Our new neighbours - twin turbines move in next door

www.abc.net.au
24 March, 2011

Dianne and George Watson have been sitting and watching excitedly as piece by piece two wind turbines are built on their doorstep. The second turbine of Hepburn Wind, Australia's first community wind farm, is near completion at Leonard's Hill near Daylesford.

While wind farms have divided communities with complaints about ill health effects, noise and their appearance Dianne and George are excited at the prospect of turbines generating power from a paddock next to their property. "We've experienced the whole project going up and just seeing the parts coming up the driveway and everything, it was just unbelievable".

George says he's been living there since 1985 and it's the best thing that he's seen happen in Leonard's Hill. He says the Japan crisis has only reinforced his view that he'd rather live next to two wind towers than a nuclear power plant. The two turbines are expected to be generating power within the next four months.

Hepburn Wind chairman Simon Holmes a Court says once the lifting team have finished constructing the turbines, an electrical team will commence connecting them to the grid. "It will take them a good two months to connect up all the electricals and start to test it and in the June time frame, we'll be energising the wind farm and will start generating clean, safe energy into the local distribution network". Several residents in the local community are opposed to the project.

Simon says they've been communicating with residents as much as possible to try and "bust through some of those myths and misinformation about wind farms". "There are still a few people who are suspicious and not quite happy and we continue to work with those people to allay their fears", he says. The wind farm is expected to power more than 2,000 homes when it's operational. Simon says there will be a surplus of power and Hepburn Wind will be a net exporter of renewable energy within a year.

"We monitored the wind at the site, we had a monitoring tower up for three years, and we analysed that data at the end of that period with an independent wind engineering firm and they've predicted that the wind farm will power 2,300 homes. So generate as much power as 2,300 homes use in an average year, and in Daylesford in there are 2,000 homes". It's an interesting time for wind power and the renewable energy sector.

The emissions trading scheme debate is again dominating federal politics, a public hearing is being held in Ballarat next week as part of a Senate inquiry into wind farms and there are fears that the Victorian Government's wind farm proximity restrictions will push wind companies such as Keppel Prince and Pacific Hydro interstate.

Simon says while the project was never meant to be a political statement, he is hoping it provides a good example to the State Government as it rolls out its new wind policy about the positives of wind power. "It's been driven by local concern about climate change.

"We just sat down and thought, we're going to get on with it. So it is nice to be able to show a wide range of stakeholders in the community that a community can benefit from a wind farm and show our leaders that there is a positive role that renewable energy can play in communities".

Vineyard harvests the sun

Adelaide Advertiser
22 March 2011, Page: 35

THE Clare Valley's Mt Surmon Wines has adopted renewable energy to protect itself against rising electricity prices and declining grape sales. Owner Burt Surmon has installed a $73,000 10 kW solar power system on his 35ha property, 20ha of which is under vines. With government rebates, the system cost almost $50,000, but it's the long term value that encouraged the switch.

"As vineyard owners, we have been conscious of our environmental needs and the solar installation was an extension of that thinking", Mr Surmon said. "But the other reality is that the wine industry isn't travelling all that well,.. So we put some money on the roof to help us generate passive income (through the feed in tariff)". The system, which can generate up to 45 kW a day, will be paid back over seven years with a 16% return on investment, he said.

Wind farm wins WA nod

Summaries - Australian Financial Review
22 March 2011, Page: 11

The Mumbida wind farm, a joint business between Verve Energy and Macquarie Group is expected to commence working in 2012, after the Western Australian Economic Regulation Authority approved its licence. Complaints about the new farm were rejected, including that from Griffin Power (formerly Ric Stowe's company) which owns Emu Downs wind farm. The Emu Downs wind farm is presently up for sale by RBC Capital Markets and Royal Bank of Scotland after being muddled up in the Stowe empire.

Chilly reception for wind farm changes

Summaries - Australian Financial ReviewI
21 March 2011

The Victorian state government's change to planning regulations for wind farms, whereby it has handed much of the control over to local councils, could spell the end for a number of proposed projects, according to the renewable energy industry. Andrew Richards from Pacific Hydro said his company was not taking on any new projects and the fact that wind farms were now subject to stricter regulations than coal fired or gas fired power stations was 'unbelievable.'

Shaq Mohajerani from Union Femosa Wind Australia said he was in favour of community consultation. But uncertainty over legislation would make it difficult to attract investment, while Origin Energy, which was granted approval by John Brumby's Labor government for the Stockyard Hill wind farm, would not comment. Matthew Guy, Victorian Planning Minister, said the National Party had nothing to do with the decisions, president of the Municipal Association of Victoria, Bill McArthur conceded some projects may be blocked for political reasons, and Chris Schulz from Allens Arthur Robinson said projects would be abandoned or head to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal.

Community readies to flick the switch

Sydney Morning Herald
19 March 2011, Page: 14

WE'D better be getting serious about massive wind and solar, because the alternatives are narrowing. Forget nuclear here, anywhere near anybody. Carbon capture and storage? Yeah, sure. Coal seam gas? Highly problematic. Geothermal? Hmm.

On Thursday, the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, said she was looking at whether the "renewables age" could be brought on sooner and in Australia, the Greens leader, Bob Brown, pounced. "We need to, sensibly, go straight to renewables", he said. "They're safe, they're great job creators, and the power source is free".

Everyone seems down on wind farms at the moment, they're not powerful enough, they're unsightly, they're even unhealthy! (Caution: excessive anxiety about the value of your property is bad for you.) The failing renewable energy target regime and a Victorian government elected on an anti wind platform are not helping, but weather permitting, today the first of a pair of two MW turbines in the community funded Hepburn Wind project is being raised at Leonard's Hill, near Daylesford and Hepburn Springs, in central Victoria.

The 1600 members of Hepburn Wind are expecting commercial returns on their collective $8.7 million investment, but a director, Simon Holmes a Court, says the primary drivers are reducing the town's carbon footprint and "making the statement that we're impatient and are just getting on with it".

"We're not cutting cable to the network", he says. "But when it's up and going we'll be a net exporter to the grid. On a windy day we'll be putting out far more power than our community uses". A non profit group, Embark, is extending the Hepburn model, working with more than 40 communities for small wind, solar or micro hydropower projects. Armidale, in the NSW northern tablelands, is next. "There's no reason why we couldn't have them in cities", Holmes a Court says.

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The reactor that saves itself: China leads the way with thorium

www.smh.com.au
23 March 2011

A few weeks before the tsunami struck Fukushima's uranium reactors and shattered public faith in nuclear power, China revealed that it was launching a rival technology to build a safer, cleaner, and ultimately cheaper network of reactors based on thorium. This passed unnoticed – except by a small of band of thorium enthusiasts – but it may mark the passage of strategic leadership in energy policy from an inert and status-quo West to a rising technological power willing to break the mould. If China's dash for thorium power succeeds, it will vastly alter the global energy landscape and may avert a calamitous conflict over resources as Asia's industrial revolutions clash head-on with the West's entrenched consumption.

China's Academy of Sciences said it had chosen a "thorium-based molten salt reactor system". The liquid fuel idea was pioneered by US physicists at Oak Ridge National Lab in the 1960s, but the US has long since dropped the ball. Further evidence of Barack Obama's "Sputnik moment", you could say. Chinese scientists claim that hazardous waste will be a thousand times less than with uranium. The system is inherently less prone to disaster.

"The reactor has an amazing safety feature," said Kirk Sorensen, a former NASA engineer at Teledyne Brown and a thorium expert. "If it begins to overheat, a little plug melts and the salts drain into a pan. There is no need for computers, or the sort of electrical pumps that were crippled by the tsunami. The reactor saves itself," he said. "They operate at atmospheric pressure so you don't have the sort of hydrogen explosions we've seen in Japan. One of these reactors would have come through the tsunami just fine. There would have been no radiation release."

Thorium is a silvery metal named after the Norse god of thunder. The metal has its own "issues" but no thorium reactor could easily spin out of control in the manner of Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, or now Fukushima. Professor Robert Cywinksi from Huddersfield University said thorium must be bombarded with neutrons to drive the fission process. "There is no chain reaction. Fission dies the moment you switch off the photon beam. There are not enough neutrons for it continue of its own accord," he said. Dr Cywinski, who anchors a UK-wide thorium team, said the residual heat left behind in a crisis would be "orders of magnitude less" than in a uranium reactor.

The earth's crust holds 80 years of uranium at expected usage rates, he said. Thorium is as common as lead. America has buried tons as a by-product of rare earth metals mining. Norway has so much that Oslo is planning a post-oil era where thorium might drive the country's next great phase of wealth. Even Britain has seams in Wales and in the granite cliffs of Cornwall. Almost all the mineral is usable as fuel, compared to 0.7% of uranium. There is enough to power civilization for thousands of years.

I write before knowing the outcome of the Fukushima drama, but as yet none of 15,000 deaths are linked to nuclear failure. Indeed, there has never been a verified death from nuclear power in the West in half a century. Perspective is in order. We cannot avoid the fact that two to three billion extra people now expect – and will obtain – a western lifestyle. China alone plans to produce 100m cars and buses every year by 2020.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said the world currently has 442 nuclear reactors. They generate 372 GWs of power, providing 14% of global electricity. Nuclear output must double over twenty years just to keep pace with the rise of the China and India. If a string of countries cancel or cut back future reactors, let alone follow Germany's Angela Merkel in shutting some down, they shift the strain onto gas, oil, and coal. Since the West is also cuttingsolar subsidies, they can hardly expect the solar industry to plug the gap.

BP's disaster at Macondo should teach us not to expect too much from oil reserves deep below the oceans, beneath layers of blinding salt. Meanwhile, we rely uneasily on Wahabi repression to crush dissent in the Gulf and keep Arabian crude flowing our way. So where can we turn, unless we revert to coal and give up on the ice caps altogether? That would be courting fate.

US physicists in the late 1940s explored thorium fuel for power. It has a higher neutron yield than uranium, a better fission rating, longer fuel cycles, and does not require the extra cost of isotope separation. The plans were shelved because thorium does not produce plutonium for bombs. As a happy bonus, it can burn up plutonium and toxic waste from old reactors, reducing radio-toxicity and acting as an eco-cleaner. Dr Cywinski is developing an accelerator driven sub-critical reactor for thorium, a cutting-edge project worldwide. It needs to £300m of public money for the next phase, and £1.5bn of commercial investment to produce the first working plant. Thereafter, economies of scale kick in fast. The idea is to make pint-size 600MW reactors.

Yet any hope of state support seems to have died with the Coalition budget cuts, and with it hopes that Britain could take a lead in the energy revolution. It is understandable, of course. Funds are scarce. The UK has already put its efforts into the next generation of uranium reactors. Yet critics say vested interests with sunk costs in uranium technology succeeded in chilling enthusiasm. The same happened a decade ago to a parallel project by Nobel laureate Carlo Rubbia at CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research). France's nuclear industry killed proposals for funding from Brussels, though a French group is now working on thorium in Grenoble.

Norway's Aker Solution has bought Professor Rubbia's patent. It had hoped to build the first sub-critical reactor in the UK, but seems to be giving up on Britain and locking up a deal to build it in China instead, where minds and wallets are more open. So the Chinese will soon lead on this thorium technology as well as molten-salts. Good luck to them. They are doing Mankind a favour. We may get through the century without tearing each other apart over scarce energy and wrecking the planet.

Novatec deal boosts solar power

Summaries - Australian Financial Review
17 March 2011, Page: 17

Renewable energy developer Novatec Solar yesterday agreed to sell a 35% stake in the business to power and automation technology firm ABB. The deal will give Novatec, a subsidiary of infrastructure investment firm Transfield Holdings, access to power plant projects in Europe and beyond. Chairman of Novatec Guido Belgiorno Nettis said, "ABB is at the forefront of renewable energy integration". ABB recently completed a communications system contract for the Water Corporation in Perth. Transfield Holdings, in a consortium with Transfield Services, is competing in the Federal Government'ssolar flagships project using Novatec's technology against companies including Parsons Brinckerhoff and Wind Prospect CWP.

Lack of green energy to 'hit' power bills

West Australian
16 March 2011, Page: 28

WA will face a costly "green skills shortage" when the Federal Government's proposed carbon tax is introduced, unless the State Government starts investing in green technology and offering more specialised university places now, a union of scientists and engineers has warned.

Association of Professional Engineers, Scientists and Managers Australia State president Zaneta Mascarenhas said many engineering graduates had specialist skills in green technology but there were not enough local jobs for them to enter when they finished their studies, meaning they could not "get their hands dirty" and further develop their skills.

Ms Mascarenhas said WA was better positioned to take advantage of natural resources like solar power than European countries that were investing in green technology. She said the State Government needed to start investing in renewable energy projects now to keep household energy bills low when the carbon tax was imposed. "Germany is at the forefront of solar technology and they don't get nearly as much sun as WA", she said. "Initially it will be expensive but it will be more expensive to make the transition later. At this stage WA is not ready".

Unions WA secretary Simone McGurk said WA's lack of investment in renewable energy infrastructure meant the State was already losing some of its brightest green industry engineers. A joint report Creating Jobs, Cutting Pollution developed between the Australian Conservation Foundation and the Australian Council of Trade Unions found taking "strong" action on climate change now would create 770,000 more Australian jobs by 2030 than "weak action" would.

ACF spokesman Simon O'Connor said while a Federal policy would be the most cost effective option, the States could still take independent action on climate change. Verve Energy announced last year it was planning a large scale solar farm near Greenough in the State's Mid West. Manager of corporate relations Peter Winner said the Greenough River solar farm "would happen" and the company was also working on its Mumbida wind farm near Geraldton and Albany wind farm extension.

Japan nuclear crisis no boost for local coal, gas

Courier Mail
16 March 2011, Page: 30

JAPAN'S crisis won't hurt the global economy's recovery this year and any step back from its nuclear program would mainly benefit oil producers rather than Australia's gas and coal sectors, a leading economic forecaster said. BIS Shrapnel chief economist Frank Gelber said even if the world's third largest economy fell back into recession, it would not upset global growth this year of about 4% as Japan was not a growth driver. He also questioned if Japan's nuclear plant crisis would result in increased sales of Australian coal and gas, given Australia's existing capacity constraints.

"We can't produce to meet demand anyway. Longer term, you might see a slight shift away from uranium in Japan but short term they're more likely to replace that with oil, which doesn't mean anything for us, and medium term it might be coal and gas but it's not going to make a huge difference to us", he said. 30% of Japan's electricity production comes from nuclear power. It has plans to expand this to 50% by 2030, reduce fossil fuel use and increase renewable energy as part of its efforts to slash greenhouse gases.

Gas producer Origin Energy's managing director Grant King yesterday said Japan's commitment to a nuclear fleet expansion might change given the partial meltdown at several plants after cooling systems were taken out by the tsunami. "There are (nuclear fleet) concerns being talked about,.. that may well lead to changes in targets that exist in the longterm fuel mix and that would clearly be advantageous to LNG", Mr King said.

Dr Gelber also said the Australian economy looked set for five strong years of growth, powered by the minerals and energy investment boom. But he said Australia will experience a "very distinct" two speed economy in that time. He warned that Australia's major medium term economic challenge was to ensure it could withstand the shock of a bust in minerals prices.

"The Australian economy is now all about satisfying minerals demand. We're not doing anything else. All other industry is running down. "Take Queensland agriculture's a mixed bag, tourism is stuffed, education services and non commodities related manufacturing are doing it very tough as we undergo a structural shift to make way for the minerals boom", Dr Gelber said. "Once we've changed our structure, we could be left high and dry if and when the minerals boom busts. I don't know when that is, but the shock to the economy will come not when minerals prices fall but when investment falls and (the lag effect) could be years.

"We should be thinking now about what to do, for example using (a minerals resource rent tax) to help set ourselves up to be as resilient as possible". BIS Shrapnel forecasts Australia's growth for the year to this June to be 2.6%, rising to 4.0% in 2012. It forecasts Queensland's economy to have strong growth this year and next, due largely to a construction sector boom that will be led by engineering construction related to the boom in investment in minerals and energy projects.

Energy giants punt on the future

Australian
16 March 2011, Page: 30

Origin Energy's $2.3 billion equity raising shows that big companies are still laying energy bets amid uncertain carbon policies, but their benefits are easily found. Grant King's empire is built on the foundation of a fully integrated business model that means he can manage wholesale energy market risk and indeed government policy risk with stable retail customers. The same applies to AGL Energy and TRUEnergy, with the latter showcasing the diversification benefits by diluting the Yallourn coal fired generator's share of its portfolio from 77% to 45%.

At the same time, the Victorian share of its retail network fell from 79% to 37% through the NSW purchase. Maybe that explains why incumbents were the only parties to bid in last year's privatisation. Others would argue that uncertainty over government policy was a more obvious reason, scaring off offshore investment, with the resources tax debacle and carbon price uncertainty the major factors.

Still, Hong Kong based CLP Group was prepared to back local boss Richard McIndoe on last year's $2bn NSW investment to establish TRUEnergy as a stand alone player. Origin Energy's King is pleased the government is open to discussion on the carbon tax, but like other producers he would prefer a well designed trading scheme that would provide incentives for new abatement investment while also creating a more stable investment environment to ensure supply continuation.

The idea being the trading system would work towards the right price and, in the process, obviate the need for artificial support for renewable energy. The problem with the present model is that the emphasis on the 20% mandated renewable target skews investment towards more expensive alternatives, away from cheaper base load supply. King has his bases well covered.

But he has long warned that the better Australia is at exporting coal seam gas and other gas, the higher the local gas prices will be. The pressure to increase renewable targets also raises domestic prices and negates some cost advantages enjoyed by base load power sources such as gas over high carbon sources like coal. In short, the more the government distorts the market, the more it will defeat its aim of reducing carbon emissions.

The concept of carbon taxes as setting a price to provide stability is laughed at by the energy industry, given the long lead times for investment. But at least it's a start. The government can now till in the details to fast track the move towards a market based system. That will necessarily involve politically difficult decisions but is preferable to leaving the market half pregnant.

Ford sparks solar power at Michigan plant

www.earthtechling.com
16 March 2011

Ford, alongside DTE Energy, announced this month that a new 500 kW solar power system at its Michigan Assembly plant is now operational. It serves both as a test pilot program and also the automaker's largest solar power generating system to date. It is being used, among other things, to help power the production of small, fuel efficient cars like the new Focus Electric, which we covered earlier this year.

A smaller solar power project is expected to be installed at the Michigan Assembly plant that will power the lighting systems at the manufacturing center. The plant is also being set up with a 750 kW clean energy storage facility that can store 2 million watt hours of power using batteries, or reportedly enough energy for approximately 100 average Michigan homes for a year. And, as if this weren't enough already, a 50 kW facility to demonstrate the potential reuse of vehicle electric batteries for stationary energy storage is being mixed in as well.

In addition to solar and energy storage pilots, Ford will also create ten electric vehicle charging stations. The stations will be used by electric switcher trucks to transport parts from one building to another on the site. All of this was funded by a $3 million investment from DTE Engery's SolarCurrents program, a $2 million grant from the Michigan Public Service Commission, and around $800,000 from Ford itself.

These clean energy projects come Ford is putting more investment into green technology with vehicles like the C Max Hybrid, a new software system that seeks to improve fuel economy, and even a Revolving Energy Fund with the University of Michigan. But, only time will tell if the automaker's competing ideas, like their electric charger, will be enough to stand up against electric models like the Nissan LEAF and others.

Spain orders review of nuclear power plants

edition.cnn.com
16 March 2011

Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero Wednesday ordered a review of his country's nuclear power plants in light of the crisis unfolding in Japan, where workers are battling to contain radioactive materials at a plant after a massive earthquake and tsunami. Spain is the latest in a number of countries around the world who are giving their nuclear programs a second look as Japan tirelessly works to avoid a nuclear disaster.

According to nation's nuclear regulatory body, the Nuclear Safety Council, Spain has eight nuclear reactors in operation at six nuclear power plants. "We should do this, but there are reasons to remain calm about the safety of our nuclear plants and about the reports the Nuclear Safety Council is preparing", Zapatero told reporters of his decision for a review. He added, "What we are going to do is be even more sure and safer. And if there is a needed improvement at some nuclear plant due to a hypothetical risk, that's the work of the Nuclear Safety Council".

Separately, Zapatero said that Spain is not ordering an evacuation of its nationals in Japan because there's been no such request from the Japanese government. Instead, Spain will follow Japan's lead and will try to assist those Spaniards who wish to leave. There are no Spaniards in the affected zone near the nuclear power plant or in other high risk areas, the prime minister's office reported. There are about 1,900 Spaniards in Japan, more than half of them in the Tokyo area.

In Venezuela, President Hugo Chavez said that preliminary plans for a nuclear power plant in his country will be halted. He ordered his energy ministry to look for alternative sources of energy. Tuesday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced a three month moratorium on the extension of the operation periods for German nuclear plants. That move will lead to at least one German nuclear plant shutting down very soon, Germany's environmental minister later said in a statement.

Solar power outshines nuclear power: Study

www.thestar.com
15 March 2011

A year long Queen's University study has concluded that nuclear power is simply not worth the risk when compared to solar power. "The current situation at Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant and the anxiety of a possible meltdown are once again calling into question the use of nuclear power as a long term energy option here in Canada", Joshua Pearce, a mechanical and materials engineering professor told the Star.

The university team looked at the 100 nuclear plants in the U.S, and factored in the indirect public subsidy, which amounts to the cost of insuring a nuclear plant in the event of a catastrophic accident, and the power produced over the lifetime of a nuclear power plant. "In my mind it is basically insanity to shoulder the public with risk to get relatively small amount of electricity out of it", Pearce said.

He noted that in the U.S, there is a $10 billion cap on liability in the event of an accident, which amounts to an indirect subsidy of about $33 million per plant per year over the lifetime of a nuclear plant. The study, funded by the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada, took this indirect subsidy and transferred it in the form of a loan guarantees for solar panel manufacturing plants over 100 years.

"At the end of all of this you end up with $5.3 trillion in additional electricity (from solar). That for us was somewhat surprising that it was so high", he said. Ivana Zelenika Zovko, a master's student in environmental studies at Queen's who worked on the project, said that, all things considered, nuclear power is "just not worth the risk".

The study concluded: "In light of these results and with the recent economic challenges, climate destabilization and a new found emphasis on sustainability, U.S, energy policy needs to re evaluate its options and appropriate available funds wisely by moving away from nuclear power and diversifying their energy portfolio to maximize the renewable (not alternative) energy potential".

Auckland to trial solar power

www.stuff.co.nz
16 March 2011

Auckland is looking to put in place the country's largest solar power incentive scheme to move the city away from dependence on the Huntly thermal power station. The Auckland Council's Environment and Sustainability Forum looks set, this week, to approve a pilot scheme which will see the installation of 250 solar hot water heating systems in homes across the city, fitted with systems which will monitor usage.

As part of the pilot, there would be review of compliance, financing and best practice of installation of solar power in the city. Any incentive scheme would be dependant on the outcome of the pilot. Mayor Len Brown requested the investigation of opportunities for solar power provision as part of his 100 projects in his first 100 days in office. The project fits in with the Economic Development Ministry's updated 2010 Energy Outlook which projects that 83% of New Zealand's electricity generation will be from renewable sources by 2030.

According to an agenda for the forum, in the past decade there have only been 275 solar hot water systems installed on average per year in Auckland less than 10% of the number of systems installed annually in New Zealand. The pilot scheme follows the success of a similar project in Nelson which saw an increased investment in solar power businesses. The Nelson scheme saw the households involved make an average saving of 75% saving on hot water bills and an average of $500 of annual electricity savings.

Hotter Solar Energy

www.technologyreview.com
15 March 2011

Solar thermal power plants that produce hotter steam can capture more solar power. That's why Siemens is exploring an upgrade for solar thermal technology to push its temperature limit 160 °C higher than current designs. The idea is to expand the use of molten salts, which many plants already use to store extra heat. If the idea proves viable, it will boost the plants' steam temperature up to 540 °C the maximum temperature that steam turbines can take.

Siemens's new solar thermal plant design, like all large solar thermal power plants now operating, captures solar heat via trough shaped rows of parabolic mirrors that focus sunlight on steel collector tubes. The design's Achilles' heel is the synthetic oil that flows through the tubes and conveys captured heat to the plants' centralized generators: the synthetic oil breaks down above 390 °C, capping the plants' design temperature.

Startups such as BrightSource Energy, eSolar, and SolarReserve propose to evade synthetic oil's temperature cap by building so called power tower plants, which use fields of mirrors to focus sunlight on a central tower. But Siemens hopes to upgrade the trough design, swapping in heat stable molten salt to collect heat from the troughs. The resulting design should not only be more efficient than today's existing trough based plants, but also cheaper to build. "A logical next step is to just replace the oil with salt", says Peter Muerau, Siemens's molten salt technology program manager.

The German engineering giant will actually be the second player to try to push molten salts through solar collector tubes. Last summer, the Italian utility Enel Green Power, the renewable energy arm of Europe's most indebted utility Enel Green Power began running molten salt through a field of about 30,000 m² of trough mirrors adjacent to its natural gas fired power plant near Syracuse, Sicily. The salt exits the 5.4 kilometers of collector pipe at 565 °C, boosting the power plant's output by 5%.

Enel Green Power, the renewable energy arm of Europe's most indebted utility Enel Green Power's plant uses collector tubes from Italy's Archimede Solar Energy, the only producer of collector tubes designed to handle molten salts. Their collector tubes use a heat stable metalloceramic coating to maximize heat absorption, as well as thicker titanium stabilized steel pipes to resist bending at high temperatures. Paolo Martini, Archimede's business development director, says the plant is operating well. Enel Green Power, the renewable energy arm of Europe's most indebted utility Enel Green Power plans to build a 30 MW plant in Sicily.

Since 2009, Siemens has amassed a 45% stake in Archimede, but it has opted to go back to pilot scale to optimize the molten salt concept before offering commercial scale plants to global clients. "We are convinced the technology itself will work. But a lot of work needs to be done to optimize the economics", says Muerau.

Siemens is building a molten salt pilot plant on the grounds of the University of Evora in Portugal. The plant should be operating by early next year. The plant part of a German research consortium including salt and chemicals giant K+S AG and the German Aerospace Center will be used to drive down energy losses associated with both the highest and lowest temperatures that a commercial plant will experience.

At the high end, the losses come from heat that's captured by the collector tubes and then dissipated before it can be delivered to the plant's turbines. "The heat loss is an exponential curve, and it climbs very steeply at the higher temperatures", explains Muerau. Siemens will seek to achieve the highest temperatures possible without going so high that these losses outweigh the gains from the hotter steam.

The low end challenge stems from molten salt's high freezing point. The mixture of molten potassium and sodium nitrate used in heat storage systems and in Enel Green Power, the renewable energy arm of Europe's most indebted utility Enel Green Power's demo plant freezes when it cools below 220 °C. Freezing is easy to prevent in centralized energy storage tanks, but presents a serious risk in kilometer long stretches of collector tube. To counter the freezing threat, Enel Green Power, the renewable energy arm of Europe's most indebted utility Enel Green Power's plant maintains the salt in its tubes above 290 °C, using considerable heat that could otherwise be used to generate power. Muerau says Siemens is looking for a salt formulation with a 150 °C or lower freezing point, which would mean they'd have to use much less heat to prevent the tubes from freezing.

If Siemens's efforts succeed, trough plants heating molten salt could reduce the cost of power generation by more than 10% compared to an oil plant, according to Muerau. (Estimates of current solar thermal costs vary between 13 to 20 cents per kW, which is still significantly higher than power generated by fossil fuels.) The cost reduction comes from both a several% increase in generation from turbines running on hotter steam, and a lower cost of construction.

However, some experts argue that the risk of freezing could still be a deal killer for commercializing molten salt based plants. Thomas Mancini, program manager for Sandia National Laboratories concentrating solar power program, says he remains "skeptical" of using molten salts in collector tubes given the inherent freezing threat. Mancini says that even at 100 °C (the temperature that boils water), there would be a significant risk of freezing.

But others in the industry are warming to molten salt's potential. In January, for example, Colorado based SkyFuel kicked off a $4.3 million R&D effort, supported by the US Department of Energy, to scale up its metallic film based trough mirrors for use with high temperature collector tubes.

Germany's PNE Wind teams with Vestas for offshore

www.reuters.com
Mar 15, 2011

COPENHAGEN, March 15 (Reuters) German wind park developer PNE Wind AG has agreed to cooperate exclusively with Danish wind turbine manufacturer Vestas (VWS.CO₂ in offshore wind farms in the North Sea, the companies said on Tuesday. Vestas will be supplier for PNE Wind AG's Gode Wind I project, requiring up to 77 turbines, and its Gode Wind III project which is still in the early planning phase but is foreseen with about 15 of Vestas's huge 6 MW turbines, they said.

A Vestas spokesman said, however, that the PNE cooperation deal does not qualify as a firm and unconditional order, which is the kind of order Vestas normally announces. The deal builds on successful cooperation in the Gode Wind II offshore wind park, which will be built in 2012 2013 with 84 Vestas V112 3.0 MW wind turbines, the companies said. "In parallel, the two other Gode Wind projects are to be developed further in such time as to allow their follow on construction", they said.

Wind sector keeps up pressure on EU over targets

www.euractiv.com
15 March 2011

The president of the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA), Arthuros Zervos, has called for the EU to adopt a binding renewable energy target of 30% for 2030. "The wind industry expects to invest some EUR 400 billion in Europe between now and 2030", he warned. "To do so it needs stable and certain EU energy policy". According to Christian Kjaer, EWEA's CEO, the continent's wind power sector is "increasingly concerned" about the lack of planning for the post 2020 period.

"It's important that we in the power sector acknowledge that we have a policy vacuum in terms of what's going to happen on 1 January 2021", he writes in a commentary published by EurActiv today (14 March). "For infrastructure investments, that is problematic", he adds. Wind energy installations can take up to ten years to build, and investors need to be satisfied that they will be able to sell the energy that is then generated. "I think that my industry is getting increasingly concerned about installing and planning new projects the closer we get to 2020", Kjaer explains, "so we're suggesting that the [European] Commission starts looking at policies for the period after 2020 now".

By 2020, the EU is committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by at least 20%, increasing the share of renewable energies in its energy mix by 20% and upping energy efficiency by 20%, all on 1990 levels. But divisions between member states prevented the emissions reductions targets for 2030 and 2040 laid out in the 2050 Low Carbon Roadmap published last week 40% and 60% respectively from being made legally binding. While lauding the positive elements of the roadmap, Steve Sawyer, secretary general of the Global Wind Energy Council, agreed that there was a danger of a post 2020 policy vacuum for EU investors and electricity producers alike.

"The current legislation only goes as far as 2020 and while looking 10 years into the future is better than anyone else is doing, it's still not enough", he told EurActiv. "You need to look 20, 30, 40 years ahead to put in place the policies to get us where we need to be in terms of emissions, energy security and competitiveness". The 2050 roadmap does forecast a rise in the share of low carbon technologies in the electricity mix "from around 45% today to around 60% in 2020, including through meeting the renewable energy target, to 75 to 80% in 2030, and nearly 100% in 2050".

But radical as this sounds, the goals are not obligatory and there are no specific targets for renewables. "It is clear that at the recent energy summit and in energy ministers meetings afterwards, nuclear and gas and coal were labelled as low carbon technologies", Kjaer writes. "There is a push or an intention to classify every existing power generating technology as low carbon including coal, by including CCS (carbon capture and storage)".

To counter this, he proposed a "technology neutral emissions performance standard" to start in 2015, which would be set slightly above a new gas plant at about 350 grams per kW and reduced over time. "And then let the market decide who can deliver carbon free electricity the cheapest", he said.

Northern Power Systems introduces new 2.3 MW permanent magnet direct drive wind turbine

www.digitaljournal.com
March 14, 2011

Northern Power Systems, Inc., a next generation wind turbine manufacturer, announced today the introduction of the Northern Power 2.3 permanent magnet direct drive (PM/DD) wind turbine designed for the onshore utility wind market. This breakthrough product is being launched at the European Wind Energy Association Annual Event in Brussels, Belgium March 14 17.

Additionally, Northern Power Systems today announced that it has successfully installed and commissioned its first prototype Northern Power 2.3 wind turbine. The prototype is owned by Heritage Sustainable Energy and is installed at the Stoney Corners wind farm in McBain, Michigan, USA. This prototype turbine, shipped from the new Northern Power factory in Saginaw, Michigan, is the largest direct drive wind turbine in commercial operation in North America.

The Northern Power 2.3, with its power rating of 2.3 MW, features a superior power curve and a lower cut in speed than competing wind turbines, enabling it to capture more power over a greater range of wind speeds. Combined with its higher availability and lower maintenance costs stemming from its sophisticated technology and simple gearless design, the Northern Power 2.3 offers customers more power, more of the time for a better bottom line.

Northern Power Systems is a pioneer in PM/DD technology with a long track record of development, including its highly successful Northern Power 100 as well as comprehensive testing of a 1.5 MW PM/DD concept generator in 2005. Today's Northern Power 2.3 represents the fourth generation of the company's unrivaled PM/DD technology. Northern Power Systems, in cooperation with the US National Wind Technology Center at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), successfully performed full power verification testing in 2010 of the Northern Power 2.3.

"Our dynamometer testing with the US Department of Energy's NREL facility and field results from our installed prototype turbine have consistently exceeded expectations. We are pleased to commercialize our turbine with a 2.3 MW power rating", said Troy Patton, President of Utility Wind at Northern Power Systems.

"Today marks the culmination of years of dedicated effort to bring our customers the best performing onshore utility wind turbine available in the market", added John P. Danner, Northern Power Systems President and CEO. "With a superior power curve, high availability and a modular PM/DD design, the Northern Power 2.3 will deliver higher project returns for our customers".

Suzuki Burgman Fuel-Cell Scooter

www.ultimatemotorcycling.com
13 March 2011

Suzuki Corporation has announced that the Burgman Fuel Cell scooter has become the world's first fuel-cell vehicle (motorcycle or other) to earn Whole Vehicle Type Approval in the European Union. The Burgman Fuel Cell Scooter debuted at the 41st Tokyo Motor Show in Oct. 2009. Since Feb. 2010, Suzuki and British company Intelligent Energy, which developed the Burgman Fuel Cell Scooter's fuel-cell system, have been jointly participating in trials of the scooter on public roads under the aegis of the British government's Technology Strategy Board.

The motorcycling trials are being conducted in the area surrounding Loughborough University in central England using a single Burgman Fuel Cell Scooter unit. Multiple units are due to be added. It was initially necessary to obtain Single Vehicle Approval for each Burgman Fuel Cell Scooter unit to be used in the trials. The newly obtained Whole Vehicle Type Approval (a pan European endorsement reflecting recognition of the Burgman Fuel Cell Scooter's high levels of environmental performance and safety) means that Single Vehicle Approval is no longer necessary.

The Burgman Fuel Cell Scooter is based on Suzuki's city friendly Burgman. It incorporates a light, compact, air cooled fuel-cell and a hydrogen tank that's positioned inside the frame. Electricity produced by the fuel-cell powers a motor for propulsion; the only emission is water. Suzuki is working toward commercializing the Burgman Fuel Cell Scooter as a motorcycle with superior environmental performance. Suzuki aims to make eco friendly fuel-cell scooters increasingly common in Europe in line with the establishment of hydrogen filling stations and other necessary infrastructure.

Solar energy growing in India

www.biofuelswatch.com
13 March 2011

According to a latest report named as Indian Solar Energy Market Outlook 2012, the installation of solar power in India has been developing at an extraordinary speed during the last few years. The solar power has appeared as one of the very possible as well as commercially profitable sector in the entire renewable energy space. The dedication of the government for increasing the green and clean energy has supported for this high growth.

There are more capability for deploying the off-grid photovoltaic depending upon the actual requirements and benefits in the areas like urban applications, rural lighting, electrification for powering the irrigation pump sets, etc. The private sector companies have been struggling to use the huge market potentials in this sector and during the next few years, the growth opportunities are expected to attract new market companies as well as make the market more competitive.

Many states in the country have been installing photovoltaic power plants and with the realization of National Solar Mission and the annual photovoltaic installed capacity is expected to develop at CAGR of 134% in 2009-2013. As per the study, the country will very soon become fastest growing energy consumer in the world by 2009-2013 next to China and other huge emerging market economies. Apart from this as the competitiveness of industrial sector is developing, the consumption of energy in the country will increase in the next years and support in additional fuel for developing renewable energy sector in the country.

The report was created to estimate the growth possibilities of the country in solar power sector as well as other sectors. The report features the present industry trends along with recent changes in country and state level regulatory environment. This report is expected to support the investors for knowing the market dynamics and estimate the future outlook of the solar power market in the country.

Indonesia’s wind energy plans

www.biofuelswatch.com
13 March 2011

Indonesia is all set to develop wind power as the large-scale wind farm being built in Sukabumi. The large-scale wind turbines plant in the country will be exactly set up at Sukabumi in West Java end of this year featuring a capacity of about 30 MW. Muhammad Sofyan, the PLN renewable energy division head said the project has received approval from Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry and Viron Energy has been expecting official permit from the ministry.

Luluk Sumiarso, the director general of ministry for the latest and renewable energy and the energy conservation said most of the foreign and local investors have been attracted to develop renewable energy in the country and he expects the construction of first large-scale wind-generated power plant in the country at Sukabumi will encourage additional investment. As per the Global Wind Energy Council, the country expects to set up 255 MW of wind turbines capacity by the year 2025.

Muhammad Sofyan said during the next month they will also make a contract with developer. Luluk Sumiarso said this year will be very important to develop renewable energy resource in Indonesia. Apart from the wind project, next month the government is expected to provide 3 letters ordering PLN for purchasing power from the geothermal producers. They are very much exited with PLN's dedication to develop the usage of other renewable energy, he added.

Indonesia is just next to China, India and US compared to the population with about 243 million people and south-east Asian tropical republic features about 17,500 islands. During 2009 CIA's World Factbook showed that Indonesia imports about 456,700 barrels of oil per day. According to a report about 65% people in Indonesia can access the electricity at present and in few places of the eastern Indonesia it is almost low to about 20%.

Thousands protest against Germany's nuclear plants

www.bbc.co.uk
12 March 2011

Tens of thousands of people have protested in Germany against the government's plans to extend the life of its nuclear reactors. Demonstrators in Stuttgart formed a human chain reaching 45km (27 miles) for the protest, planned before the current nuclear crisis in Japan. Organisers said events in Japan had proved atomic power was an uncontrollable and risky technology. Nuclear policy is a key issue in German regional elections this year.

About 60,000 people turned out for the protest, according to organisers. Police said the number was in the tens of thousands. The demonstrators formed a human chain between Stuttgart and the Neckarwestheim nuclear plant, waving yellow flags with the slogan "nuclear power no thanks". The protest took place in the south western state of Baden Wuerttemberg where Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives may lose power in elections two weeks from now, partly because of rising support for the Greens, analysts say.

Mrs Merkel, whose government extended the lifespan of nuclear power plants last year, sought to play down safety concerns about German plants. "We know how safe our plants are and that we do not face a threat from such a serious earthquake or violent tidal wave", she told reporters. "But we will learn what we can from the events in Japan, and in the coming days and weeks will follow closely what the analysis yields".

The Japanese government has been seeking to play down fears of a meltdown at the Fukushima 1 plant, which was badly damaged in Friday's devastating earthquake and tsunami. A powerful explosion hit the station on Saturday, destroying a building housing a reactor, but the authorities said the reactor itself was intact inside its steel container.

Look to the sun

Daily Telegraph
Tuesday 15/3/2011, Page: 22

While the tragedy in Japan has shocked us and our hearts go out to people of that country, you have to wonder at the ineptitude of our own leaders. Following the earthquake and tsunami Japan is now facing the terror of the meltdown of nuclear reactors. We saw what happened in Chernobyl and pray the same thing doesn't happen in Japan.

In the meantime while all this is happening around us our leaders are still saying that nuclear power is the way of the future for Australia. If they put as much of their own energy into the renewable energy debate, they would see that this country has two of the three main renewable resources in abundance: wind and sun.

Wouldn't we Australians be better off putting more money and energy into the research and development of equipment which would better utilise these infinite resources rather than continuing along the nuclear path? Australia is overdue for a tsunami or earthquake to happen and if it does, I don't want a nuclear power station anywhere on the continent.

I wonder if the politicians have ever bothered to look at a map showing our fault lines or extinct volcanoes. Try looking them up on Google, the results might surprise you. And what is the third replaceable or renewable thing that we have in abundance you ask? Politicians; they can be replaced at any time and the only thing that they contribute is more hot air.

Les Boucher Sanctuary Point

Clean energy industry warns of boom bust

Australian
Monday 14/3/2011, Page: 7

AUSTRALIA'S clean energy industry is facing a boom bust cycle as depressed green energy prices forced the owners of the nation's biggest baseload renewable energy project to call in receivers. New South Wales Sugar Milling Co-operative chief executive Chris Connors has blamed lower renewable energy prices from the government's "botched" renewable energy legislation for the financial failure of the joint venture cogeneration project between Sunshine Renewables and Delta Energy.

Nationwide, wind farm projects have been stymied by low prices for the Renewable Energy Certificates that are supposed to be a key income stream for the projects sparking fresh warnings of a boom bust cycle related to the government's renewable energy target scheme of 20% by 2020. Critics say the RET is "simply a government created market".

Underlining this, International Power Australia estimates 61% of the 1400 MWs of wind generation that have been built or promised since 2008 will be used to help meet contracts with state governments, often for taxpayer funded water desalination plants. Mr Connors said green energy prices were depressed because the solar credit scheme which subsidises households that install solar panels had led to a glut of 30 million RECs. Ferrier Hodgson, appointed receivers and managers two weeks ago, said the plants would run as normal and there would not be a large number of job losses as they were mostly automated.

On Friday, RECs prices were almost $36, well below the price of $45 to $50 that renewable energy companies say is needed to underwrite new investments in the absence of a carbon price. This is despite the government's move to deal with the glut of RECs last year by splitting large scale renewable projects and small scale projects into two separate markets. National Generators Forum executive director Malcolm Roberts said the RET was "simply a government created market" that required retailers to buy more expensive energy.

Pacific Hydro corporate and government affairs executive manager Andrew Richards said there was a significant backlog of shovel ready wind farm projects, but developers struggled to lock in the power purchase agreements needed to finance them. There would be a need to build new projects in the future, because while energy retailers have been banking the glut of cheap RECs, these are expected to be used by about 2014 to 2015. "We just hope the industry is still here and able to deliver", Mr Richards said. "You don't want a situation where you bottom out in the cycle as we are now and everybody has to build wind farms in a hurry, because that's going to shoot the prices up".

It was unfortunate "that's been the history of the industry, the boom bust cycle", while industry wanted sustainable growth. Clean Energy Council chief executive Matthew Warren said uncertainty about the carbon price was weighing heavily on RECs prices. But he did not expect a boom-bust situation "at this stage" as industry knew what its needs would be. A spokesperson for Climate Change Minister Greg Combet said the RET was always designed to complement a carbon price to drive clean energy investments.

AGL to build $45m plant for Vic polymers maker

Canberra Times
Saturday 12/3/2011, Page: 8

AGL Energy says it will build a $45 million cogeneration plant in Victoria for polymers maker Qenos. The cogeneration plant is expected to reduce emissions from Qenos by 100,000 tonnes a year, equivalent to taking 24,390 cars off the road, AGL Energy said yesterday. AGL Energy will secure a 15 year operating and maintenance agreement on the plant with options to extend to 25 years.

AGL Energy also will become the sole supplier of natural gas to the site, expected to be 4.5 petajoules a year. "This represents the largest investment in industrial or manufacturing cogeneration in over 10 years", AGL Energy, Merchant Energy group general manager Anthony Fowler said. "It also helps Qenos remain competitive as Australia prepares for a carbon constraint". Qenos is the only Australia manufacturer of polyethylene and polymers, which are used to make plastics such as milk bottles, packaging, pipes and water tanks. The Altona plant will have a capacity of 21 MWs and produce 88 tonnes of steam per hour.

Cogeneration facilities work by capturing waste heat to produce electricity through a turbine generator. "As this form of energy production is more efficient, it produces less greenhouse gas emissions and is often highly economic for businesses", Mr Fowler said. Shares in AGL Energy were down 21¢ at $14.01. Qenos says it adds value to Australia's oil and gas reserves by creating "innovative products that promote sustainability across Australian industries".

Money the antidote

Australian
Friday 11/3/2011, Page: 13

THE most extraordinary missing detail among allegations that wind farms make people ill, is that money is the antidote to all symptoms said to arise from exposure ("wind turbines bad for health, says US doctor", 10/3). Landowners with suitable topography are paid from $7000-$10,000 per turbine per year by energy companies. Miraculously, the arrival of this money in one's bank account has a complete preventive effect on symptoms, with only those who miss out on the money being still affected.

Anti turbine advocates argue that those with turbines on their land are gagged by contract hush clauses. But common law rights to seeking redress for having one's health harmed are not extinguished by such contracts. The self published wind turbine alarmist Dr Nina Pierpont may like to prescribe turbines to her patients as a way of alleviating their complaints.

Professor Simon Chapman, School of Public Health, University of Sydney

The science is good, the media bad, the situation worse: Garnaut

Age
Friday 11/3/2011, Page: 6

GOVERNMENT adviser Ross Garnaut has criticised media treatment of climate change, suggesting it has undermined support for action by giving equal weight to mainstream peer reviewed science and sceptical views not backed by published evidence.

The latest update to Professor Garnaut's 2008 climate change review, launched in Hobart last night, finds that the world is continuing to warm. He also found that the evidence that human greenhouse gas emissions are the primary cause has strengthened beyond the high level of certainty of three years ago.

Despite this, public confidence in climate science seemed to have weakened in Australia, in part due to media coverage of the issue. "If you take our mainstream media, it will often seek to provide some balance between people who base their views on the mainstream science and people who don't", he said. "That's a very strange sort of balance. It's a balance of words, and not a balance of scientific authority".

Professor Garnaut said the decline in public acceptance of climate science came amid increasing suggestions in scientific literature that large damage could start at a lower level of warming than the threshold of 2° above pre industrial levels recognised by the United Nations. The globe has warmed by about 0.9°. The latest Garnaut update the fifth of eight to be published before the end of March finds that not only is the globe warming, but that most physical and biological systems are changing at least as quickly as predicted.

The pace at which sea levels are rising has accelerated. While the likely increase this century remains uncertain, Professor Garnaut said credible estimates ranged up to 1.9 metres. The climate change department estimates up to 247,600 existing homes worth up to $63 billion are at risk of inundation from a sea level rise of 1.1 metres.

"It is an awful reality that no major developments in the science hold out realistic hope that the judgments of the 2008 review erred in the direction of overestimating the risks", Professor Garnaut said. He said he feared scientific projections to date might have been overly conservative.

Professor Garnaut's criticism of media coverage came as prominent Liberal frontbencher Malcolm Turnbull angrily rejected suggestions from Sydney talkback radio host David Oldfield, formerly involved with One Nation, that he was undermining Tony Abbott's leadership and pressing cross benchers to support the carbon tax. "He's just basically made that up", an angry Mr Turnbull said. "There is no basis in fact".

Hot rock power producer pounded

Courier Mail
Thursday 10/3/2011, Page: 55

GeoDynamics, Australia's biggest listed geothermal energy developer, will be ejected from the ASX 300 Index this month after hitting record lows and spearheading the losses that have plagued the sector. Shares in all the larger listed geothermal companies, including Brisbane based GeoDynamics and Panax Geothermal, and South Australia's Petratherm, are all at or close to record or 52 week lows.

Shares in GeoDynamics, which has the largest market capitalisation at $109 million, rallied in November after it said a 50 50 venture with Origin Energy to exploit shallow geothermal energy sources in South Australia's Cooper Basin was set to yield initial results before the end of June. Despite the effects of recent weather, the company still expects those initial results by June. But its shares have slid since February when its first-half net loss widened to $8.3 million from $5.5 million.

GeoDynamics' focus is its 70% owned project (Origin Energy owns the other 30%) in the Cooper Basin, which aims to tap heat in 4km deep granites to produce continuous, 24 hour power supply but without the greenhouse gas emissions and heavy water consumption of coal and gas fired power plants. The 50 50 venture targets heat at shallower depths and is less risky, so may bring geothermal power on line more quickly. But it could deliver only hundreds of MWs of power supply, while the deep venture has potential to produce thousands of MWs.

GeoDynamics, whose Jolokia 1 well is the hottest of its kind known in the world, is a global pioneer in hot fractured rock technology and a well blowout in 2009 delayed until 2013 a final investment decision on a 25 MW demonstration plant. Research firm Morningstar this week kept its "avoid" rating on GeoDynamics shares and urged clients to await more technological development progress before making any new investment in the stock. Morningstar cited concern over the company's rapid rate of cash outflow.

GeoDynamics recently secured a $90 million federal grant that underpins its operations up to the targeted commissioning of the 25 MW power plant in early 2015, Analysts also say the planned carbon price is likely to aid investment in Australia's gas producers but it will take other measures, such as national feed-in tariffs and more research and development support, to boost market support for renewable energy developers including geothermal and solar companies.

Investment research firm Bakers Group is more positive on the outlook for Panax Geothermal, recently rating its stock a "strong buy" but with high volatility likely. It said Panax Geothermal, unlike GeoDynamics, was focused on conventional geothermal technology for its projects in Australia, Indonesia and India. Bakers Group said because the technology was conventional, it was lower risk, and Panax Geothermal had several projects in advanced development stages. Panax Geothermal yesterday closed down 4% at 4.7¢. GeoDynamics was down 3% at 31.5¢.

We must face the facts

West Australian
Tuesday 8/3/2011, Page: 22

At first it seemed like a parody, but then it became clear that the letters published in The Weekend West (5/3) were from people who really believe in what they write. I agree on one point: the carbon tax in its current form is not really adequate to address all the issues we are facing globally This should not detract from the science behind global warming it is anthropogenic.

The only thing that nature has done is to throw in the occasional spanner in the form of a volcanic eruption which reduced the temperatures briefly The carbon emitted from volcanoes is ridiculously little when compared with human production. Volcanoes have always erupted, but the level of CO₂ increase in the atmosphere has been almost exponential since we started industrialisation.

All the letters have one common theme: let's put our head in the sand, ignore the science, hold on to the status quo for as long as we can because we hate change. And people in WA in particular have shown that we would really like things to continue on for ever, just the way they are, so we don't have to change.

It appalls me that people will ignore what is staring them in the face until it hits them and then there will be complaints about why nothing was done sooner. To say that our contribution to the problem is small is, to some extent, correct; but finger pointing has never led to change and in reality is an argument used to avoid necessary change we'll do something if the great polluters do something.

We are facing catastrophic changes. Have people not seen the news about flooding in Queensland? Have people not heard about the driest winter on record? The longest period of high temperatures which we just had? Are we really that ignorant or do we just don't want to know because it would force us to do something about it?

Let's face the facts: climate change is happening whether we like it or not. We can try to ignore it, but it is still happening and our actions today will determine how we are going to live in this country over the next generations. If a tax is required to force people to change their energy consumption habits and to force people to invest in renewable energy, then this is something that in the long run will benefit all of us.

Karsten Winter, Nollamara.