuel, especially bioethanol.

Among the most exciting future fuel crops are algae. Some species of these microscopic plants can contain up to 50% of oil suitable for conversion to biodiesel and aviation fuel. They can be grown using saline water, thus not competing for the very limited supply of fresh water and they require only about 10 to 20% of the land area compared with the best biofuel crops, to produce the same amount of fuel.

WA is uniquely placed to become a future biofuels hub. We have abundant sunshine, a key requirement for high productivity large areas of marginal land and, for algae production, abundant sources of saline water such as saline groundwater and sea water. The challenge to WA and to Australia will be to capitalise on the unique advantages for the production of biofuel crops which have the potential to replace a significant proportion of our liquid fuel imports.

Michael Borowitzka is a professor at Murdoch University's School of Biological Sciences and Biotechnology.

Sandia sizes up wind turbine blade design

www.designnews.com
24 January 2011

Armed with HyperSizer optimization software and FEA, Sandia pursues innovations in large wind turbine blade design, aiming for a balance between low weight and structural integrity.

By many accounts, wind power, a relative veteran among alternative energy sources, is well-positioned for a perfect storm around growth: The political climate is favorable, a downtrodden economy is hungry for economical and efficient fossil fuel alternatives and more than 30 years of research and development has been poured into wind power innovations. Yet one of the remaining barriers to widespread adoption of wind power is honing that right mix of functionality for a wind turbine blade design that is large enough to support higher performance while retaimng a form factor that is economical, reliable and can be produced on a grander scale.

Sandia National Laboratories, and in particular, the Wind Energy Technologies Dept., finds itself at the epicenter of that design challenge. The group partners with universities and industry to conduct applied research in the area of wind turbines and blades to increase the viability of wind technology. Researchers at the lab are working on advancing knowledge around the areas of materials, structural dynamics, active-flow aerodynamic control and sensors along with pursuing innovations in the manufacturing processes and embedded controls associated with wind blade design.

"We're about developing innovation that's five years, maybe 10 years out", says Tom Ashwill, P.E., distinguished member of technical staff at Sandia National Laboratories' Wind Energy Technologies Dept. "The industry is risk-averse to innovation - they can only look two to three years out. We look to take risk off the table for them and try things we don't know will work". The Sandia lab makes the results of its innovation efforts available to industry via reports, partnerships and through regular conferences and workshops.

Large-Scale Blade Design
One of the department's primary areas of focus is innovation related to increasing the size of wind turbine blades. In the early 1980s, wind turbines averaged 100 kW, but the current average capacity is around 2MW - a factor of 15 to 20 times more performance than what existed 25 years ago, Ashwill explains. As demand for performance increases, so does blade size, since blade length has a direct correlation to the increased power generating capacity of a turbine. As far as economics go, the thinking is that fewer, higher-capacity wind turbines are more efficient and cost-effective than creating the infrastructure to support many smaller turbines, Ashwill says.

Current utility-scale turbines are equipped with blades that range from 40m (130 ft) to 90m (300 ft) in diameter. Sandia has a research project underway to advance that capacity to a 100m blade, which in a traditional three-bladed turbine design, would encompass a footprint in the order of two-and-a-half football fields in size. This massive blade design, aimed at turbines that would reside 15 miles offshore, creates significant design challenges around weight, structural integrity and manufacturability.

"As they get larger, the weight of these blades becomes an issue", says Craig Collier, president of Collier Research Corp., the maker of software used to optimize composite materials and structural sizing that came out of work done at NASA Langley Research Center and now employed as part of Sandia's research. "As they get larger, the question is: Can they withstand their own weight without breaking? It's a big issue for the design of new blades". In addition to structural strength, design engineering issues associated with the larger blades encompass things like fatigue performance, buckling stability, blade stiffness, twist limits and wing-tip deflection.

HyperSizer's legacy in aerospace has helped entities like NASA and companies like Lockheed Martin, Boeing and Bombardier, trim at least 20% off the weight from wing structures. The software works with out-of-the-box FEA solvers in a feedback loop to identify solutions that minimize weight while maximizing structural integrity and manufacturability, Collier says. The software analyzes complex composite structures by evaluating designs in a ply-by-ply and finite element-by-element manner, helping engineers optimize all possible variations on a composite laminate design.

While FEA will give engineers insight into internal unit loads - for instance, how much air load goes into the skin of a blade or into the spar cap - it does not, for example, provide analysis on overstressed materials or if a bonded joint is going to have a failure. That's where HyperSizer comes in, Collier explains. "HyperSizer will not only identify the problem, but will go a step beyond and tell you what to do to fix the problem", he says. "It has built-in intelligence to make those recommendations".

Leveraging HyperSizer's built-in optimization and intelligence capabilities, Sandia plans to refine its baseline design for a 100m blade and optimize parts of the design to reduce weight. The software will be key in exploring how and when to add material variants such as carbon fiber, how to address active or passive load controls, and for experimenting with different air foils as part of the ongoing research effort. Ashwill says he expects industry to release wind turbines based on this blade research about seven to eight years in the future.

"We're just looking to apply innovation to larger blade design as we have in the past for smaller blades", Ashwill says. "HyperSizer will show us how to optimize those designs."

Toyota starts fuel cell vehicle trial

uk.ibtimes.com
24 January 2011

Toyota's fuel-cell hybrid vehicle, the FCHV-adv, will be placed into a trial programme between Narita International Airport and other destinations starting on January 29. The Toyota FCHV-adv will be used in a car service operating from Narita Airport for the Welcome Home Limousine Taxi Service for passengers returning to Japan on flights from Europe or the US.

Its involvement is part of a request from the Research Association of Hydrogen Supply/Utilisation Technology, which is part of the Hydrogen Highway Project being run by Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry within its Demonstration Program for Establishing a Hydrogen-based Social System.

As part of the same project, Toyota has also been supplying an FCHV-BUS fuel-cell hybrid bus that is used on a commercial route between Tokyo International Airport and central Tokyo. Toyota is expected to use data obtained from the car service trials and conduct ongoing research and development while co-operating with the government and energy industry to advance fuel-cell vehicles.

Wind turbine technician programs get nod

www.earthtechling.com
24 January 2011

A clean energy economy requires a skilled workforce, and the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) would like to help ensure that such a workforce exists. Towards that end, the organization has awarded its first ever Seal of Approval to three college wind turbine service technician training programs in the West.

The three schools now recognized by the AWEA for their top-notch programs are Columbia Gorge Community College's Renewable Energy Technology 9 Month Certificate Program for Wind Turbine Service Technicians (The Dalles, Oregon), Iowa Lakes Community College's Associates of Applied Science in Wind Energy & Turbine Technology program (Estherville, Iowa), and Texas State Technical College's Associates of Applied Science in Wind Energy & Turbine Technology program (Sweetwater, Texas).

The AWEA Seal of Approval program called for applications last year and took a critical look at whether educational and training institutions with technician programs are teaching the skills that an entry-level service technician needs, as identified by experts among AWEA's 2,500 company members.

AWEA sees its Seal of Approval Program as a quality assurance mechanism that will help strong programs stand out and fortify the industry as a whole with a pool of qualified technicians fully prepared to enter the wind power work force.

Green grows the oil rich Gulf

Weekend Australian
22 January 2011, Page: 2

United Arab Emirates is pointing the way to a future of cleaner technology

FROM the rooftop of Abu Dhabi's convention centre hotel, the night sky is floodlit in all directions so there can be no let-up in the frenetic construction that is transforming this desert city into a showcase of human ability to change the world.

There's a glass tower that leans precariously, plans for a replica Louvre, Ferrari World and a Palace Hotel that really is a marble palace complete with a gold vending machine in the lobby. None of it seems out of place in a city carpeted with eight-lane highways on which every second car is a V12 Mercedes-Benz, four-door Porsche or fortified Range Rover. It's difficult to fathom then that Abu Dhabi considers itself ground zero for negotiations to cement a low carbon emissions future for the world.

This week Abu Dhabi hosted its third annual World Future Energy Summit to honour the environmental vision of the founding father of the United Arab Emirates, Sheik Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahyan. It was a post-Cancun summit for the moneyed, attended by UN Secretary-General Ban Kimoon and his climate change attache Rajendra Pachauri.

US President Barack Obama sent his regards, as did his Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former British prime minister Tony Blair. European and Asian heads of state and royalty turned up to offer their support, including the presidents of Iceland and Pakistan, prime ministers of Portugal and Georgia, and Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden.

As technology companies in the alternative energy business showed their wares, there was everything from electric and compressed air motorcycles and battery operated cars to waste water filtration plants, new generation solar panels, giant offshore wind turbines and smaller nuclear power plants.

There was a big push for solar air-conditioning units that convert hot water to cold air. But the buzzword on everyone's lips was smart grid. This is the means through which electricity producers and sellers hope to be able to turn the dynamics of the electricity business on its head. Instead of electricity generators having to meet the fickle demands of users and build a system that can cope with peak demand, power users will be forced to meet the more erratic electricity supply characteristics of a grid made up of less predictable energy sources such as wind and solar.

Smart grids contain communication systems to allow electricity suppliers to load-shed (turn off) individual appliances such as air conditioners during peak demand or charge more to customers who want to keep the kettle boiling in times of scarce supply. Electricity demand management including even the public shaming of people who use more electricity than their neighbours underlies the model city that Abu Dhabi's state-owned energy company, Masdar, is building to pioneer alternative energy.

Abu Dhabi may be awash with oil and gas but it is willing to sponsor the creation of a post-oil world in the name of energy security and climate change. The Masdar Institute, a university and research facility linked to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is up and running and has entered industry-backed research projects with some of the world's big technology companies.

Agreements to date include research into breakthrough technologies in carbon capture, sequestration and the development of biofuel for the aviation industry from local salt-tolerant non-food vegetation. In contrast to motor vehicles, no one is expecting the development of a battery powered passenger aircraft soon.

Not constrained by elections or public opinion, the UAE has ordered four nuclear power plants, which it expects to be commissioned by 2020. Abu Dhabi's international nuclear co-operation ambassador Hamad al-Kaabi says nuclear has been chosen because it provides independence, energy security and an answer to global warming and environmental concerns.

Kaabi says the UAE's energy demand is growing at 9% a year and the country is a net importer of natural gas. Oil is expensive and a polluting form of power generation, he says. Coal is more polluting and renewable energies such as wind and solar can only meet 6% to 7% of peak demand, he says. But this has not stopped Abu Dhabi pioneering commercial scale solar power from both photovoltaic and concentrated solar sources. Kaabi says nuclear and renewable enterprises are "urgently needed as partners".

The Masdar Institute site has a 10MW solar array that in maintenance terms is the equivalent of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. A team of cleaners wipes the desert sand from the solar panels to keep them working. It takes two weeks to clean them all, and as soon as they are finished it is time to start again. The Masdar city site also has a concentrated solar plant that has so far demonstrated that because of dust particles, Abu Dhabi sunlight is less than ideal for concentrating solar heat.

Undaunted, Abu Dhabi has committed to developing the Shams One 100MW concentrated solar plant in the western region, which is claimed to be the world's largest of its type. To cover all bases, the winner of this year's Zayed Future Energy Prize was given to wind turbine maker Vestas, even though Abu Dhabi has little wind to harness.

Masdar chief executive Sultan Ahmed al-Jaber says research is urgent for all forms of energy including clean fossil fuels, peaceful nuclear power and renewables such as wind and solar. And rather than pick a winner, Jaber says it is better for the different energy forms to slug it out. "To ensure the emergence of the most commercially viable, scalable and efficient technology, we must create competition", he says. "Competition drives innovation".

Masdar City itself has been a case study in technological innovation that has not always borne fruit. Development of the city is now being co-ordinated by Australian businessman Alan Frost, who has worked previously for Babcock and Brown and Lend Lease. Frost insists the project isn't just a real estate development but is linked to Abu Dhabi's 2030 vision to develop a post-oil economy.

"The idea of this is to create a clean tech cluster, the regional Silicon Valley of renewable energy", he says. Frost says Silicon Valley started as Stanford University business park in the 1940s and 50s and built its success in several decades. "I don't think anyone is thinking Masdar City is going to be instant", he says. "The key is the government support and the fact the government really does want to diversify away from being a carbon-based economy and has set a target for 7% renewable energy by 2020".

When it was launched three years ago, the plan was to build the city in five to seven years, but that timetable has now been pushed out by nine years. In addition, a revolutionary concept to build the entire city on a podium 7.5m off the ground has been scrapped. So too has the concept of having a network of several thousand driverless electric cars, or PRTs, to shuttle people around the city.

Only the institute and Masdar headquarters building will now be constructed on a podium to give the site some elevation. A handful of PRTs will be restricted to an 800m shuttle route that replaces a 250m walk. The ambitious plan to elevate the entire city was considered wasteful in the wake of the global financial crisis.

The delay in construction was also seen as a sensible way of avoiding being locked into to one generation of technology. "When we looked at building everything in five years, it was obviously the wrong approach", Frost says. "If it is all about innovation and learning and incorporating what you have learned in one phase to the next, then building it all to one specification on one day doesn't make a lot of sense".

Buildings have been designed to shade each other during the day and the walls of the institute are a combination of louvres and plastic compartments filled with ergon gas to cut down on radiated heat in order to lower the temperature of the entire site. A cooling tower in the centre of the square between the resource centre, laboratories and residential apartments has a display system that shows how much electricity is being used relative to what is being produced from rooftop solar panels.

The individual energy use of students will be monitored and they will be encouraged to compete to lower demand. The city will be pedestrian friendly rather than car-free, and without the driverless cars city planners are looking how best to integrate the public transport systems with a light rail and a network of electric taxis.

Despite the flat terrain, no one seems daring enough to suggest the bicycle. "Four years ago the thinking was Masdar was an island and could do everything on its own. What we have come to realise is everything we put in the ground has to join up with what is outside", Frost says. "We have learned we can't be an island". It is the same thinking that is driving Abu Dhabi's push to help pioneer new low-carbon technologies that can be exported to developing countries.