Victoria’s Baillieu Liberal government was able to limit, but not stop, this last new wind farm
Wind farm to be built near Colac, The Age, Adam Morton, January 25, 2012 A $400 million wind farm will be built in Victoria’s Western District six years after receiving planning approval from the state government. Spanish company Acciona Energy said the 63-turbine plant at Mount Gellibrand, 25 kilometres east of Colac, would generate enough power
to run about 88,000 homes. Construction of the 189-megawatt clean energy plant, scaled down from an initial proposal of 116 turbines, will start in March.
The wind farm needed final government approval before construction could begin, but was not subject to new planning laws announced by the Baillieu government in August giving households a right of veto over turbines within two kilometres of their home. The revised laws apply to new applications only…..
Mr Wickham said Acciona was yet to decide whether it would go ahead with three other wind farm proposals — at Newfield, Berrimal and Mortlake South — granted planning permits under the previous Labor government. He said the changes to planning laws, which include a ban on wind farms at tourist sites such as the Macedon Ranges and the Great Ocean
Road, meant it was “probably more beneficial for us to be looking in other states” for future projects…
Health and welfare groups have rejected claims turbines cause illness. The Climate and Health Alliance, a coalition of 20 groups including the Royal Australasian College of Physicians and the Australian Psychological Society, this week released a statement that there was no credible evidence in peer-reviewed scientific journals linking turbines to illness.
Documents obtained by environment group Friends of the Earth show NSW health officials dismissed claims by the Waubra Foundation and told the state’s ministers there was no evidence of “wind turbine syndrome”. The National Health and Medical Research Council is due to release a full review of scientific literature on wind farms and health bymid-year. http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/wind-farm-to-be-built-near-colac-20120124-1qfwx.html#ixzz1kVcrktpg
Houston Texas could become the world’s wind and solar energy hub
How Houston can remain the world’s energy capital: Embrace wind and solar now, Culture Map, 24 Jan 12, BY MICHAEL SKELLY, When I first moved to Texas in the late 1990s,renewable energy was considered a quaint notion which would never amount to much of anything. Around that time in Houston, wind and solar energy weren’t really on anyone’s radar. It seemed like everyone in town was either working for Enron or wanting to work there, and everyone else was focused on a new dot.com. In our generally wide-open city, there was no particular aversion to clean energy, just more of a “huh?” factor.
But over the past decade, Houston has emerged as one of the leading cities for the renewable energy industry. Almost every major wind company in the U.S. has a significant presence in Houston, includingDuke, Shell, BP, NextEra, Pattern, and EDPR (formerly Horizon Wind). These companies account for well over half of the of the wind turbines installed in the United States. ….
As it turns out, Texas now leads the country in wind energy, and is moving along in solar. In 2011, according to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas(ERCOT), 8.5% of the electricity consumed in the state came from wind energy. And as everyone knows, with our hot, muggy summers, we are voracious consumers of electricity, making 8.5% a LOT of electricity.
On a really blustery day, we get almost 30% of our electricity from wind. This is up from right around 0% a dozen years ago. We got here through a combination of a slight push from the state that started with Gov. Bush, federal tax incentives, tremendous wind resources along our coast and in West Texas, and a business friendly environment. Houston companies were a big part of this multi-billion dollar build-out….. http://houston.culturemap.com/newsdetail/01-24-11-how-the-worlds-oil-capital-can-be-a-center-for-renewable-energy/
New economy taking off as renewable energy prices fall, and development rises
Reality dawns: a fortune to be made in new economy RenewEconomy By Paul Gilding on 22 January 2012“……The exciting thing about this moment is that after decades of talk and forecasts, we are now entering a period of reality hitting the ground. Even the IEA, for a long time a resisting, conservative force aligned to the fossil fuel industry’s world view, is now imagining a world where solar could provide over 1/3 of end energy use after 2060 at an affordable cost. The opportunity in such solar growth is mind boggling in scale. Perhaps more importantly we are seeing dramatic growth today in installed solar with many utility scale solar renewables projects already in operation and many more under construction.
Prices are falling as expected with such dramatic growth and with continued price reductions we will see grid parity as an emerging reality for solar in many countries over the next few years. While such rapid change will inevitably lead to a chaotic market, with volatile share prices and bankruptcies alongside the rapid growth, the trend is clear and such high-risk growth is where markets come into the own sorting the good from the bad….
It is now clear that the challenge we face is not a technological one but a human and economic one. Our global economic model, framed around the delusion of the possibility of infinite growth on a finite planet, is not delivering. It is destroying the life support system of humanity, the ecosystem, and it is no longer delivering improved quality of life for those in Western countries who have their basic needs met. The result will not be a gentle process of change but a crisis driven transformation more akin to a war mobilisation than anything most people are expecting.
Another indication that change is well underway is that investors are observing the emerging crisis and resulting transformation of the global economy that I write about, and seeing an investment framework. ….” http://reneweconomy.com.au/2012/reality-dawns-a-fortune-to-be-won-in-new-economy
An authoritative new renewable energy news site for Australia
An Aussie clean technology news site launches, Crikey.com January 24, 2012 , by Amber Jamieson, RenewEconomy, a new online publication created by former Climate Spectator editor Giles Parkinson, launched yesterday. The site aims to cover clean technology and a green economy, with new articles appearing daily and a free email newsletter available.
Prior to Climate Spectator, Parkinson served as business editor and deputy editor at The Australian Financial Review and penned columns for The Australian and The Bulletin.
There’ll be more of a focus on technology over the politics of climate policy in this new venture, Parkinson tells Crikey….. Parkinson predicts readers will come from industry, government, media, academia and think tanks, telling Crikey ”it’s a reasonably focused audience, it’s not the general public.” Having said that, Parkinson noted that topics like solar panels and electric cars are capturing the attention of the wider public and there’s a growing interest in the business community…… http://blogs.crikey.com.au/rooted/2012/01/24/an-aussie-clean-technology-news-site-launches/
10 months later, search for Fukushima bodies can begin
Falling radiation permits search for bodies near Fukushima, ABC Radio News, January 24, 2012 Reporter Mark Willacy reports from Fukushima TONY EASTLEY: With radiation levels near the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant slowly falling Japanese police are only now carrying out detailed searches for bodies near the facility. About 200 people from communities around the plant remain missing Continue reading
Government should promote electric cars for Australia’s automobile industry
Innovation ‘key for car makers’, The Age, David Wroe Canberra January 25, 2012 DESPITE facing the ”toughest time of our life” amid slumping exports and job layoffs, Australia’s car industry can survive by modernising and making greener, more high-tech cars with government help, unions said yesterday…
.. Mr Jones said by way of example that the government’s previous Green Car Innovation Fund – which was axed to pay for Queensland flood assistance – had helped the industry transform itself with new models such as hybrid and fuel-efficient
cars.
”In three years, we completely transformed automotive manufacturing in Australia,” he said. ”We were being crucified because we had large cars that were petrol guzzling vehicles and were not good for the environment and people were shifting away from that product in droves.
”Within a space of almost no time at all as a consequence of the Green Car Innovation Fund, General Motors introduced a four-cylinder at its Elizabeth plant.”….
Greens industry spokesman Adam Bandt said the government should replace the Green Car Innovation Fund with an ”electric vehicle fund” of at least $75 million…..
http://theage.drive.com.au/innovation-key-for-car-makers-20120124-1qfos.html
Rare earths might not have a great future in electric cars
Toyota Finds Way To Avoid Using Rare Earth: Report, Planet Ark, 24-Jan-12, JAPAN by Chang-Ran Kim and Risa Maeda Toyota Motor Corp has developed a way to make hybrid and electric vehicles without the use of expensive rare earth metals, in which China has a near-monopoly, Japan’s Kyodo News reported.
Toyota, the world’s top producer of fuel-saving hybrid cars such as the Prius, could bring the technology to market in two years if the price of rare earths does not come down, Kyodo said, citing a source familiar with the matter.
A Toyota spokeswoman said the company continues to research ways to reduce rare earth usage and has no time frame yet for commercialization.
Rare earth metals like neodymium and dysprosium are used in the powerful magnets in motors that power hybrid and electric cars, and demand is expected to surge as more of the environmentally friendly cars hit the market.
China produces more than 95 percent of the world’s rare earth metals. Its efforts to limit exports, citing resource depletion and environmental degradation, have alarmed its customers and trading partners and have sent prices soaring.
Japan accounts for a third of global rare earth demand and is aiming to cut consumption, providing subsidies for recycling and investing in new ways to limit their use. http://www.planetark.org/enviro-news/item/64496
Uranium industry ‘s bullish claims are not backed by investors
Uranium miners still waiting on that rebound, TIM KILADZE, Globe and Mail , January 24, 2012 When stocks of uranium miners plummeted after last March’s traumatizing Japanese earthquake, some people expected a rebound once the market’s initial shocks and fears subsided.
They’re still waiting.
Close to a year after the earthquake, shares of Cameco Corp. (CCO-T23.54-0.25-1.05%) are still down 40 per cent and smaller rivals are faring just as badly, with Denison Mines (DML-T1.89-0.12-5.97%) down about 50 per cent. The death knell apparently came when Germany declared a retreat from nuclear energy.
Are these miners doomed for good? Depends on who you ask. Investors are clearly too scared to go near the industry, considering the stocks have moved very little since their initial free fall. (Check out a stock chart for the past year.
Quite scary.) But the companies themselves keep saying that everyone has it wrong.
Cameco chief financial officer Grant Isaac repeated this view when he sat down at CIBC World Market’s Whistler conference last week….. there’s still a major problem. Even if Cameco is bullish over the next decade, its consumers, particularly utilities, like to secure long-term supply contracts, and Cameco can’t talk long-term contracts when they would have to lock-in at today’s prices.
So for now, Cameco is touting plans to increase production. Mr. Isaac said Cameco is sitting on 1 billion pounds of reserves and resources, and the firm wants to bump production from 2 per cent of this a year to 4 per cent.
On this front, investors are cautious. Much of this growth centres on developing the second shaft of Cameco’s Cigar Lake project in northern Saskatchewan, and it’s been plagued with problems…..
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/investment-ideas/streetwise/uranium-miners-still-waiting-on-that-rebound/article2313513/
A grand ban on uranium mining
the 20-year ban is supported by an unprecedented coalition of tribal leaders; hunting, fishing, ranching and conservation groups; municipal water suppliers; wildlife advocates; and nearly 300,000 individuals who commented favorably on the proposed moratorium. Chambers of commerce, community leaders and elected officials are also among those mainstream voices speaking out against a handful of politicians now defending industrialists’ demand to exploit our treasured landscape.
At risk are the Grand Canyon’s watersheds. These interconnected surface and groundwater systems extend many miles beyond the park’s boundary.
Uranium-mining ban was a grand decision, The Arizona Republic, by Roger Clark – Jan. 22, 2012 Arizonans and all Americans won a major victory on Jan. 9 when Interior Secretary Ken Salazar signed a “record of decision” for a 20-year ban on new uranium claims on 1.1 million acres of public land surrounding Grand Canyon National Park.
The decision reduces the risk of permanent harm to wildlife, water, our economy and sites sacred to Havasupai and all native people in ourregion. It also best serves our nation’s interests. Continue reading
Australia’s National Solar Schools Program takes off in Tasmania
Solar funds for schools, THE MERCURY | January 25, 2012 FIFTEEN Tasmanian schools have won funding to install solar and other renewable-power systems to improve energy efficiency. The National Solar School Programs announced that more than $25 million would be distributed to 784 Australian schools for measures to tackle climate change.
Southern schools to receive grants are Bruny Island District ($50,000), Cygnet Primary ($45,333), Fahan ($47,687), Moonah Primary ($49,689), Peregrine, Nichols Rivulet ($42,197), Risdon Vale Primary ($49,975), St Paul’s Catholic School, Bridgewater ($39,440), Tasman District ($50,000) and Warrane Primary ($50,000).
The final round of applications for the grants will open on February 13. http://www.themercury.com.au/article/2012/01/25/295171_tasmania-news.html
Warren Buffett investing in solar and wind farms
Buffett’s MidAmerican Starts Renewable-Energy Business, Fox Business By Cassandra Sweet January 24, 2012 The MidAmerican Energy unit of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRKA, BRKB) said Tuesday it has started a new company to oversee a growing stable of solar, wind and other renewable-energy projects.
MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co., of Des Moines, said it has placed solar and wind farms, geothermal power plants and its interest in a small hydroelectric project into a new company called MidAmerican Renewables LLC.
MidAmerican’s president and chief executive, Greg Abel, said the company expects U.S. demand for renewable energy to continue growing and that the company wants “to be a leader in this area.”
On Monday, MidAmerican said it plans to buy an 81-megawatt wind farm in Illinois from Invenergy Wind LLC as part of the company’s growing wholesale renewable-energy business. ……. MidAmerican Renewables said it is considering acquiring more renewable-energy projects that would generate electricity for the wholesale power market to meet growing demand for clean energy.
“We’ll be looking for opportunities to grow this business,” said Tina Potthoff, a spokeswoman for MidAmerican. “We think there’s a growing desire by utilities and other companies to green up their business.”
http://www.foxbusiness.com/news/2012/01/24/buffetts-midamerican-starts-renewable-energy-business/#ixzz1kVVVLdW0
1 This month
of the week – Disrupting War & Militarism in Oceania. Active solidarity. Radical practice.
Antinuclear 