Sunday Age
9 Oct 2011, Page: 10
EUROPEANS believe the dangers of climate change represent a more serious problem than the current financial turmoil, according to a major new poll. The Eurobarometer poll found most people in the European Union consider global warming to be one of the world's most serious problems, with one fifth saying it is the single most serious problem. Overall, respondents said climate change was the second most serious issue facing the world, after poverty.
Connie Fledegaard, European climate commissioner, said: "This is encouraging news. The survey shows that the citizens of Europe can see that economic challenges are not the only ones we face. A clear majority of Europeans expect their politicians and business leaders to address the serious climate challenge now". She said it was striking that the public were even more concerned about climate change than in the run-up to the landmark Copenhagen summit on climate change in late 2009.
The number of people rating climate change as a very serious problem has risen slightly, from 64% when the poll was last conducted in 2009, to 68% this year. When asked to rank the seriousness of the problem, people put it at 7.4 out of 10, compared with a score of 7.1 out of 10 two years ago. People also said there were economic benefits to tackling climate change, with 8 out of 10 people saying that dealing with the problem would provide an economic boost and create jobs. Two years ago, the number was just under two-thirds.
There was also wide support for moving taxation to penalise greenhouse gas emissions and encourage energy efficiency, with an average of 68% of people across the bloc in favour of such a move. However, there was less enthusiasm for people taking personal responsibility for tackling climate change. Only one in five said they took personal responsibility, with more people saying it was for national governments, European Union authorities and businesses. Despite this, most respondents said they had taken action to combat climate change.
Friday, 14 October 2011
Blown away
Age
10 Oct 2011, Page: 12
IN DECIMATING the wind industry in Victoria, the Baillieu government has interfered with the free-market economy to the detriment of consumers. It is private investment capital that is building the wind farms across Australia, with not a cent of taxpayers' money. The electricity produced is virtually free once the wind turbines have been built and is sent to the grid, which keeps the pool price low and prevents coal-fired electricity generators from getting premium prices.
The Baillieu government is, therefore, complicit in a deal to give a commercial advantage to the coal-fired generators and keep electricity prices higher than they need be. In South Australia and Denmark, where wind provides more than 20% of the supply, electricity prices have stabilised. Isn't this government's war on wind farms a restraint of trade and are there not laws against this? Contrast this with the state and federal governments chipping in $150 million to help HRL build a coal-fired power station in the Latrobe Valley. You get to see how frighteningly little they know about sustainability.
Daniel Caffrey, Traralgon
10 Oct 2011, Page: 12
IN DECIMATING the wind industry in Victoria, the Baillieu government has interfered with the free-market economy to the detriment of consumers. It is private investment capital that is building the wind farms across Australia, with not a cent of taxpayers' money. The electricity produced is virtually free once the wind turbines have been built and is sent to the grid, which keeps the pool price low and prevents coal-fired electricity generators from getting premium prices.
The Baillieu government is, therefore, complicit in a deal to give a commercial advantage to the coal-fired generators and keep electricity prices higher than they need be. In South Australia and Denmark, where wind provides more than 20% of the supply, electricity prices have stabilised. Isn't this government's war on wind farms a restraint of trade and are there not laws against this? Contrast this with the state and federal governments chipping in $150 million to help HRL build a coal-fired power station in the Latrobe Valley. You get to see how frighteningly little they know about sustainability.
Daniel Caffrey, Traralgon
Solar power tops poll of positive perceptions
Age
10 Oct 2011, Page: 3
Solar energy has a very positive rating in the public's mind, while the nuclear industry and coal-fired power stations are at the bottom when people are asked about their perceptions of energy industries. Coal seam gas, which has become very controversial recently especially in NSW and Queensland, also rates badly. A UMR survey last month found more than 8 in 10 people had a positive view of solar power; only 10% were negative.
Three-quarters were positive on renewable energy. The gas industry also scored positively (61%), but those rating the coal industry favourably outstripped those seeing it negatively relatively narrowly (45-38%). People were equally divided about the oil industry (42% each).
Only 36% viewed the coal seam gas industry in a good light, compared with 41% who were negative. Coal-fired power stations, which have copped bad publicity in the carbon debate, were seen negatively by almost half (48%) accompanied by 34% who had a benign view. The nuclear industry scored 51% negative and 33% positive in the online survey of a nationally representative sample of 1000.
The survey found that 46% of Coalition voters had a favourable view of the coal seam gas industry, while 48% of Labor voters and 55% of Greens supporters were negative about it. Nearly two-thirds said they didn't know much about the coal seam gas industry. But nearly one in three were worried about it, and almost three in 10 were unsure. The survey was commissioned by David Utting Communications. Mr Utting is a consultant to the mining and renewable energy industries and chief executive officer of the Yilgarn Iron Producers Association.
10 Oct 2011, Page: 3
Solar energy has a very positive rating in the public's mind, while the nuclear industry and coal-fired power stations are at the bottom when people are asked about their perceptions of energy industries. Coal seam gas, which has become very controversial recently especially in NSW and Queensland, also rates badly. A UMR survey last month found more than 8 in 10 people had a positive view of solar power; only 10% were negative.
Three-quarters were positive on renewable energy. The gas industry also scored positively (61%), but those rating the coal industry favourably outstripped those seeing it negatively relatively narrowly (45-38%). People were equally divided about the oil industry (42% each).
Only 36% viewed the coal seam gas industry in a good light, compared with 41% who were negative. Coal-fired power stations, which have copped bad publicity in the carbon debate, were seen negatively by almost half (48%) accompanied by 34% who had a benign view. The nuclear industry scored 51% negative and 33% positive in the online survey of a nationally representative sample of 1000.
The survey found that 46% of Coalition voters had a favourable view of the coal seam gas industry, while 48% of Labor voters and 55% of Greens supporters were negative about it. Nearly two-thirds said they didn't know much about the coal seam gas industry. But nearly one in three were worried about it, and almost three in 10 were unsure. The survey was commissioned by David Utting Communications. Mr Utting is a consultant to the mining and renewable energy industries and chief executive officer of the Yilgarn Iron Producers Association.
Thursday, 13 October 2011
Predicting climate future
Hobart Mercury
11 Oct 2011, Page: 18
HERE'S some good news. The Tasmanian Government, for all its financial woes, has made a longterm investment that the wise money says will pay for itself hundreds of times over.
In 2007 the Lennon government entered a visionary agreement involving eight government departments (four Tasmanian, four Commonwealth), the University of Tasmania, the CSIRO, Hydro Tasmania, the Tasmanian Institute for Agricultural Research, the Tasmanian Partnership for Advanced Computing, and the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems CRC (ACE-CRC).
The agreement, which came on the back of an innovative 2001-04 Hydro Tasmania project to model future climate out to 2040, aimed to build a comprehensive picture of how our climate will change over the next century, and to do it at a level of detail that leads the world.
The research group Climate Futures for Tasmania (CFT) seems to have done just this. To Climate Commissioner Professor Will Steffen, its achievement is unique: "There's nothing else like it", he told Climate Change Minister Cassy O'Connor when he visited Hobart in August CFT's success rests in part on the global reputation of climate modeller Professor Nathan Bindoff and the exceptional scientific and computing talent he was able to bring together at the ACE-CRC.
The group achieved a resolution in its models unmatched anywhere on the planet. "dynamically downscaled" from global model grid squares 200km across down to 10km squares, allowing it to factor in the impact on climate and weather of local topographical features.
Its success also depends on the quality of the group's peer-reviewed reports that came out in stages over the past year or so, on general climate impacts, modelling methodology, agricultural impacts, water and catchments, and the last one, released last week, on extreme weather events. A third big reason for its success has been CFT's consultation with farm managers, agricultural organisations, local government and other regional interests across Tasmania to ensure its output would be of practical value to those with most to lose from an unstable, unpredictable climate.
The final CFT report provides policy-makers, infrastructure managers and Tasmanians generally with a description of extreme weather ahead that's unprecedented in its detail and resolution. There's good news for heat seekers. If you like your summers warm and long with tropical nights (minimum temperatures above 20C, you'll be pleased to know that Tasmania is going to get many more warm summer days and nights as the century wears on.
By 2100, the report says, most of Tasmania will get around three times as many days with a maximum above 25C. In winter we'll get fewer cold spells and fewer frosty mornings. Sweltering nights don't happen in Tasmania, or so we've always thought. But by 2100 we can expect to get quite a few every summer. Along the North Coast and on Flinders Island, CFT calculates that every year, on average, we'll get as many as 20 nights above 25C.
Here's a sample of what else we can expect as the century wears on:
With more extreme storms added to a projected sea level rise of up to 14cm in the next 20 years, the incidence of storm tides and surges that we currently rate as 1-in-100 years will by 2030 be doubled, to 1-in-50 years, and will be increasingly frequent as the century progresses. The most vulnerable coasts are in the South-East and those facing Bass Strait. New modelling and analysis techniques produced an understanding of the regional wind hazard across Tasmania at a level of detail not previously possible.
The information has been utilised for a web-based tool to guide emergency services in determining where and how to adapt to future wind hazard and risk. Local government can make direct use of the research by utilising "Climate-Asyst", a tool developed using CFT' data by Tasmanian consultants Pitt and Sherry. There's one other benefit of the CFT research. For the first time. Tasmanians can read descriptions of the physical outcomes of a warming climate where they understand it best in their local area.
Nowhere else in the world is such a detailed picture yet possible. I suspect that the team members who are now looking for work won't have long to wait. They may as a result have to relocate interstate or overseas. After all they've done and might continue to do for this island, that seems a shame. But we can't hide such talent, and heaven knows the world needs them.
Peter Boyer: pb@climatetasmania.com.au
11 Oct 2011, Page: 18
HERE'S some good news. The Tasmanian Government, for all its financial woes, has made a longterm investment that the wise money says will pay for itself hundreds of times over.
In 2007 the Lennon government entered a visionary agreement involving eight government departments (four Tasmanian, four Commonwealth), the University of Tasmania, the CSIRO, Hydro Tasmania, the Tasmanian Institute for Agricultural Research, the Tasmanian Partnership for Advanced Computing, and the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems CRC (ACE-CRC).
The agreement, which came on the back of an innovative 2001-04 Hydro Tasmania project to model future climate out to 2040, aimed to build a comprehensive picture of how our climate will change over the next century, and to do it at a level of detail that leads the world.
The research group Climate Futures for Tasmania (CFT) seems to have done just this. To Climate Commissioner Professor Will Steffen, its achievement is unique: "There's nothing else like it", he told Climate Change Minister Cassy O'Connor when he visited Hobart in August CFT's success rests in part on the global reputation of climate modeller Professor Nathan Bindoff and the exceptional scientific and computing talent he was able to bring together at the ACE-CRC.
The group achieved a resolution in its models unmatched anywhere on the planet. "dynamically downscaled" from global model grid squares 200km across down to 10km squares, allowing it to factor in the impact on climate and weather of local topographical features.
Its success also depends on the quality of the group's peer-reviewed reports that came out in stages over the past year or so, on general climate impacts, modelling methodology, agricultural impacts, water and catchments, and the last one, released last week, on extreme weather events. A third big reason for its success has been CFT's consultation with farm managers, agricultural organisations, local government and other regional interests across Tasmania to ensure its output would be of practical value to those with most to lose from an unstable, unpredictable climate.
The final CFT report provides policy-makers, infrastructure managers and Tasmanians generally with a description of extreme weather ahead that's unprecedented in its detail and resolution. There's good news for heat seekers. If you like your summers warm and long with tropical nights (minimum temperatures above 20C, you'll be pleased to know that Tasmania is going to get many more warm summer days and nights as the century wears on.
By 2100, the report says, most of Tasmania will get around three times as many days with a maximum above 25C. In winter we'll get fewer cold spells and fewer frosty mornings. Sweltering nights don't happen in Tasmania, or so we've always thought. But by 2100 we can expect to get quite a few every summer. Along the North Coast and on Flinders Island, CFT calculates that every year, on average, we'll get as many as 20 nights above 25C.
Here's a sample of what else we can expect as the century wears on:
- Warm days and warm spells will be especially prevalent in the central North and Midlands, the Derwent Valley and the West Coast around Macquarie Harbour.
- There will be more frequent and more intense extreme rainfall
- events mixed together with more dry days. Extreme wet days will increase in the South-West and North-East, while the Central Highlands will get fewer extreme wet days in all seasons. Drying will be most pronounced in the North-West.
- Extreme rainfall events will become more frequent, consistent with a warmer climate, with recurrence intervals likely to decrease substantially. In some places, an event so extreme that we can currently anticipate it only once in 200 years will happen every 20 years.
- River flows will fluctuate more, with severe flooding events likely to increase significantly in most major river basins through the 21st century.
With more extreme storms added to a projected sea level rise of up to 14cm in the next 20 years, the incidence of storm tides and surges that we currently rate as 1-in-100 years will by 2030 be doubled, to 1-in-50 years, and will be increasingly frequent as the century progresses. The most vulnerable coasts are in the South-East and those facing Bass Strait. New modelling and analysis techniques produced an understanding of the regional wind hazard across Tasmania at a level of detail not previously possible.
The information has been utilised for a web-based tool to guide emergency services in determining where and how to adapt to future wind hazard and risk. Local government can make direct use of the research by utilising "Climate-Asyst", a tool developed using CFT' data by Tasmanian consultants Pitt and Sherry. There's one other benefit of the CFT research. For the first time. Tasmanians can read descriptions of the physical outcomes of a warming climate where they understand it best in their local area.
Nowhere else in the world is such a detailed picture yet possible. I suspect that the team members who are now looking for work won't have long to wait. They may as a result have to relocate interstate or overseas. After all they've done and might continue to do for this island, that seems a shame. But we can't hide such talent, and heaven knows the world needs them.
Peter Boyer: pb@climatetasmania.com.au
Hallett wind farm wins project of the year
Adelaide Advertiser
11 Oct 2011, Page: 11
SOUTH AUSTRALIA's Hallett wind farm is no longer just Australia's biggest, it's also the country's best, according to the Australian Institute of Project Management NSW. Global engineering, construction and services firm KBR won AIPM NSW's Project of the Year award for its management of stage four of the Hallett wind farm development. The project added 63 turbines and 132 MWs to the AGL Energy owned wind farm, equivalent to powering 80,000 homes.
Completed on time and within budget, it increased the wind farm's capacity to 298 MWs. "KBR used its experience on previous wind farms to effectively drive safety and innovation on the Hallett project", AIPM NSW president Paul Campbell said. The Hallett wind farm project also won the category for Construction/Engineering in Excess of $100 million.
11 Oct 2011, Page: 11
SOUTH AUSTRALIA's Hallett wind farm is no longer just Australia's biggest, it's also the country's best, according to the Australian Institute of Project Management NSW. Global engineering, construction and services firm KBR won AIPM NSW's Project of the Year award for its management of stage four of the Hallett wind farm development. The project added 63 turbines and 132 MWs to the AGL Energy owned wind farm, equivalent to powering 80,000 homes.
Completed on time and within budget, it increased the wind farm's capacity to 298 MWs. "KBR used its experience on previous wind farms to effectively drive safety and innovation on the Hallett project", AIPM NSW president Paul Campbell said. The Hallett wind farm project also won the category for Construction/Engineering in Excess of $100 million.
Wednesday, 12 October 2011
Santos LNG project delayed
Sydney Morning Herald
Friday 7/10/2011 Page: 5
PLANS by Santos and its French partner GDF Suez to develop a floating liquefied natural gas project off Western Australia's northern coast appear to be slipping, with the Bonaparte venture not expected to be operational until 2018. But the partners have also flagged that output from Bonaparte, based in the Joseph Bonaparte Basin 250 km west of Darwin, may be increased from an initially planned two million tonnes of LNG a year to "between two and three million tonnes".
The partners are yet to put a price on Bonaparte, which would become the second floating LNG project off WA's coast after Royal Dutch Shell's world-first Prelude development. Submitting referral documents to the federal government's Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities. Santos and GDF Suez said they expected to make a final investment decision on the development in late 2014.
The decision target date is at the tail-end of previous guidance from Santos of a sign-off in 2014, while only last year Santos was aiming for an approval in 2013. Bonaparte LNG will involve a floating LNG processing vessel moored over the Petrel, Tern and Frigate gas fields. In addition to LNG there should also be condensate production. The gas fields have a CO₂ content of up to 5.2%, considerably lower, Santos and GDF Suez say, than in the nearby fields being developed by Inpex Corp and PTTEP.
Unlike land-based LNG plants, floating ventures cannot reinject the greenhouse gas. The CO₂ needs to be removed, and disposed of, from the gas before it can be converted to LNG. Santos and GDF Suez said they would formulate a proper greenhouse gas abatement strategy at least a year before Bonaparte became operational. GDF Suez has already paid Santos $US200 million as part of a 2009 farm-in deal and has to pay the Adelaide-based company a further $US170 million upon the final investment decision.
Friday 7/10/2011 Page: 5
PLANS by Santos and its French partner GDF Suez to develop a floating liquefied natural gas project off Western Australia's northern coast appear to be slipping, with the Bonaparte venture not expected to be operational until 2018. But the partners have also flagged that output from Bonaparte, based in the Joseph Bonaparte Basin 250 km west of Darwin, may be increased from an initially planned two million tonnes of LNG a year to "between two and three million tonnes".
The partners are yet to put a price on Bonaparte, which would become the second floating LNG project off WA's coast after Royal Dutch Shell's world-first Prelude development. Submitting referral documents to the federal government's Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities. Santos and GDF Suez said they expected to make a final investment decision on the development in late 2014.
The decision target date is at the tail-end of previous guidance from Santos of a sign-off in 2014, while only last year Santos was aiming for an approval in 2013. Bonaparte LNG will involve a floating LNG processing vessel moored over the Petrel, Tern and Frigate gas fields. In addition to LNG there should also be condensate production. The gas fields have a CO₂ content of up to 5.2%, considerably lower, Santos and GDF Suez say, than in the nearby fields being developed by Inpex Corp and PTTEP.
Unlike land-based LNG plants, floating ventures cannot reinject the greenhouse gas. The CO₂ needs to be removed, and disposed of, from the gas before it can be converted to LNG. Santos and GDF Suez said they would formulate a proper greenhouse gas abatement strategy at least a year before Bonaparte became operational. GDF Suez has already paid Santos $US200 million as part of a 2009 farm-in deal and has to pay the Adelaide-based company a further $US170 million upon the final investment decision.
Economic slowdown hits carbon storage
Adelaide Advertiser
5 Oct 2011, Page: 65
THE number of carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects globally fell in the past year and the technology is threatened by the financial crisis, a new report has found. The Australia-based Global CCS Institute's annual report says there are 74 large-scale integrated CCS projects around the world, 14 of which are operating or under construction. That is down from 77 a year ago.
CCS involves storing greenhouse gases underground rather than leaving them in the atmosphere as emissions. The United Nations recommends it as essential in reducing global greenhouse gas emissions, to limit temperature increases to 2C by 2100, but the International Energy Agency says 1500 large-scale CCS projects are needed by 2035. The global temperature is predicted to rise by 3.5C, wreaking havoc on human wellbeing, a Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum in Beijing heard last month.
There are eight large scale projects in operation globally and six under construction. Another 11 large-scale projects were put on hold or cancelled in the past year. The most likely reasons were they lost financial support as they were deemed uneconomic and the uncertainty about whether carbon reduction policies would be introduced. The developments were occurring against a backdrop of a softening global economy, a lack of carbon price incentives in major emitter regions and largely static government support, institute chief executive Brad Page said.
5 Oct 2011, Page: 65
THE number of carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects globally fell in the past year and the technology is threatened by the financial crisis, a new report has found. The Australia-based Global CCS Institute's annual report says there are 74 large-scale integrated CCS projects around the world, 14 of which are operating or under construction. That is down from 77 a year ago.
CCS involves storing greenhouse gases underground rather than leaving them in the atmosphere as emissions. The United Nations recommends it as essential in reducing global greenhouse gas emissions, to limit temperature increases to 2C by 2100, but the International Energy Agency says 1500 large-scale CCS projects are needed by 2035. The global temperature is predicted to rise by 3.5C, wreaking havoc on human wellbeing, a Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum in Beijing heard last month.
There are eight large scale projects in operation globally and six under construction. Another 11 large-scale projects were put on hold or cancelled in the past year. The most likely reasons were they lost financial support as they were deemed uneconomic and the uncertainty about whether carbon reduction policies would be introduced. The developments were occurring against a backdrop of a softening global economy, a lack of carbon price incentives in major emitter regions and largely static government support, institute chief executive Brad Page said.
Tuesday, 11 October 2011
US firm to 'mine' lithium from geothermal plant brines
chemistryworld
3 Oct 2011
A US company is looking to geothermal power plants as a source of valuable metals such as lithium which is crucial for manufacturing electric vehicles and portable electronics like smart phones. Its success could better position the US in the fast growing electric vehicle (EV) and broader battery markets. The US supplied roughly 75% of the world's lithium through the late 1990s, but now that figure is now closer to 5%. Worldwide lithium production is currently dominated by Chile, Argentina and Bolivia. But that could all change.
California based Simbol Materials says that it has begun producing 'the world's highest purity' lithium carbonate for use in electrolytes for EV batteries and other energy storage applications. The company has opened a demonstration facility near the Salton Sea in Imperial Valley, California, that can extract lithium and other components of lithium-ion batteries from the wastewater of geothermal plants. This is the first facility of its kind in the US, though other companies operate two similar ones in Japan and China.
'For the US, this is a nice move forward in lengthening the supply chain for the components that go into electric vehicles,' Simbol's CEO, Luka Erceg, tells Chemistry World. Simbol taps a nearby geothermal power plant for its brine by-product, which is laden with metals. After removing silica, Simbol's end product is a pristine brine that is loaded with lithium, manganese and zinc. 'Once we have separated out the metal we want, we have got it in a chloride form and we start the conversion to the products that the market wants,' Erceg says. But such separation is no simple task. The brine that Simbol works with contains half the periodic table. 'We can surgically extract the elements that we want, and that is where we differentiate ourselves from the majority,' Erceg says.
Proprietary processes
Simbol's proprietary processes involve membrane separation, absorption media and direct precipitation techniques. 'These are all very conventional tools in a chemical engineer's toolkit, but what we have done is develop processes and specific materials that help us more efficiently do these separations,' Erceg explains. Not only is brine based production of lithium economical because it integrates directly into existing geothermal power plants, it also eliminates traditional methods of invasive mining or evaporation ponds that require significant land, water and energy use. Additionally, it produces virtually zero waste.
The process could be applied to other geothermal plants, although some have far lower concentrations of lithium. But, theoretically, Erceg says it could replace all other forms of lithium mining because it is significantly cheaper than building or expanding new solar evaporation processes and plants. The geothermal plant supplies power to free the brine, excess steam, condensate and CO₂ that Simbol uses in its processes. The US Geological Survey (USGS) estimates that the US produces less than 15% of the world's lithium, but it is the largest importer of lithium carbonate. Worldwide consumption of lithium carbonate is about 125,000 tonnes annually, and the US consumes roughly 8000 tonnes a year.
David Summers, who directs the Missouri University of Science and Technology's rock mechanics and explosives research center, says Simbol's work represents a 'logical' development. 'Increasingly, lithium is being used for batteries and the market for that is growing,' he says. 'If we can produce this stuff domestically, we achieve a certain measure of independence...not held to a degree hostage by those who supply the product.' The company's current demonstration plant will be followed by commercial-scale plants that will produce lithium, manganese and zinc. It expects to break ground in late 2012.
3 Oct 2011
A US company is looking to geothermal power plants as a source of valuable metals such as lithium which is crucial for manufacturing electric vehicles and portable electronics like smart phones. Its success could better position the US in the fast growing electric vehicle (EV) and broader battery markets. The US supplied roughly 75% of the world's lithium through the late 1990s, but now that figure is now closer to 5%. Worldwide lithium production is currently dominated by Chile, Argentina and Bolivia. But that could all change.California based Simbol Materials says that it has begun producing 'the world's highest purity' lithium carbonate for use in electrolytes for EV batteries and other energy storage applications. The company has opened a demonstration facility near the Salton Sea in Imperial Valley, California, that can extract lithium and other components of lithium-ion batteries from the wastewater of geothermal plants. This is the first facility of its kind in the US, though other companies operate two similar ones in Japan and China.
'For the US, this is a nice move forward in lengthening the supply chain for the components that go into electric vehicles,' Simbol's CEO, Luka Erceg, tells Chemistry World. Simbol taps a nearby geothermal power plant for its brine by-product, which is laden with metals. After removing silica, Simbol's end product is a pristine brine that is loaded with lithium, manganese and zinc. 'Once we have separated out the metal we want, we have got it in a chloride form and we start the conversion to the products that the market wants,' Erceg says. But such separation is no simple task. The brine that Simbol works with contains half the periodic table. 'We can surgically extract the elements that we want, and that is where we differentiate ourselves from the majority,' Erceg says.
Proprietary processes
Simbol's proprietary processes involve membrane separation, absorption media and direct precipitation techniques. 'These are all very conventional tools in a chemical engineer's toolkit, but what we have done is develop processes and specific materials that help us more efficiently do these separations,' Erceg explains. Not only is brine based production of lithium economical because it integrates directly into existing geothermal power plants, it also eliminates traditional methods of invasive mining or evaporation ponds that require significant land, water and energy use. Additionally, it produces virtually zero waste.
The process could be applied to other geothermal plants, although some have far lower concentrations of lithium. But, theoretically, Erceg says it could replace all other forms of lithium mining because it is significantly cheaper than building or expanding new solar evaporation processes and plants. The geothermal plant supplies power to free the brine, excess steam, condensate and CO₂ that Simbol uses in its processes. The US Geological Survey (USGS) estimates that the US produces less than 15% of the world's lithium, but it is the largest importer of lithium carbonate. Worldwide consumption of lithium carbonate is about 125,000 tonnes annually, and the US consumes roughly 8000 tonnes a year.
David Summers, who directs the Missouri University of Science and Technology's rock mechanics and explosives research center, says Simbol's work represents a 'logical' development. 'Increasingly, lithium is being used for batteries and the market for that is growing,' he says. 'If we can produce this stuff domestically, we achieve a certain measure of independence...not held to a degree hostage by those who supply the product.' The company's current demonstration plant will be followed by commercial-scale plants that will produce lithium, manganese and zinc. It expects to break ground in late 2012.
Spain's round-the-clock solar power plant
edition.cnn.com
3 Oct 2011
(CNN)--Typical solar power plants stop working when the sun sets, but a new one in southern Spain, called Gemasolar, can stay awake all night. "During the day we capture the energy of the sun and we store that energy into a tank", said Santiago Arias, a mechanical engineer who helped put Gemasolar into operation. "Then, whenever we want, regardless if it is day or night, we convert that energy into electricity".
Located just outside the quaint village of Fuentes de Andalucia, Gemasolar bills itself as the world's first commercial-scale concentrated solar power plant (CSP) that uses molten salts receiver technology. 2,650 large mirrors called heliostats direct the suns rays to a receiver at the top of Gemasolar's 450-feet tower that shines like a beacon during the day. The stored energy can generate electricity for 15 hours without the sun shining and according to Arias the plant can provide 19.9 MW of power, enough for a town of about 100,000 people.
From the receiver the salts are heated to enormous temperatures; around 250 to 300° Celsius when it's considered relatively cool, but when the molten liquid is pumped up the tower to soak up the sun's heat directed to the receiver, the temperatures exceed 500° Celsius. Those energy-storing salts are a combination of 60% sodium nitrate and 40% potassium nitrate and are so hot that they are always in a liquid form. According to Arias each pound of molten salt is able to store up to three times the amount of energy that can be stored in oil, an energy-store that is used at other CSP power plants.
At twilight, the plants heliostats are rotated into a horizontal position, as if to get a night's rest, but the remainder of this solar plant keeps working. When the salts cool, they release energy that is used to produce steam, which turns turbines and generates electricity that is transferred to a general grid hookup at the plant. The $325 million plant began production last May and is a joint venture, between the Spanish engineering and construction firm Sener that owns 60% and investment partners from Abu Dhabi's Masdar energy company.
The official inauguration is set for October 4, due to be led by Spain's King Juan Carlos and Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. By the end of 2012 Gemasolar expect to reach 70% of full capacity. That, says the owners, is a rate of producing electricity comparable to conventional power plants and a rate they hope will make the plant very competitive.
However this plant, and Spain's solar industry, still gets government price subsidies for the electricity it sells. "Our vision is that those subsidies will disappear soon", Arias said. "By constructing plants we are reducing the cost. At the same time, the gas prices, the oil prices, we are sure that they will go up, so there will be a certain time that we don't need any subsidy at all". Arias can't say exactly when, but he's sure this commercial-scale solar plant providing electricity around the clock will help.
3 Oct 2011
(CNN)--Typical solar power plants stop working when the sun sets, but a new one in southern Spain, called Gemasolar, can stay awake all night. "During the day we capture the energy of the sun and we store that energy into a tank", said Santiago Arias, a mechanical engineer who helped put Gemasolar into operation. "Then, whenever we want, regardless if it is day or night, we convert that energy into electricity".
Located just outside the quaint village of Fuentes de Andalucia, Gemasolar bills itself as the world's first commercial-scale concentrated solar power plant (CSP) that uses molten salts receiver technology. 2,650 large mirrors called heliostats direct the suns rays to a receiver at the top of Gemasolar's 450-feet tower that shines like a beacon during the day. The stored energy can generate electricity for 15 hours without the sun shining and according to Arias the plant can provide 19.9 MW of power, enough for a town of about 100,000 people.
From the receiver the salts are heated to enormous temperatures; around 250 to 300° Celsius when it's considered relatively cool, but when the molten liquid is pumped up the tower to soak up the sun's heat directed to the receiver, the temperatures exceed 500° Celsius. Those energy-storing salts are a combination of 60% sodium nitrate and 40% potassium nitrate and are so hot that they are always in a liquid form. According to Arias each pound of molten salt is able to store up to three times the amount of energy that can be stored in oil, an energy-store that is used at other CSP power plants.
At twilight, the plants heliostats are rotated into a horizontal position, as if to get a night's rest, but the remainder of this solar plant keeps working. When the salts cool, they release energy that is used to produce steam, which turns turbines and generates electricity that is transferred to a general grid hookup at the plant. The $325 million plant began production last May and is a joint venture, between the Spanish engineering and construction firm Sener that owns 60% and investment partners from Abu Dhabi's Masdar energy company.
The official inauguration is set for October 4, due to be led by Spain's King Juan Carlos and Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. By the end of 2012 Gemasolar expect to reach 70% of full capacity. That, says the owners, is a rate of producing electricity comparable to conventional power plants and a rate they hope will make the plant very competitive.
However this plant, and Spain's solar industry, still gets government price subsidies for the electricity it sells. "Our vision is that those subsidies will disappear soon", Arias said. "By constructing plants we are reducing the cost. At the same time, the gas prices, the oil prices, we are sure that they will go up, so there will be a certain time that we don't need any subsidy at all". Arias can't say exactly when, but he's sure this commercial-scale solar plant providing electricity around the clock will help.
Farasan Island cradle of Saudi solar power generation
www.saudigazette.com.sa
4 Oct 2011
JIZAN-The Kingdom's first solar-powered electricity-generating plant, located on Farasan Island and launched on Saturday, marks the beginning of a new era in the country, Ali Saleh Al-Barrak, President of Saudi Electricity Company, said in a speech at the event. The 500 kW plant, which will save transferring the equivalent of 28,000 barrels of diesel fuel to Farasan Island, is an example of ongoing efforts to address the Kingdom's ever-increasing need for electricity, he said.
The plant, inaugurated by Dr. Abdullah Bin Mohammed Al-Suwayid, Undersecretary of the Governorate of Jizan region, has been linked with Jizan area's main distribution network, which annually produces about 864,000 kW, Al-Barrak said. Setting up the facility, which was constructed according to an agreement with Showa Shell Sekiyu, a Japanese company, is part of the Saudi Electricity Company's work to introduce clean energy in the country, he said.
Jun Arai, President of Showa Shell Sekiyu, said at the event that the plant would help conserve the natural beauty of Farasan Island. His firm, which financed setting up the plant and built its structures, machinery and photoelectric panels, will own it for 15 years before it is transferred to the Saudi Electricity Company, Arai said. Khalid Bin Abdulaziz Al-Falih, Saudi Aramco's President and CEO, and Shigeru Endo, the Japanese ambassador to the Kingdom, also attended the event on the island, which is in the southwest corner of Saudi Arabia, about 50 km off the Jizan coast. Establishing the plant is part of the country's effort to address its need for more energy, Al-Barrak said. Since 2006, annual growth in demand exceeded 8%, peak loads jumped from 23,000 MWs to 48,000 MWs and the same growth rate is expected to continue in the next decade, he said.
Growth in household and industrial consumption has created a need for the Saudi Electricity to build more power-generating plants and created a challenge for Saudi Aramco to secure fuel it needs in the coming years, he added. As part of its efforts to help meet those needs, the Saudi Electricity Company has approved several studies and research projects relating to clean energy and selected several places as possible sites for harnessing wind power, Al-Barrak said. There is also ongoing coordination with King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology, and King Abdullah City for Atomic and Renewable Energy, he added.--SG/SPA
4 Oct 2011
JIZAN-The Kingdom's first solar-powered electricity-generating plant, located on Farasan Island and launched on Saturday, marks the beginning of a new era in the country, Ali Saleh Al-Barrak, President of Saudi Electricity Company, said in a speech at the event. The 500 kW plant, which will save transferring the equivalent of 28,000 barrels of diesel fuel to Farasan Island, is an example of ongoing efforts to address the Kingdom's ever-increasing need for electricity, he said.The plant, inaugurated by Dr. Abdullah Bin Mohammed Al-Suwayid, Undersecretary of the Governorate of Jizan region, has been linked with Jizan area's main distribution network, which annually produces about 864,000 kW, Al-Barrak said. Setting up the facility, which was constructed according to an agreement with Showa Shell Sekiyu, a Japanese company, is part of the Saudi Electricity Company's work to introduce clean energy in the country, he said.
Jun Arai, President of Showa Shell Sekiyu, said at the event that the plant would help conserve the natural beauty of Farasan Island. His firm, which financed setting up the plant and built its structures, machinery and photoelectric panels, will own it for 15 years before it is transferred to the Saudi Electricity Company, Arai said. Khalid Bin Abdulaziz Al-Falih, Saudi Aramco's President and CEO, and Shigeru Endo, the Japanese ambassador to the Kingdom, also attended the event on the island, which is in the southwest corner of Saudi Arabia, about 50 km off the Jizan coast. Establishing the plant is part of the country's effort to address its need for more energy, Al-Barrak said. Since 2006, annual growth in demand exceeded 8%, peak loads jumped from 23,000 MWs to 48,000 MWs and the same growth rate is expected to continue in the next decade, he said.
Growth in household and industrial consumption has created a need for the Saudi Electricity to build more power-generating plants and created a challenge for Saudi Aramco to secure fuel it needs in the coming years, he added. As part of its efforts to help meet those needs, the Saudi Electricity Company has approved several studies and research projects relating to clean energy and selected several places as possible sites for harnessing wind power, Al-Barrak said. There is also ongoing coordination with King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology, and King Abdullah City for Atomic and Renewable Energy, he added.--SG/SPA
Thursday, 6 October 2011
First wind power plant in Honduras
thecostaricanews.com
2 Oct 2011
Central America has tremendous opportunities in developing green energy. From biofuels to hydropower and wind to thermal there is a lot these central American countries can provide. Honduras' first wind power plant began operations amid an ongoing energy crisis that has prompted frequent power outages across the country. The state power utility, ENEE, launched the project, which includes 51 towers lining a hill some 25 km south of Tegucigalpa. The project is the first phase of a more expansive push to bring more wind power to the country. By the end of the year, the wind farm will be producing a total of 102 MWs at a cost of $260 million. Now Honduras in on the map for green energy production. In recent years biofuel plantations have also dominated the renewable energy sector such as countries like Costa Rica.
2 Oct 2011
Central America has tremendous opportunities in developing green energy. From biofuels to hydropower and wind to thermal there is a lot these central American countries can provide. Honduras' first wind power plant began operations amid an ongoing energy crisis that has prompted frequent power outages across the country. The state power utility, ENEE, launched the project, which includes 51 towers lining a hill some 25 km south of Tegucigalpa. The project is the first phase of a more expansive push to bring more wind power to the country. By the end of the year, the wind farm will be producing a total of 102 MWs at a cost of $260 million. Now Honduras in on the map for green energy production. In recent years biofuel plantations have also dominated the renewable energy sector such as countries like Costa Rica.
Tiny Spanish island to be completely powered by solar and wind
www.fastcompany.com
30 Sep 2011
Intermittency is a well-known weakness of solar and wind power--they're good when the sun shines and the wind blows, say critics, but what about when it doesn't? (Though there are some questions about all that.) The response of alternative energy enthusiasts tends to come in two flavours: better grid balancing--where reliable power sources, such as nuclear, take up the slack when needed--or improved energy storage. The trouble with many of today's storage methods, though, is that they are either not very good or too expensive. There are several new ones, including salt, but none are yet ready at scale.
If you wanted to be hopeful about renewables, you might look at a project 900 miles off the coast of Spain, on the smallest of the Canary Islands. El Hierro measures only 104 square miles, but it is being viewed as a model for projects combining renewable power with pumped hydropower storage--perhaps the most viable currently available storage method.
El Hierro's $87 million scheme consists of an 11.5 MW wind farm (five turbines) that will provide the island's 11,000 inhabitants with the majority of their power. When the system produces excess energy, it pumps water 2,300 feet up to an extinct volcano. When there is insufficient renewable power, the water gushes through a hydroelectric plant. The closed-loop is topped out with series of solar thermal units that provide about a fifth of the overall needs.
El Hierro currently generates electricity using diesel oil imported by tanker from the mainland, and the costs and environmental impact are big. Officials estimate the island emits 18,200 tons of CO₂ a year, just from power generation alone. "We now rely on the outside, the fuel that comes on the boats, which is expensive and polluting. But with the launch of the new power station, we have our own power and profits will go to the island", says Cristina Morales Clavijo, a spokesperson for the company managing the project.
Officials are confident the new system, which is due for completion this year, will allow the island to do away entirely with fossil fuels, and allow it to invest additional revenues in further infrastructure projects. Just in case, the island will keep its diesel generators as backup. There may still be occasions when there is not enough wind or enough stored water to meet demand, and the reservoir only has enough capacity for seven days' worth of electricity. But El Hierro might just get the chance to prove that true energy self-sufficiency is possible, even on a semi-large scale.
"It is very important for the development of El Hierro, but also for other Canary Islands who are already working on similar systems. Internationally, there are other territories that want to know about the project because they think we are an example. The pumping system is the only solution at the moment to store wind power, and it could be used on other Islands and mainland territories", says Clavijo.
30 Sep 2011
Intermittency is a well-known weakness of solar and wind power--they're good when the sun shines and the wind blows, say critics, but what about when it doesn't? (Though there are some questions about all that.) The response of alternative energy enthusiasts tends to come in two flavours: better grid balancing--where reliable power sources, such as nuclear, take up the slack when needed--or improved energy storage. The trouble with many of today's storage methods, though, is that they are either not very good or too expensive. There are several new ones, including salt, but none are yet ready at scale.If you wanted to be hopeful about renewables, you might look at a project 900 miles off the coast of Spain, on the smallest of the Canary Islands. El Hierro measures only 104 square miles, but it is being viewed as a model for projects combining renewable power with pumped hydropower storage--perhaps the most viable currently available storage method.
El Hierro's $87 million scheme consists of an 11.5 MW wind farm (five turbines) that will provide the island's 11,000 inhabitants with the majority of their power. When the system produces excess energy, it pumps water 2,300 feet up to an extinct volcano. When there is insufficient renewable power, the water gushes through a hydroelectric plant. The closed-loop is topped out with series of solar thermal units that provide about a fifth of the overall needs.
El Hierro currently generates electricity using diesel oil imported by tanker from the mainland, and the costs and environmental impact are big. Officials estimate the island emits 18,200 tons of CO₂ a year, just from power generation alone. "We now rely on the outside, the fuel that comes on the boats, which is expensive and polluting. But with the launch of the new power station, we have our own power and profits will go to the island", says Cristina Morales Clavijo, a spokesperson for the company managing the project.
Officials are confident the new system, which is due for completion this year, will allow the island to do away entirely with fossil fuels, and allow it to invest additional revenues in further infrastructure projects. Just in case, the island will keep its diesel generators as backup. There may still be occasions when there is not enough wind or enough stored water to meet demand, and the reservoir only has enough capacity for seven days' worth of electricity. But El Hierro might just get the chance to prove that true energy self-sufficiency is possible, even on a semi-large scale.
"It is very important for the development of El Hierro, but also for other Canary Islands who are already working on similar systems. Internationally, there are other territories that want to know about the project because they think we are an example. The pumping system is the only solution at the moment to store wind power, and it could be used on other Islands and mainland territories", says Clavijo.
Japan to boost science spending, reduce support for nuclear power
news.sciencemag.org
30 Sep 2011
TOKYO--Japan's ministry of education wants to boost overall science-related spending next year by 5.8%, to $14.7 billion. But amid increasing support for most programs there is one big loser: nuclear power. Spending on nuclear-related research will drop 9.8%, to $2.3 billion. A large chunk of that reduction applies to Monju, the troubled experimental fast-breeder reactor. The allocation essentially puts Monju on hold pending a review of the nation's energy policy.
"We want to think about the role of Monju" within a broader energy policy, education minister Masaharu Nakagawa said at a press briefing today unveiling the budget request for fiscal 2012, which starts in April. He said Monju and other nuclear fuel cycle efforts would receive a "maintenance budget" of $445 million. "But there will be a bit of a hiatus in new research and development efforts until the long-term direction [of energy policy] is settled", he added.
The education ministry accounts for the bulk of Japan's science spending, particularly for basic research. Details on governmentwide science spending are not yet available. Requested budgets are usually adopted by the Japanese legislature with minimal changes.
Japan has pursued fast-breeder technology, through which a reactor can produce more plutonium than it burns in hopes of cutting or eliminating imports of nuclear fuel. The ill-starred Monju reached initial criticality in April 1995 but then suffered a disastrous coolant leak and fire in December 1995. Officials tried to cover up the extent of the accident, resulting in a public backlash that kept Monju idle until May 2010. But shortly after restarting operations, a mechanical problem put Monju out of action again.
The 11 March earthquake and tsunami damage caused extensive damage to the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant and the release of massive amounts of radiation. A number of politicians have called for Japan to phase out nuclear power, though the government's official policy of increasing reliance on nuclear power has not changed. "There is no talk of stopping nuclear power generation all at once", Nakagawa said. And he emphasised the need to continue research into nuclear safety and the handling of waste. But Nakagawa expects the discussion of energy policy will include "what to do about Monju".
While tapping the brakes on nuclear power research, the ruling Democratic Party has proposed $918 million in new programs to accelerate efforts on renewable and alternative energy schemes. It is also boosting by 50% the budget for ITER, the experimental fusion reactor being built by an international consortium in France, to $294 million. Other winners include work on induced pluripotent stem cells and regenerative medicine, which gets a 40% increase to $69 million, and space-related research, including Earth observation, which will go up by 36% to $631 million.
Rank-and-file researchers will be pleased with a 6% increase, to $3 billion, in the competitively reviewed grants they rely on. A large share of the increase will go to a multiyear grant category created last year. Previously these grants had to be spent in the year they were awarded. The new scheme "has been positively received by researchers", Nakagawa says.
30 Sep 2011
TOKYO--Japan's ministry of education wants to boost overall science-related spending next year by 5.8%, to $14.7 billion. But amid increasing support for most programs there is one big loser: nuclear power. Spending on nuclear-related research will drop 9.8%, to $2.3 billion. A large chunk of that reduction applies to Monju, the troubled experimental fast-breeder reactor. The allocation essentially puts Monju on hold pending a review of the nation's energy policy.
"We want to think about the role of Monju" within a broader energy policy, education minister Masaharu Nakagawa said at a press briefing today unveiling the budget request for fiscal 2012, which starts in April. He said Monju and other nuclear fuel cycle efforts would receive a "maintenance budget" of $445 million. "But there will be a bit of a hiatus in new research and development efforts until the long-term direction [of energy policy] is settled", he added.
The education ministry accounts for the bulk of Japan's science spending, particularly for basic research. Details on governmentwide science spending are not yet available. Requested budgets are usually adopted by the Japanese legislature with minimal changes.
Japan has pursued fast-breeder technology, through which a reactor can produce more plutonium than it burns in hopes of cutting or eliminating imports of nuclear fuel. The ill-starred Monju reached initial criticality in April 1995 but then suffered a disastrous coolant leak and fire in December 1995. Officials tried to cover up the extent of the accident, resulting in a public backlash that kept Monju idle until May 2010. But shortly after restarting operations, a mechanical problem put Monju out of action again.
The 11 March earthquake and tsunami damage caused extensive damage to the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant and the release of massive amounts of radiation. A number of politicians have called for Japan to phase out nuclear power, though the government's official policy of increasing reliance on nuclear power has not changed. "There is no talk of stopping nuclear power generation all at once", Nakagawa said. And he emphasised the need to continue research into nuclear safety and the handling of waste. But Nakagawa expects the discussion of energy policy will include "what to do about Monju".
While tapping the brakes on nuclear power research, the ruling Democratic Party has proposed $918 million in new programs to accelerate efforts on renewable and alternative energy schemes. It is also boosting by 50% the budget for ITER, the experimental fusion reactor being built by an international consortium in France, to $294 million. Other winners include work on induced pluripotent stem cells and regenerative medicine, which gets a 40% increase to $69 million, and space-related research, including Earth observation, which will go up by 36% to $631 million.
Rank-and-file researchers will be pleased with a 6% increase, to $3 billion, in the competitively reviewed grants they rely on. A large share of the increase will go to a multiyear grant category created last year. Previously these grants had to be spent in the year they were awarded. The new scheme "has been positively received by researchers", Nakagawa says.
Wednesday, 5 October 2011
A simple way to boost battery storage
www.technologyreview.com
30 Sep 2011
Lithium-ion battery electrodes bound together by a new highly conductive material have a much greater storage capacity--a development that could eventually increase the range of electric cars and the life of smart-phone batteries without increasing their cost. Unlike many high-capacity electrodes developed over the last few years, these can be made using the equipment already found in today's battery factories.
The key is a stretchy, highly conductive polymer binder that can be used to hold together silicon, tin, and other materials that can store a lot of energy but that are ordinarily unstable. Researchers at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory painstakingly engineered this new polymer binder and used it to make a silicon anode for a rechargeable lithium-ion battery with a storage capacity 30% greater than those on the market today. It's also more stable over time than previously developed electrodes.
When a lithium-ion battery is charged, lithium-ions are taken up by one of the electrodes, called the anode. The more lithium the anode can hold, the more energy the battery can store. Silicon is one of the most promising anode materials: it can store 10 times more lithium than graphite, which is used to make the anodes in the lithium-ion batteries on the market today. "Graphite soaks up lithium like a sponge, holding its shape, but silicon is more like a balloon", says Gao Liu, a researcher at the Berkeley Lab's Environmental Energy Technologies Division.
However, because the silicon anodes swell and shrink, changing in volume by three or four times as they're charged and discharged, the capacity of the battery fades over time. "After a few rounds of charge and discharge, pretty soon the silicon particles are not in touch with each other", which means the anode can't conduct electricity, says Liu.
One approach to the problem is to structure these anodes in a totally different way, for example growing shaggy arrays of silicon nanowires that can bend, swell, and move around as lithium enters and exits. This approach is being commercialised by Amprius, a startup in Palo Alto, California. But growing nanowires requires new processes that aren't normally used in battery manufacturing.
Today's anodes are made by painting a solvent-based slurry of graphite particles held together with a binder, a simple process that keeps costs low. The Berkeley researchers believe the key to making new battery materials like silicon work is to stick with this manufacturing process. That meant coming up with a rubbery binder that would stick to silicon particles, remain highly conductive in the harsh environment of the anode, and stretch and contract as the anode swells and deflates.
30 Sep 2011
Lithium-ion battery electrodes bound together by a new highly conductive material have a much greater storage capacity--a development that could eventually increase the range of electric cars and the life of smart-phone batteries without increasing their cost. Unlike many high-capacity electrodes developed over the last few years, these can be made using the equipment already found in today's battery factories.The key is a stretchy, highly conductive polymer binder that can be used to hold together silicon, tin, and other materials that can store a lot of energy but that are ordinarily unstable. Researchers at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory painstakingly engineered this new polymer binder and used it to make a silicon anode for a rechargeable lithium-ion battery with a storage capacity 30% greater than those on the market today. It's also more stable over time than previously developed electrodes.
When a lithium-ion battery is charged, lithium-ions are taken up by one of the electrodes, called the anode. The more lithium the anode can hold, the more energy the battery can store. Silicon is one of the most promising anode materials: it can store 10 times more lithium than graphite, which is used to make the anodes in the lithium-ion batteries on the market today. "Graphite soaks up lithium like a sponge, holding its shape, but silicon is more like a balloon", says Gao Liu, a researcher at the Berkeley Lab's Environmental Energy Technologies Division.
However, because the silicon anodes swell and shrink, changing in volume by three or four times as they're charged and discharged, the capacity of the battery fades over time. "After a few rounds of charge and discharge, pretty soon the silicon particles are not in touch with each other", which means the anode can't conduct electricity, says Liu.
One approach to the problem is to structure these anodes in a totally different way, for example growing shaggy arrays of silicon nanowires that can bend, swell, and move around as lithium enters and exits. This approach is being commercialised by Amprius, a startup in Palo Alto, California. But growing nanowires requires new processes that aren't normally used in battery manufacturing.
Today's anodes are made by painting a solvent-based slurry of graphite particles held together with a binder, a simple process that keeps costs low. The Berkeley researchers believe the key to making new battery materials like silicon work is to stick with this manufacturing process. That meant coming up with a rubbery binder that would stick to silicon particles, remain highly conductive in the harsh environment of the anode, and stretch and contract as the anode swells and deflates.
Tenants seek energy efficiency
Adelaide Advertiser
4 Oct 2011, Page: 23
Solar energy company Zen Home Energy Systems says rising energy prices and falling solar system costs are encouraging commercial property owners to tap into solar power. Zen Home Energy chief executive Richard Turner said the commercial property sector had traditionally been slow to adopt solar power, believing it to be too expensive to retrofit existing buildings. "However, things have changed in recent times", he said, "which will now make solar power more attractive to the commercial sector".
Mr Turner said the solar industry would be further supported by the Federal Government's Clean Energy Future program which will allocate $200 million to helping Australian businesses in food and beverage processing, metal forging and foundries industries improve energy efficiency. Zen Home Energy's recently completed projects include the installation of 156 solar panels at Lake Breeze Wines in Langhorne Creek. It says the power generated is expected to reduce emissions by up to 100 tonnes a year.
Knight Frank state managing director Peter McVann said the solar push was part of a growing trend towards greener workplaces. "The Adelaide marketplace is continually evolving with the latest impetus towards more energy efficient and sustainable properties", he said. "Tenants, government and private, are accepting that they have a social responsibility for a greener and more energy efficient environment".
4 Oct 2011, Page: 23
Solar energy company Zen Home Energy Systems says rising energy prices and falling solar system costs are encouraging commercial property owners to tap into solar power. Zen Home Energy chief executive Richard Turner said the commercial property sector had traditionally been slow to adopt solar power, believing it to be too expensive to retrofit existing buildings. "However, things have changed in recent times", he said, "which will now make solar power more attractive to the commercial sector".
Mr Turner said the solar industry would be further supported by the Federal Government's Clean Energy Future program which will allocate $200 million to helping Australian businesses in food and beverage processing, metal forging and foundries industries improve energy efficiency. Zen Home Energy's recently completed projects include the installation of 156 solar panels at Lake Breeze Wines in Langhorne Creek. It says the power generated is expected to reduce emissions by up to 100 tonnes a year.
Knight Frank state managing director Peter McVann said the solar push was part of a growing trend towards greener workplaces. "The Adelaide marketplace is continually evolving with the latest impetus towards more energy efficient and sustainable properties", he said. "Tenants, government and private, are accepting that they have a social responsibility for a greener and more energy efficient environment".
Shame, Premier
The Saturday Age
1 Oct 2011, Page: 21
THE brown coal industry is clearly laughing all the way into our polluted future. Our appointment with a long established solar power company was cancelled this week because it was going into receivership. So, with Premier Ted Baillieu introducing Australia's most restrictive planning laws for wind farms (The Age, 30/8), and with solar power companies closing, we are left with the joys of "fracking" (hydraulic fracturing of coal seam gass) and brown coal. Brickbats to the government for such appalling policies.
Cathy Humphreys, North Melbourne
1 Oct 2011, Page: 21
THE brown coal industry is clearly laughing all the way into our polluted future. Our appointment with a long established solar power company was cancelled this week because it was going into receivership. So, with Premier Ted Baillieu introducing Australia's most restrictive planning laws for wind farms (The Age, 30/8), and with solar power companies closing, we are left with the joys of "fracking" (hydraulic fracturing of coal seam gass) and brown coal. Brickbats to the government for such appalling policies.
Cathy Humphreys, North Melbourne
Revived roof turbines get their second wind
Hobart Mercury
1 Oct 2011, Page: 13
Wind turbines atop the Marine Board Building on Hobart's waterfront are operating again. In August last year two of the four wind turbines failed, causing $100,000 damage less than a month after they began operating. But now the wind power is being collected again with four new turbines. The new turbines have more safety mechanisms including improved braking, said Rob Manson, director of the I Want Energy company, which operates the turbines.
He said he was "100% happy" an incident like the previous one would not occur. "A lot of thought and effort has gone into it they are a lot stronger", Mr Manson said. Project manager Keith Drew said the launch of the new turbines yesterday was the culmination of months of work and testing to improve the design and ensure the safety systems worked.
"The braking mechanism on the turbines has now been redesigned so that unlike the previous design, where it was possible to allow the turbines to start operating without activating the electromechanical brakes, by default the brakes will be on unless all safety systems are operating properly", he said. "The brakes will now only release when there is electrical power to the system and the weather conditions are suitable for the turbines to operate safely. "This means the brakes come on if there is a loss of power, if the wind becomes too strong or if the control system has detected a fault".
Mr Drew said extra caution had been taken to ensure confidence in the new system and Workplace Standards had been closely involved. People wanting to access the roof of the building need a security card. There are also video cameras monitoring the rooftop. "This new system of check and double-check, then triple-check along with the redesigned control systems of the wind turbines means the installation is now as safe as we can possibly make it", Mr Drew said. The turbines will be continually monitored and independently checked to ensure they are operated properly and pose no risk to public safety. The four turbines could generate up to 10% of the building's power consumption.
1 Oct 2011, Page: 13
Wind turbines atop the Marine Board Building on Hobart's waterfront are operating again. In August last year two of the four wind turbines failed, causing $100,000 damage less than a month after they began operating. But now the wind power is being collected again with four new turbines. The new turbines have more safety mechanisms including improved braking, said Rob Manson, director of the I Want Energy company, which operates the turbines.He said he was "100% happy" an incident like the previous one would not occur. "A lot of thought and effort has gone into it they are a lot stronger", Mr Manson said. Project manager Keith Drew said the launch of the new turbines yesterday was the culmination of months of work and testing to improve the design and ensure the safety systems worked.
"The braking mechanism on the turbines has now been redesigned so that unlike the previous design, where it was possible to allow the turbines to start operating without activating the electromechanical brakes, by default the brakes will be on unless all safety systems are operating properly", he said. "The brakes will now only release when there is electrical power to the system and the weather conditions are suitable for the turbines to operate safely. "This means the brakes come on if there is a loss of power, if the wind becomes too strong or if the control system has detected a fault".
Mr Drew said extra caution had been taken to ensure confidence in the new system and Workplace Standards had been closely involved. People wanting to access the roof of the building need a security card. There are also video cameras monitoring the rooftop. "This new system of check and double-check, then triple-check along with the redesigned control systems of the wind turbines means the installation is now as safe as we can possibly make it", Mr Drew said. The turbines will be continually monitored and independently checked to ensure they are operated properly and pose no risk to public safety. The four turbines could generate up to 10% of the building's power consumption.
Tuesday, 4 October 2011
Defence of solar power industry
Courier Mail
1 Oct 2011, Page: 66
THE front page story (C-M, Sept 28) on "poor quality" solar power inverters left out several important details. Although thousands of solar power systems have been installed this year in Queensland, the number of customer complaints remains remarkably low. The Office of Fair Trading has received only 37 complaints about inverters during 2011 and the Clean Energy Council only 17 in the past 18 months.
To qualify for the Federal Government's solar rebates, all installers must be accredited with the Clean Energy Council and use parts that meet Australian Standards. Although a small percentage of faults are inevitable with any electrical product, Queensland's solar power industry has an excellent quality and safety record. There are now thousands of Queenslanders who are reducing their power bills and helping to cut carbon pollution at the same time. Of course, customers are always encouraged to do their research before making a major purchase.
Mark Bretherton, Clean Energy Council
1 Oct 2011, Page: 66
THE front page story (C-M, Sept 28) on "poor quality" solar power inverters left out several important details. Although thousands of solar power systems have been installed this year in Queensland, the number of customer complaints remains remarkably low. The Office of Fair Trading has received only 37 complaints about inverters during 2011 and the Clean Energy Council only 17 in the past 18 months.To qualify for the Federal Government's solar rebates, all installers must be accredited with the Clean Energy Council and use parts that meet Australian Standards. Although a small percentage of faults are inevitable with any electrical product, Queensland's solar power industry has an excellent quality and safety record. There are now thousands of Queenslanders who are reducing their power bills and helping to cut carbon pollution at the same time. Of course, customers are always encouraged to do their research before making a major purchase.
Mark Bretherton, Clean Energy Council
Institute of public apathy
Sunday Age
2 Oct 2011, Page: 18
THANKS, Chris Berg, for devoting an entire column to implying that the failure of one government subsidised solar power company in the US means renewable energy doesn't work. You dismissed a carbon price or tax as government intervention in the market, and even managed to squeeze in a paragraph pointing out that the federal opposition's entire climate change policy rests on such schemes.
So what does the Institute of Public Affairs recommend we do about climate change and moving to renewable energy sources when non-renewables run out? Presumably nothing.
Matt Holden, Coburg
2 Oct 2011, Page: 18
THANKS, Chris Berg, for devoting an entire column to implying that the failure of one government subsidised solar power company in the US means renewable energy doesn't work. You dismissed a carbon price or tax as government intervention in the market, and even managed to squeeze in a paragraph pointing out that the federal opposition's entire climate change policy rests on such schemes.
So what does the Institute of Public Affairs recommend we do about climate change and moving to renewable energy sources when non-renewables run out? Presumably nothing.
Matt Holden, Coburg
Wind farm deadline looms in Victoria
Summaries - Australian Financial Review
3 Oct 2011, Page: 3
Wind farm developers have been told by the Victorian government that they must begin construction on projects in the state before March 2012 to avoid having to reapply under new regulations. The low Renewable Energy Certificate price currently makes it uneconomical for the generators to begin development, being at what Kane Thornton from the Clean Energy Council calls 'lower than what it needs to be to commercialise projects.'
Analysis from the Greens shows that ACCIONA Energy Australia, Mitsui & Co and Union Fenosa Wind Australia will be affected. Victorian Greens leader Greg Barber said the government, despite using the number of approved wind farm projects to counter claims the state is too heavily reliant on coal, 'will have all but wiped out the industry' within the next few years. State opposition planning spokesman Brian Tee described the policy as 'a lack of common sense.'
3 Oct 2011, Page: 3
Wind farm developers have been told by the Victorian government that they must begin construction on projects in the state before March 2012 to avoid having to reapply under new regulations. The low Renewable Energy Certificate price currently makes it uneconomical for the generators to begin development, being at what Kane Thornton from the Clean Energy Council calls 'lower than what it needs to be to commercialise projects.'
Analysis from the Greens shows that ACCIONA Energy Australia, Mitsui & Co and Union Fenosa Wind Australia will be affected. Victorian Greens leader Greg Barber said the government, despite using the number of approved wind farm projects to counter claims the state is too heavily reliant on coal, 'will have all but wiped out the industry' within the next few years. State opposition planning spokesman Brian Tee described the policy as 'a lack of common sense.'
Monday, 3 October 2011
Secrecy
West Australian
28 Sep 2011, Page: 22
Piers Verstegen is correct in exposing the veil of secrecy of the coal seam gas fracking industry, which is now extending its influence into WA. There is the possibility that this may cause widespread contamination of our water aquifers by toxic and cancer-inducing chemicals.
The coal seam gas promoters are not keen on providing public information. The Barnett Government is also in a rush to approve coal seam gas and other gas projects, while discouraging investment in renewable energy These fossil fuels produce less CO₂ in their combustion than coal, but their widespread use as an interim fuel will still push global warming to dangerous levels. This will be their greatest threat to our health.
Greg Glazov, Gnangara
28 Sep 2011, Page: 22
Piers Verstegen is correct in exposing the veil of secrecy of the coal seam gas fracking industry, which is now extending its influence into WA. There is the possibility that this may cause widespread contamination of our water aquifers by toxic and cancer-inducing chemicals.
The coal seam gas promoters are not keen on providing public information. The Barnett Government is also in a rush to approve coal seam gas and other gas projects, while discouraging investment in renewable energy These fossil fuels produce less CO₂ in their combustion than coal, but their widespread use as an interim fuel will still push global warming to dangerous levels. This will be their greatest threat to our health.
Greg Glazov, Gnangara
Oil giant supports carbon tax
West Australian
28 Sep 2011, Page: 19
The world's biggest oil company has emerged as a surprise supporter of Julia Gillard's carbon tax and wants it made permanent. Exxon-Mobil said a carbon tax was a cheaper and more efficient way of combating climate change than an emissions trading scheme. Under the Gillard Government's climate change package, the price of carbon permits big polluters need to buy will be fixed for the first three years of the carbon tax when it is introduced in July.
The fixed price starts at $23 a tonne and increases by the inflation rate plus an extra 2.5% each year. In mid-2015, the carbon tax will switch to an emissions trading scheme, with a floating price for permits set by the market and an overall cap on the amount of CO₂ that can be emitted. Treasury estimates the price of permits in 2015 will be $29 a tonne.
In a submission to the parliamentary inquiry into the Government's carbon package, Exxon-Mobil said the price of carbon permits under trading schemes was too volatile and unpredictable, discouraging companies from investing in emissions lowering technology "Exxon-Mobil believes that a well designed, revenue-neutral carbon tax mechanism would be a more cost-effective alternative for reducing greenhouse gas emissions: when combined with further advances in energy efficiency and new technologies spurred by market innovation, we are confident that a carbon tax could play a significant role in addressing the challenge of greenhouse gas emissions", the submission said.
Despite its support for a carbon price, Exxon-Mobil which owns a quarter share of the huge Gorgon project warned promised assistance to LNG producers to have 66% of their carbon liability covered still left them at "significant disadvantage against international competition".
The risks of a floating price were highlighted yesterday after the Business Council of Australia warned the emissions trading scheme could punch a $9 billion hole in the Budget over five years if permits trade much closer to the floor price of $15 a tonne than the $29 forecast by Treasury One of the nation's most respected economists, Professor John Fairbairn, used a public forum in Canberra yesterday to argue that under the carbon tax, businesses would deliver bigger cuts in emissions at much lower cost than even Treasury had estimated.
Professor Fairbairn said under the acid rain emissions trading scheme in the US, businesses had changed their practices rapidly and in ways never envisioned. He said local businesses would deliver "threefold" on the expected cuts in carbon emissions.
28 Sep 2011, Page: 19
The world's biggest oil company has emerged as a surprise supporter of Julia Gillard's carbon tax and wants it made permanent. Exxon-Mobil said a carbon tax was a cheaper and more efficient way of combating climate change than an emissions trading scheme. Under the Gillard Government's climate change package, the price of carbon permits big polluters need to buy will be fixed for the first three years of the carbon tax when it is introduced in July.
The fixed price starts at $23 a tonne and increases by the inflation rate plus an extra 2.5% each year. In mid-2015, the carbon tax will switch to an emissions trading scheme, with a floating price for permits set by the market and an overall cap on the amount of CO₂ that can be emitted. Treasury estimates the price of permits in 2015 will be $29 a tonne.
In a submission to the parliamentary inquiry into the Government's carbon package, Exxon-Mobil said the price of carbon permits under trading schemes was too volatile and unpredictable, discouraging companies from investing in emissions lowering technology "Exxon-Mobil believes that a well designed, revenue-neutral carbon tax mechanism would be a more cost-effective alternative for reducing greenhouse gas emissions: when combined with further advances in energy efficiency and new technologies spurred by market innovation, we are confident that a carbon tax could play a significant role in addressing the challenge of greenhouse gas emissions", the submission said.
Despite its support for a carbon price, Exxon-Mobil which owns a quarter share of the huge Gorgon project warned promised assistance to LNG producers to have 66% of their carbon liability covered still left them at "significant disadvantage against international competition".
The risks of a floating price were highlighted yesterday after the Business Council of Australia warned the emissions trading scheme could punch a $9 billion hole in the Budget over five years if permits trade much closer to the floor price of $15 a tonne than the $29 forecast by Treasury One of the nation's most respected economists, Professor John Fairbairn, used a public forum in Canberra yesterday to argue that under the carbon tax, businesses would deliver bigger cuts in emissions at much lower cost than even Treasury had estimated.
Professor Fairbairn said under the acid rain emissions trading scheme in the US, businesses had changed their practices rapidly and in ways never envisioned. He said local businesses would deliver "threefold" on the expected cuts in carbon emissions.
Citizen Garnaut slams carbon critics over 'extreme distortion'
Australian
28 Sep 2011, Page: 6
Ross Garnaut has fired back at critics of the carbon tax he helped craft, accusing its opponents of bringing "elaborate and extreme" distortions to the public debate. In a passionate appearance before the joint parliamentary committee considering the Gillard government's draft carbon legislation, Professor Garnaut yesterday said in, "egregious" incorrect claims had become prominent, potentially corrupting the democratic process.
"Australian public discussion of climate change policy over recent times has been the locus of more elaborate and extreme distortion of reality and abuse of truth than I have seen in an adult lifetime of interest in policy", he said. "Our generation risks condemnation in history for the corruption of our democracy embodied in this distortion of reality and abuse of truth".
Professor Garnaut, who is a professorial economics fellow at the University of Melbourne, conducted the Rudd government's climate change review, as well as more recent updates that have helped build the platform for the carbon tax package. He said he was appearing before the Joint Select Committee on Australia's Clean Energy Future Legislation as a private citizen. Professor Garnaut cited common errors including the "frequent assertion" that Australia would be doing more than its fair share by implementing the carbon tax.
"What is proposed for Australia's legislation cannot in any way be seen as more than a fair share", he said. "The policy that underpins the draft legislation currently before the parliament allows Australia to do its fair share at reasonable economic cost and a far lower economic cost than the main alternatives that have been put forward in public discussion".
He said there had been "particularly egregious distortion" regarding the lack of a national emissions trading scheme in the US, where individual states have introduced their own legislation to reduce emissions. "There will be no carbon price nationwide,,. but there will be very strong policies of other kinds", he said. "You can have carbon constraints without carbon prices. "In fact, the carbon constraints through regulatory processes that have been applied in China and the US in many cases impose more costs on businesses and households than carbon pricing to achieve equivalent reductions in emissions".
28 Sep 2011, Page: 6
Ross Garnaut has fired back at critics of the carbon tax he helped craft, accusing its opponents of bringing "elaborate and extreme" distortions to the public debate. In a passionate appearance before the joint parliamentary committee considering the Gillard government's draft carbon legislation, Professor Garnaut yesterday said in, "egregious" incorrect claims had become prominent, potentially corrupting the democratic process.
"Australian public discussion of climate change policy over recent times has been the locus of more elaborate and extreme distortion of reality and abuse of truth than I have seen in an adult lifetime of interest in policy", he said. "Our generation risks condemnation in history for the corruption of our democracy embodied in this distortion of reality and abuse of truth".
Professor Garnaut, who is a professorial economics fellow at the University of Melbourne, conducted the Rudd government's climate change review, as well as more recent updates that have helped build the platform for the carbon tax package. He said he was appearing before the Joint Select Committee on Australia's Clean Energy Future Legislation as a private citizen. Professor Garnaut cited common errors including the "frequent assertion" that Australia would be doing more than its fair share by implementing the carbon tax.
"What is proposed for Australia's legislation cannot in any way be seen as more than a fair share", he said. "The policy that underpins the draft legislation currently before the parliament allows Australia to do its fair share at reasonable economic cost and a far lower economic cost than the main alternatives that have been put forward in public discussion".
He said there had been "particularly egregious distortion" regarding the lack of a national emissions trading scheme in the US, where individual states have introduced their own legislation to reduce emissions. "There will be no carbon price nationwide,,. but there will be very strong policies of other kinds", he said. "You can have carbon constraints without carbon prices. "In fact, the carbon constraints through regulatory processes that have been applied in China and the US in many cases impose more costs on businesses and households than carbon pricing to achieve equivalent reductions in emissions".
Friday, 30 September 2011
Libs sweep wind from turbine sails
The Saturday Age
24 Sep 2011, Page: 7
NEARLY four years ago, a small group of Woodend residents hatched a plan to power the historic town entirely on renewable energy. Three wind turbines would be built in a pine forest 6 km south of the town to generate enough energy to run not only Woodend, but also nearby Macedon, Mount Macedon and Newham. Wind speeds were modelled to determine the best location, community forums held, more than 500 signatures collected in support, and initial steps taken to start raising the $14 million needed. A smaller number of people expressed objections.
As of last month, the project is on hold, possibly dead, after the Baillieu government introduced Australia's most restrictive wind farm regulations. Under the changes, households have a right of veto over a turbine being built within two km of their home and wind farm exclusion zones were introduced across the state. The updated list of banned areas includes the entire Macedon Ranges shire.
Peter Hansford, a spokesman for WISE (Woodend Integrated Sustainability Energy), said project organisers were "surprised, disappointed and deflated" by the announcement. He said they had left a June meeting with Planning Minister Matthew Guy under the impression a decision over exclusion zones would be left to local councils, not dictated from Spring Street.
"All we were trying to do was to help the community take responsibility for its carbon and energy future. We're not sure why that power has been taken away", he says. "We are aware their are sensitivities around the development of wind farms in the Macedon Ranges shire, which is why we chose this site. We believe it ticks all the boxes in terms of location issues and economic benefits to the community" The Woodend proposal is one of four community wind farms blocked by the new regulations.
Others were planned for Castlemaine, the Surf Coast and under the Westgate Bridge. An analysis by environment group Friends of the Earth suggests that, once commercial developments are factored in, the regulation changes have already stalled or prevented the development of planned wind farms worth up to $955 million. Spokesman Can Walker said at least nine farms promising up to 580 construction and 57 permanent jobs were affected.
The government says the changes return "certainty and fairness" to local communities in areas where wind farms have been proposed, and that permits have been granted for about 1100 turbines that are yet to be built. Supporters of community wind power have called on Mr Guy to change the regulations to help small projects. Mount Alexander Shire Council recently passed a motion calling on the government to review the ban on wind farms east of the Calder Freeway near Castlemaine a site considered suitable for community-scale projects only.
The council asked the government to consider the potential economic benefit to the area. A two-turbine farm near Daylesford is estimated to have brought $7 million into the area during construction, offered permanent work to four locals, and generated power to run 2000 homes. Mr Guy said he had met with the group behind the Woodend proposal, and understood it faced other hurdles beyond the new regulations before it could have been built, including lacking permission to build on Crown land. He said he was yet to receive correspondence from Mount Alexander Shire Council about the Castlemaine proposal.
24 Sep 2011, Page: 7
NEARLY four years ago, a small group of Woodend residents hatched a plan to power the historic town entirely on renewable energy. Three wind turbines would be built in a pine forest 6 km south of the town to generate enough energy to run not only Woodend, but also nearby Macedon, Mount Macedon and Newham. Wind speeds were modelled to determine the best location, community forums held, more than 500 signatures collected in support, and initial steps taken to start raising the $14 million needed. A smaller number of people expressed objections.As of last month, the project is on hold, possibly dead, after the Baillieu government introduced Australia's most restrictive wind farm regulations. Under the changes, households have a right of veto over a turbine being built within two km of their home and wind farm exclusion zones were introduced across the state. The updated list of banned areas includes the entire Macedon Ranges shire.
Peter Hansford, a spokesman for WISE (Woodend Integrated Sustainability Energy), said project organisers were "surprised, disappointed and deflated" by the announcement. He said they had left a June meeting with Planning Minister Matthew Guy under the impression a decision over exclusion zones would be left to local councils, not dictated from Spring Street.
"All we were trying to do was to help the community take responsibility for its carbon and energy future. We're not sure why that power has been taken away", he says. "We are aware their are sensitivities around the development of wind farms in the Macedon Ranges shire, which is why we chose this site. We believe it ticks all the boxes in terms of location issues and economic benefits to the community" The Woodend proposal is one of four community wind farms blocked by the new regulations.
Others were planned for Castlemaine, the Surf Coast and under the Westgate Bridge. An analysis by environment group Friends of the Earth suggests that, once commercial developments are factored in, the regulation changes have already stalled or prevented the development of planned wind farms worth up to $955 million. Spokesman Can Walker said at least nine farms promising up to 580 construction and 57 permanent jobs were affected.
The government says the changes return "certainty and fairness" to local communities in areas where wind farms have been proposed, and that permits have been granted for about 1100 turbines that are yet to be built. Supporters of community wind power have called on Mr Guy to change the regulations to help small projects. Mount Alexander Shire Council recently passed a motion calling on the government to review the ban on wind farms east of the Calder Freeway near Castlemaine a site considered suitable for community-scale projects only.
The council asked the government to consider the potential economic benefit to the area. A two-turbine farm near Daylesford is estimated to have brought $7 million into the area during construction, offered permanent work to four locals, and generated power to run 2000 homes. Mr Guy said he had met with the group behind the Woodend proposal, and understood it faced other hurdles beyond the new regulations before it could have been built, including lacking permission to build on Crown land. He said he was yet to receive correspondence from Mount Alexander Shire Council about the Castlemaine proposal.
Coal power struggle: it's really a messy business
Sydney Morning Herald
24 Sep 2011, Page: 16
At the end of the day, a very large, very profitable multinational utility which owns a very old, very dirty brown coalfired power station in Victoria is likely to walk away from this "Clean Energy Future" carbon tax package with hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars. They'll be paid cash to shut down. Employees won't see a cent. The company won't be required to reinvest the money in cleaner energy. Lenders will be repaid and the balance will go whoosh! overseas.
The multi-party climate change committee's carbon tax package includes provisions for contracts to pay for closure of up to 2000 MWs of the country's dirtiest generation capacity, in the second half of this decade, after an expression-of-interest process starting this month. The touted winner is foreign giant International Power-GDF Suez, owner of the controversial 1675-MW Hazelwood power station in the Latrobe Valley.
International Power, which combined with GDF Suez in February, has a market value of more than $86 billion. Last year, its Australian operations, including Hazelwood and the nearby 70%owned Loy Yang power station B (1026 MWs), were its most profitable globally, making $676 million from sales of $1.89 billion, based on average foreign exchange rates. In the first half of this year it made another $266 million here, in earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation.
When a carbon price comes in, Hazelwood power station will struggle to compete. It will send power less often to the grid and it will make less revenue per unit of electricity generated. That's the point of bringing in a carbon price: internalising the cost of carbon pollution will tilt the electricity market away from dirtier generation. Left to themselves, the generators would have to clean up or go out of business.
The live question is whether Hazelwood power station and its brown coal peers would be able to stay in business long enough to cleanup by passing their increased costs on to electricity retailers and, ultimately, consumers. Climate change adviser Ross Garnaut said yes. Industry and most analysts say no, although, last Friday, Ken Thompson, a top executive at Loy Yang power stationA (2200 MWs, the country's biggest brown coal-fired generator), told a Senate inquiry commercially sensitive modelling suggested generators could pass on two-thirds of the cost, resulting in a 30% jump in wholesale electricity prices and a 10% rise in retail prices.
Just to be sure they can cope, the coal-fired generators are being showered in transitional assistance, byway of free pollution permits. 1n2009, it was the Electricity Sector Adjustment Scheme, providing permits worth $7.3 billion over 10 years under the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme. This time around it's just $5.6 billion over five years, more tightly focused on the brown coal generators, but still generous-and there's an unspecified amount for closure contracts on top.
The Greens voted the old CPRS down because it "locked in failure". The ESAS was a big part of the problem. It not only gave too much assistance to generators, it required them to keep burning coal for a decade! Combine that with low targets, excessive industry compensation, high reliance on overseas permits and lack of complementary measures to promote renewable s and.., down it went. The new carbon price package addresses many of the other problems but an ESAS is still there and it sticks in the craw.
"I don't justify it", Greens deputy leader Christine Milne says. "I still think it's a very bad idea. Throughout the entire CEF [Clean Energy Future] negotiations, I argued in all meetings there was no need to be compensating coal-fired power stations and pointed out at every turn that these power stations have known for years a shift to reducing emissions was coming and they ought to have factored it into their costings". So why back it this time? Milne blames the "extreme conservatism" of the bodies that run the grid, the Australian Energy Market Commission and the Australian Energy Market Operator.
"We argued very strongly with them but they maintained their position that, to maintain energy security under carbon pricing, you needed to provide compensation byway of permits to coal-fired generators", she says. "Then, the government made it clear that there is no way government can take a course of action which is opposed by independent operators of the energy market". After insisting the AEMC put its advice in writing, Milne folded. "In my view, it is their view that has led to what is effectively a misallocation of public money", she says.
But absolutely nothing about the commission's advice was new or had changed since 2009, Climate Change Minister Greg Combet says: "The advice to government on both occasions was that there was a risk to energy security that was appropriate to mitigate". A secret Morgan Stanley report in 2009 found certain debt-laden generators could suffer financial distress if a carbon price came in without transitional assistance. A government Investment Reference Group report earlier this year, backed by Deloitte, also painted a dire picture.
Power-station asset values would fall-witness the prices paid in the NSW electricity privatisation, 30-40% below book value. Generators were strapped as bank lenders, anticipating a carbon price, increased principal repayment requirements-"in some cases via a mandatory sweep of all available cashflow except for a small management fee payable to equity".
The AEMC's advice to the multi-party climate change committee stoked fears of insolvency and contagion although it stressed the concern was not about the financial position of the generators per Se, but rather its impacts on the efficient functioning of the overall market and its consequences for energy security". Comb et makes the same point, saying transitional assistance is not a handout and is not about offsetting asset devaluation or depreciation. "It's about ensuring there is stability", he says.
Are energy security fears overblown, though? ACIL Tasman chief Paul Hyslop told The Australian Financial Review recently a carbon price could affect asset values, and the interests of debt and equity investors might clash, but it was unlikely supply would be affected. "I don't think security of supply is a risk because, ultimately, the government, through the market operator, can step in and direct plant to run", he said. When bully generators threaten the energy supply by stalling maintenance or handing the keys back to the banks-it's called "blackout-mail", intimidation of politicians fearful of a public backlash if the lights go out. "Complete garbage", Combet says.
Bluster? We'll know by the price the government agrees with International Power, if indeed Hazelwood is to close. The 2009 accounts of IP subsidiary Hazelwood Power Finance stated the value of assets potentially affected by a carbon price had risen to $2.053 billion at the end of 2009 but the most recent accounts sidestep a valuation. Colonial First State is believed to have written off its 8% stake, so the uncertainty is acute. A less likely alternative to pay to close the marginally cleaner Yallourn W power station (1480 MWs, valued at $1.7 billion at June 30, according to TRUEnergy's parent, Hong Kong-listed China Light and Power).
TRUEnergy, is hoping to float on the ASX next year and the book value of Yallourn W power station is the biggest obstacle. The last thing Australian equity funds want to buy is a brown coal power station. Environment Victoria's campaigns director, Mark Wakeham, supports payments for closure-"at least there's some public interest outcome", unlike paying the generators to stay open-but he wants it to start soon, with turbines closing from next year and proceeding at roughly 250 MWs a year. The brown coal generators get money either way, whether via transitional assistance or payments for closure. It's pay day for the greenhouse mafia.
Email: paddy.manning@fairfaxmedia.com.au
Twitter: @gpaddynnanning
24 Sep 2011, Page: 16
At the end of the day, a very large, very profitable multinational utility which owns a very old, very dirty brown coalfired power station in Victoria is likely to walk away from this "Clean Energy Future" carbon tax package with hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars. They'll be paid cash to shut down. Employees won't see a cent. The company won't be required to reinvest the money in cleaner energy. Lenders will be repaid and the balance will go whoosh! overseas.
The multi-party climate change committee's carbon tax package includes provisions for contracts to pay for closure of up to 2000 MWs of the country's dirtiest generation capacity, in the second half of this decade, after an expression-of-interest process starting this month. The touted winner is foreign giant International Power-GDF Suez, owner of the controversial 1675-MW Hazelwood power station in the Latrobe Valley.
International Power, which combined with GDF Suez in February, has a market value of more than $86 billion. Last year, its Australian operations, including Hazelwood and the nearby 70%owned Loy Yang power station B (1026 MWs), were its most profitable globally, making $676 million from sales of $1.89 billion, based on average foreign exchange rates. In the first half of this year it made another $266 million here, in earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation.
When a carbon price comes in, Hazelwood power station will struggle to compete. It will send power less often to the grid and it will make less revenue per unit of electricity generated. That's the point of bringing in a carbon price: internalising the cost of carbon pollution will tilt the electricity market away from dirtier generation. Left to themselves, the generators would have to clean up or go out of business.
The live question is whether Hazelwood power station and its brown coal peers would be able to stay in business long enough to cleanup by passing their increased costs on to electricity retailers and, ultimately, consumers. Climate change adviser Ross Garnaut said yes. Industry and most analysts say no, although, last Friday, Ken Thompson, a top executive at Loy Yang power stationA (2200 MWs, the country's biggest brown coal-fired generator), told a Senate inquiry commercially sensitive modelling suggested generators could pass on two-thirds of the cost, resulting in a 30% jump in wholesale electricity prices and a 10% rise in retail prices.
Just to be sure they can cope, the coal-fired generators are being showered in transitional assistance, byway of free pollution permits. 1n2009, it was the Electricity Sector Adjustment Scheme, providing permits worth $7.3 billion over 10 years under the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme. This time around it's just $5.6 billion over five years, more tightly focused on the brown coal generators, but still generous-and there's an unspecified amount for closure contracts on top.
The Greens voted the old CPRS down because it "locked in failure". The ESAS was a big part of the problem. It not only gave too much assistance to generators, it required them to keep burning coal for a decade! Combine that with low targets, excessive industry compensation, high reliance on overseas permits and lack of complementary measures to promote renewable s and.., down it went. The new carbon price package addresses many of the other problems but an ESAS is still there and it sticks in the craw.
"I don't justify it", Greens deputy leader Christine Milne says. "I still think it's a very bad idea. Throughout the entire CEF [Clean Energy Future] negotiations, I argued in all meetings there was no need to be compensating coal-fired power stations and pointed out at every turn that these power stations have known for years a shift to reducing emissions was coming and they ought to have factored it into their costings". So why back it this time? Milne blames the "extreme conservatism" of the bodies that run the grid, the Australian Energy Market Commission and the Australian Energy Market Operator.
"We argued very strongly with them but they maintained their position that, to maintain energy security under carbon pricing, you needed to provide compensation byway of permits to coal-fired generators", she says. "Then, the government made it clear that there is no way government can take a course of action which is opposed by independent operators of the energy market". After insisting the AEMC put its advice in writing, Milne folded. "In my view, it is their view that has led to what is effectively a misallocation of public money", she says.
But absolutely nothing about the commission's advice was new or had changed since 2009, Climate Change Minister Greg Combet says: "The advice to government on both occasions was that there was a risk to energy security that was appropriate to mitigate". A secret Morgan Stanley report in 2009 found certain debt-laden generators could suffer financial distress if a carbon price came in without transitional assistance. A government Investment Reference Group report earlier this year, backed by Deloitte, also painted a dire picture.
Power-station asset values would fall-witness the prices paid in the NSW electricity privatisation, 30-40% below book value. Generators were strapped as bank lenders, anticipating a carbon price, increased principal repayment requirements-"in some cases via a mandatory sweep of all available cashflow except for a small management fee payable to equity".
The AEMC's advice to the multi-party climate change committee stoked fears of insolvency and contagion although it stressed the concern was not about the financial position of the generators per Se, but rather its impacts on the efficient functioning of the overall market and its consequences for energy security". Comb et makes the same point, saying transitional assistance is not a handout and is not about offsetting asset devaluation or depreciation. "It's about ensuring there is stability", he says.
Are energy security fears overblown, though? ACIL Tasman chief Paul Hyslop told The Australian Financial Review recently a carbon price could affect asset values, and the interests of debt and equity investors might clash, but it was unlikely supply would be affected. "I don't think security of supply is a risk because, ultimately, the government, through the market operator, can step in and direct plant to run", he said. When bully generators threaten the energy supply by stalling maintenance or handing the keys back to the banks-it's called "blackout-mail", intimidation of politicians fearful of a public backlash if the lights go out. "Complete garbage", Combet says.
Bluster? We'll know by the price the government agrees with International Power, if indeed Hazelwood is to close. The 2009 accounts of IP subsidiary Hazelwood Power Finance stated the value of assets potentially affected by a carbon price had risen to $2.053 billion at the end of 2009 but the most recent accounts sidestep a valuation. Colonial First State is believed to have written off its 8% stake, so the uncertainty is acute. A less likely alternative to pay to close the marginally cleaner Yallourn W power station (1480 MWs, valued at $1.7 billion at June 30, according to TRUEnergy's parent, Hong Kong-listed China Light and Power).
TRUEnergy, is hoping to float on the ASX next year and the book value of Yallourn W power station is the biggest obstacle. The last thing Australian equity funds want to buy is a brown coal power station. Environment Victoria's campaigns director, Mark Wakeham, supports payments for closure-"at least there's some public interest outcome", unlike paying the generators to stay open-but he wants it to start soon, with turbines closing from next year and proceeding at roughly 250 MWs a year. The brown coal generators get money either way, whether via transitional assistance or payments for closure. It's pay day for the greenhouse mafia.
Email: paddy.manning@fairfaxmedia.com.au
Twitter: @gpaddynnanning
Thursday, 29 September 2011
Investors raise doubts on Abbott climate plan
Sydney Morning Herald
24 Sep 2011, Page: 4
INVESTOR analysts have raised serious questions about Tony Abbott's "Direct Action" climate policy, saying it is highly unlikely to achieve Australia's promised greenhouse gas reductions at the Coalition's "capped" $10.5 billion price. The Coalition aims to achieve 60% of Australia's total abatement task through soil carbon at a cost of between $8 and $10 a tonne a price essential for the Coalition to achieve its 10-year budget for the policy of $10.5 billion. In a recent brief, Citigroup told investors "we think the Coalition's assumptions about the potential for soil carbon are far too optimistic".
"Shadow minister Greg Hunt referred us to work and comments by the CSIRO and National Farmers Federation in support of soil carbon potential. Our investigations actually found these organisations to be cautious about predicting volumes and costs,.. We conclude that there is a high degree of uncertainty over both technical and financial aspects of soil carbon", a senior analyst, Elaine Prior, wrote. "We doubt that soil carbon will deliver the abatement levels and low costs assumed by the Coalition, so we think either higher expenditure will be needed or the 5% target (for emissions reductions by 2020) won't be met".
The Citi Investment Research analyst's reservations come as Nathan Fabian, the chief executive of the Investment Group on Climate Change, representing super funds and investment managers with more than $600 billion under management, said he did not believe the Coalition's policy was sustainable. "You cannot meet substantial emission reductions on the government balance sheet,.. the issue we see is that if you pay some companies in the economy to reduce emissions you aren't paying other companies whose emissions could still grow enormously,.. we don't believe a policy based on paying for abatement is a sensible long-term option", he said.
Mr Fabian said he did not believe the carbon price would have a serious financial impact on any companies and suggested some businesses had been exaggerating its impact to get more government compensation. "What companies say in the public domain is probably more to do with how they wish to be treated by government in terms of assistance than their underlying financial position", he told the Senate select committee on climate change. Mr Fabian said his group was also "closely watching" development of the government's proposed clean energy fund.
24 Sep 2011, Page: 4
INVESTOR analysts have raised serious questions about Tony Abbott's "Direct Action" climate policy, saying it is highly unlikely to achieve Australia's promised greenhouse gas reductions at the Coalition's "capped" $10.5 billion price. The Coalition aims to achieve 60% of Australia's total abatement task through soil carbon at a cost of between $8 and $10 a tonne a price essential for the Coalition to achieve its 10-year budget for the policy of $10.5 billion. In a recent brief, Citigroup told investors "we think the Coalition's assumptions about the potential for soil carbon are far too optimistic".
"Shadow minister Greg Hunt referred us to work and comments by the CSIRO and National Farmers Federation in support of soil carbon potential. Our investigations actually found these organisations to be cautious about predicting volumes and costs,.. We conclude that there is a high degree of uncertainty over both technical and financial aspects of soil carbon", a senior analyst, Elaine Prior, wrote. "We doubt that soil carbon will deliver the abatement levels and low costs assumed by the Coalition, so we think either higher expenditure will be needed or the 5% target (for emissions reductions by 2020) won't be met".
The Citi Investment Research analyst's reservations come as Nathan Fabian, the chief executive of the Investment Group on Climate Change, representing super funds and investment managers with more than $600 billion under management, said he did not believe the Coalition's policy was sustainable. "You cannot meet substantial emission reductions on the government balance sheet,.. the issue we see is that if you pay some companies in the economy to reduce emissions you aren't paying other companies whose emissions could still grow enormously,.. we don't believe a policy based on paying for abatement is a sensible long-term option", he said.
Mr Fabian said he did not believe the carbon price would have a serious financial impact on any companies and suggested some businesses had been exaggerating its impact to get more government compensation. "What companies say in the public domain is probably more to do with how they wish to be treated by government in terms of assistance than their underlying financial position", he told the Senate select committee on climate change. Mr Fabian said his group was also "closely watching" development of the government's proposed clean energy fund.
Solar dream gets caught in gridlock
Courier Mail
24 Sep 2011, Page: 4
THE solar power revolution is in danger of stalling, with the State Government admitting the electricity grid is failing to cope with its green vision. Energy Minister Stephen Robertson confirmed new applications for rooftop solar systems were being rejected in areas where Queensland's high uptake threatened the safety and reliability of its network. Thousands of homeowners hoping for promised power savings of up to $540 via a 1.5kW system are in limbo, with those wanting larger systems even being asked to pay more than $20,000 to help cover local upgrades.
Energex said the state's electricity network since the 1950s had been designed to deliver power from the station to the home and the voltage now heading "the other way" was causing a huge dilemma. Following advice from engineering experts, no more systems will be automatically approved when the penetration of solar photovoltaic systems hits 30% in neighbourhoods. The penetration refers to the maximum capacity of the transformer supplying the local zone, which can include 50 homes. In a bid to cut power bills, more than 107,000 Queensland households have jumped at the Solar Bonus Scheme, launched in 2008, exporting 72.5 million kW hours back to the grid.
However, unless significant, costly upgrades are completed, many who might want to add solar panels in the future may not be able to. Energex is warning Queenslanders considering installing solar to make applications well before entering a contract with an installer in case they are not able to proceed. Spokesman Mike Swanston told the Courier Mail about 600 local distribution transformer zones on the Gold Coast, Brisbane Valley and Sunshine Coast had reached saturation.
Mr Swanston said, at this stage, only a handful of applications had been "rejected outright", but he confirmed that 30% saturation was the "trigger" for applications to be investigated. He said the areas reaching capacity were very localised and "one street may be OK, yet the next street cannot accept any more,generation without upgrading". "As a general rule, applications to connect systems over 3kW capacity in rural residential areas where there is already solar photovoltaic nearby are being examined closely".
Mudgeeraba resident Andries Kaden was stunned when his application for a 10kW system was knocked back. Mr Kaden was told there were enough solar systems in the area and the transformer would have to be upgraded for him to install one. "Energex told me if I wanted to proceed I would have to pay between $20,000 and $30,000 for an upgrade", he said. "I couldn't believe it because we have all been told to grab this, but it's not possible. You had better get in quick if you want solar is all I can say. "I fought this all the way to the minister and they have since said I can have the system but I am a guinea pig to see if the network can handle it".
Mr Robertson advised Mr Kaden he was to be part of a trial "to see if the electricity network can operate at higher penetration levels". With regard to the request for payment, he said that if Energex did not ask for capital contributions in situations such as this, the cost would "ultimately be reflected in the electricity tariffs, to the detriment of all customers". Opposition energy spokesman Steve Dickson said it was another example of a government that failed to plan while running with spin about being clean and green. "They've rushed out with the solar program without properly checking on whether distribution systems can actually handle the uptake", he said. "We have all these people who are being invited to go solar because it's better for the planet and will reduce their bills, but the reality is their applications may be knocked back because we don't have the infrastructure".
Mr Swanston said voltage management on the network and in household wiring was historically set up with one-way power flow in mind. "With embedded generation, customers are able to inject power back into the network, reversing the flow and changing the profile of the voltage (or electrical pressure)", he said. "It is similar to the water network the pipes get smaller and the pressure is designed to be lower as you get closer to the house. Start pumping water backwards into the small household pipes and strange things happen". Energex is trying to solve problems by requesting the size of the generator be reduced, adjusting base voltage, making changes to street connections, or suggesting customers change consumption patterns to use the generated energy in the home more effectively.
Ron Flynn, of Sunshine Coast solar company SolarOn, said the industry was well aware of technical challenges caused by the high uptake of solar systems in some areas. Mr Flynn said there was no doubt infrastructure had to be upgraded to match the demand if the industry was to thrive into the future. He said, because it was no longer a given that applications would be approved, he worked with clients to identify hurdles before any contracts or money changed hands. In some cases, he said, a solution might be to reduce the size of the system applied for: "I think it is the responsibility of the solar company to educate customers and help them with applications. You can't just sell a system knowing the client may be knocked back, or asked to pay for an upgrade to infrastructure".
Federal Climate Change Minister Greg Combet recently hinted he might pressure states to dump or wind back solar schemes because they might be a waste of money. Mr Robertson said Queensland's Solar Bonus Scheme was the most successful scheme of its type in Australia. He said it provided Queenslanders with affordable access to solar power, helped them save money and was also helping create green jobs. "Today, there are approximately 1000 accredited solar installers in Queensland, compared with just 78 before our scheme started".
24 Sep 2011, Page: 4
THE solar power revolution is in danger of stalling, with the State Government admitting the electricity grid is failing to cope with its green vision. Energy Minister Stephen Robertson confirmed new applications for rooftop solar systems were being rejected in areas where Queensland's high uptake threatened the safety and reliability of its network. Thousands of homeowners hoping for promised power savings of up to $540 via a 1.5kW system are in limbo, with those wanting larger systems even being asked to pay more than $20,000 to help cover local upgrades.Energex said the state's electricity network since the 1950s had been designed to deliver power from the station to the home and the voltage now heading "the other way" was causing a huge dilemma. Following advice from engineering experts, no more systems will be automatically approved when the penetration of solar photovoltaic systems hits 30% in neighbourhoods. The penetration refers to the maximum capacity of the transformer supplying the local zone, which can include 50 homes. In a bid to cut power bills, more than 107,000 Queensland households have jumped at the Solar Bonus Scheme, launched in 2008, exporting 72.5 million kW hours back to the grid.
However, unless significant, costly upgrades are completed, many who might want to add solar panels in the future may not be able to. Energex is warning Queenslanders considering installing solar to make applications well before entering a contract with an installer in case they are not able to proceed. Spokesman Mike Swanston told the Courier Mail about 600 local distribution transformer zones on the Gold Coast, Brisbane Valley and Sunshine Coast had reached saturation.
Mr Swanston said, at this stage, only a handful of applications had been "rejected outright", but he confirmed that 30% saturation was the "trigger" for applications to be investigated. He said the areas reaching capacity were very localised and "one street may be OK, yet the next street cannot accept any more,generation without upgrading". "As a general rule, applications to connect systems over 3kW capacity in rural residential areas where there is already solar photovoltaic nearby are being examined closely".
Mudgeeraba resident Andries Kaden was stunned when his application for a 10kW system was knocked back. Mr Kaden was told there were enough solar systems in the area and the transformer would have to be upgraded for him to install one. "Energex told me if I wanted to proceed I would have to pay between $20,000 and $30,000 for an upgrade", he said. "I couldn't believe it because we have all been told to grab this, but it's not possible. You had better get in quick if you want solar is all I can say. "I fought this all the way to the minister and they have since said I can have the system but I am a guinea pig to see if the network can handle it".
Mr Robertson advised Mr Kaden he was to be part of a trial "to see if the electricity network can operate at higher penetration levels". With regard to the request for payment, he said that if Energex did not ask for capital contributions in situations such as this, the cost would "ultimately be reflected in the electricity tariffs, to the detriment of all customers". Opposition energy spokesman Steve Dickson said it was another example of a government that failed to plan while running with spin about being clean and green. "They've rushed out with the solar program without properly checking on whether distribution systems can actually handle the uptake", he said. "We have all these people who are being invited to go solar because it's better for the planet and will reduce their bills, but the reality is their applications may be knocked back because we don't have the infrastructure".
Mr Swanston said voltage management on the network and in household wiring was historically set up with one-way power flow in mind. "With embedded generation, customers are able to inject power back into the network, reversing the flow and changing the profile of the voltage (or electrical pressure)", he said. "It is similar to the water network the pipes get smaller and the pressure is designed to be lower as you get closer to the house. Start pumping water backwards into the small household pipes and strange things happen". Energex is trying to solve problems by requesting the size of the generator be reduced, adjusting base voltage, making changes to street connections, or suggesting customers change consumption patterns to use the generated energy in the home more effectively.
Ron Flynn, of Sunshine Coast solar company SolarOn, said the industry was well aware of technical challenges caused by the high uptake of solar systems in some areas. Mr Flynn said there was no doubt infrastructure had to be upgraded to match the demand if the industry was to thrive into the future. He said, because it was no longer a given that applications would be approved, he worked with clients to identify hurdles before any contracts or money changed hands. In some cases, he said, a solution might be to reduce the size of the system applied for: "I think it is the responsibility of the solar company to educate customers and help them with applications. You can't just sell a system knowing the client may be knocked back, or asked to pay for an upgrade to infrastructure".
Federal Climate Change Minister Greg Combet recently hinted he might pressure states to dump or wind back solar schemes because they might be a waste of money. Mr Robertson said Queensland's Solar Bonus Scheme was the most successful scheme of its type in Australia. He said it provided Queenslanders with affordable access to solar power, helped them save money and was also helping create green jobs. "Today, there are approximately 1000 accredited solar installers in Queensland, compared with just 78 before our scheme started".
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