Western Australian Greens appalled at plan for funding out-of-state renewable energy projects
WA considers funding out-of-state renewable energy projects, The Fifth Estate Annie Kane | 8 December 2015 Electricity generator and retailer Synergy, owned by the Government of Western Australia, is considering paying for renewable energy projects in other states in order to meet renewable energy targets.
According to The West Australian, the company is looking at paying for wind farms and solar plants in eastern states to help meet the Renewable Energy Target, which requires electricity providers to get 20 per cent of their power supplies from large-scale renewable sources by 2020…..
Move is a “bastardisation of the Renewable Energy Target”
The move, however, has been criticised by WA Greens energy spokesperson Robin Chapple, who said: “The idea of our tax dollars going towards renewable projects interstate is a bastardisation of the Renewable Energy Target.
“Why would we pay for clean energy projects that we won’t ever receive electricity from? “The fact that this has even been floated just shows how short-term this government is in its thinking.
“Here is an industry that could create new jobs, lower the price of electricity and greatly improve our environment. “The excuse that our system is over capacity is ridiculous.”
He said that by retiring the state’s fossil-fuel generators could help bring in new renewable capacity and therefore work towards the 2020 target.
Mr Chapple added: “As a state we should, and could, be doing a lot more around renewables. Frankly, the costs of this technology are dropping so fast, and our natural resources are so good, that it is only a matter of time for WA.
“I am dumbfounded by Mr Rowe’s comments, and I sincerely hope that these ideas are not borne out.” http://www.thefifthestate.com.au/innovation/energy/wa-considers-funding-out-of-state-renewable-energy-projects/79284
Govt talks big on renewables ‘innovation’, but will close Australian Renewable Energy Agency
JOHN CONNOR: Well, we’ve got a big belting boom gate that’s our old, clunking coal-fired power stations, and so until we get those out of the system and replaced with cleaner technologies, then we’re going to be stuck.
Innovation is fine, but we’ll have no way to implement it.
MICHAEL EDWARDS: The environmental sector also wants the Government to provide certainty about the future of the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, the body charged with developing new technologies and increasing the supply of renewable energy in Australia.
Hopes innovation money will drive investment in renewable energy http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2015/s4367751.htm Michael Edwards reported this story on Tuesday, December 8, 2015 MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: There are hopes that renewable energy products will be one of the areas that will see a boost in investment form the Government’s billion-dollar innovation package.
The Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull says he wants to start an ‘ideas boom’ to transform Australia’s economy away from mining.
The investment sector has welcomed the package, saying it provides a policy framework needed for people to invest in the clean energy sector.
But some say the Government needs to change its positions on renewable energy and climate change for the industry to truly thrive. Continue reading
Solar energy making financial sense down on the farm
some people might look at renewable energy and identify it as a green policy or identify it as a political statement. But we’re not about that.
We want to look at the financial case of any energy system that’s going in the property and present it to the farmers that way. So we try to keep away from going to the politics side of it and just look at it from the basis of financials
Farmers turning to renewable energy, ABC Radio PM David Mark reported this story on Tuesday, December 8, 2015 TIM PALMER: It’s as different a scene as one could imagine from the back rooms in Paris where negotiators are now wrestling over the details of a climate deal but on a dusty outback cotton farm in far west New South Wales Andrew Gill is reaching for the same goal – a reduction in carbon emissions.
With 400 solar panels installed to run his irrigation bore, he’s at the vanguard of farmers in Australia who are embracing renewable energy.
And as David Mark reports, it’s a movement that has the backing of traditionally conservative farming organisations. Continue reading
Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) funds CSIRO’s solar energy initiative
ARENA supports new, cheaper solar technology to reduce cost of renewable energy in Australia http://www.ibtimes.com.au/arena-supports-new-cheaper-solar-technology-reduce-cost-renewable-energy-australia-1490089 By Darwin Malicdem on December 07 2015 The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) is aiming to reduce the cost of renewable energy in the country by providing a funding boost to an innovative solar cell technology. The new perovskite solar cells could significantly be cheaper than and as efficient as existing solar cells.
ARENA will be providing about $892,000 to CSIRO for the development and application of guidelines for assessing the performance of the perovskite solar photovoltaic (PV) cells. The materials of perovskite can be used in solar cells with a less cost and labour intensive process compared to silicon.
ARENA aims to accelerate the development of perovskite solar PV cells in the country. “If perovskite solar cell technology matures to commercialisation, it has the potential to provide cheaper power from the sun,” said ARENA CEO Ivor Frischknecht.
CSIRO is planning for new methods and guidelines applicable to perovskite solar cells, as international standards to measure solar PV cell performance are only applicable for silicon wafer cells. The new guidelines would be applied at the ARENA-supported PV Performance Laboratory in Newcastle, Frischknecht said. The lab would help Australian researchers test perovskite samples in the country instead of conducting tests overseas, which will boost research and reduce the risk and costs of the project.
The $2.4-million project for perovskite solar cells is expected for completion in November 2018. ARENA has already received letters of support and offers of cell samples from members of the Australian Centre for Advanced Photovoltaics and international research agencies.
The test results will be validated by internationally accredited laboratories, and CSIRO will work with overseas counterparts for the development of best practice methods suitable for different research laboratory environments, Frischknecht said.
Australia ranked way down the bottom for climate change action
“Experts criticise that Australia’s attitude appeared to be to try to avoid making any substantive commitments, and to do the absolute minimum that it has to. There appeared to be no recognition of Australia’s national interest in minimising climate change; rather, the focus seems to be on protecting domestic energy and resource exporters (coal and gas industry),”
Australia ranked third-last in climate change performance of 58 countries, Guardian, Lenore Taylor 9 Dec 15 2016 Climate Change Performance Index released at Paris climate summit, day after Julie Bishop said Australia was meeting and beating its climate targets. Australia has come third last in an annual assessment of 58 nations’ climate policies, with only Saudi Arabia and Kazakhstan ranking worse.
The assessment by Germanwatch and Climate Action Network Europe was released at the Paris climate summit, just one day after foreign minister Julie Bishop told the assembled ministers Australia was meeting and beating its climate targets and transforming its energy production. Continue reading
In Paris, youth push for climate action
‘If nothing’s done, we have to clean up the mess’: youth push climate action in Paris, SBS, 7 Dec 15 Young environmental advocates attending the Paris climate talks have warned if immediate and effective action is not taken to reduce carbon pollution, future generations will be left to ‘clean up the mess’. They could become the generation who’s left to clean up the mess in decades to come.Or they could campaign hard for immediate and effective action on climate change.
That’s how they see it – the young environmental advocates attending the UN’s international climate change conference in Paris.And their numbers at such conferences are increasing rapidly – from a couple of hundred to around five thousand.
They hope their growing presence prompts action from global leaders.
Sarah Abo reports from Paris. With their drive and energy, the fresh, young faces attending the Paris climate change talks command attention.
When Bali hosted the United Nations summit in 2007, about 200 youth delegates attended the inaugural Youth Conference which preceded it. That grew to 1,500 in Copenhagen in 2009, and six years later, about 5,000 have ventured to the city of lights.
Twenty year old Jaden Harris, is one of the Australian Youth Climate Coalition’s five members accredited for the main event, COP21…….. Continue reading
1 This month
of the week – Disrupting War & Militarism in Oceania. Active solidarity. Radical practice.
Antinuclear 