Antinuclear

• Solar PV warms towards a million homes

The Greenough River Solar project, just outside the small town of Walkaway in Western Australia is a joint-venture between WA state-owned Verve Energy and US conglomerate General Electric. It is expected to generate 10 megawatts, enough to power 3000 homes.

“The Greenough River Solar Farm demonstrates that renewable technologies can contribute to meeting Australia’s future energy needs on a sustainable, cost-competitive basis,” Jason Waters, chief executive of Verve Energy said.

Australia has committed to getting 20 per cent of its power from renewables by 2020 but big coal and gas-based utilities are arguing for generation targets to be cut.The plant is General Electric’s first investment in Australian renewable energy, and plans are already underway to eventually expand it to 40 megawatts.

The electricity generated by the plant will be purchased by Western Australia Water Corporation to power a nearby desalination plant.

Australia is one of the world’s most ideal places for solar projects. It has the highest average solar radiation per square metre of any continent in the world, according to government, and a population the size of New Delhi spread over an area the size of the contiguous US.

Australia currently gets about 10 per cent of its electricity supply from renewable energy, about two-thirds of which comes from hydro power.

Renewable energy review But the plant opens as the future of renewables is clouded by a campaign by some utilities and energy companies to cut Australia’s mandatory renewable energy targets.

The renewable energy targets are currently undergoing a routine review by Australia’s Climate Change Authority which will be wrapped up by the end of the year.

Champions of renewable energy say a cut in the targets, which would require Australia to produce 41,000 gigawatt-hours of its energy requirements by 2020, or 20 percent of its total energy requirement from renewables, would devastate the fledgling industry.

“If the RET was to be reduced or, in fact, to be removed then essentially the business case for renewable energy just would not stack up and the industry would fall off a cliff. It would stop dead in its tracks,” said Kane Thornton, director of strategy at the Clean Energy Council.AGL Energy is one of the few utilities that has called for the RET to remain the same, arguing the investment certainty is key for the more than the several billion dollars worth of solar and wind projects it has underway…… Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/business/carbon-economy/hip-hip-array-first-solar-farm-opens-in-wa-20121010-27ct5.html#ixzz293WvgYnf