Antinuclear

Solar microgrids and batteries could prevent another Black Saturday bushfire, Guardian, Max Opray 9 Feb 16, The cause of the Kilmore East fires that contributed to Victoria’s 2009 Black Saturday bushfires was found to be an ageing SP AusNet power line

Smaller sustainable energy systems are a better option than trying to maintain ageing Australian energy infrastructure, say experts  On 7 February, Australia solemnly marked the anniversary of an electrical fault.It was on this date in 2009 that Melbourne endured its hottest conditions on record – a sweltering 46.4C.

To make matters worse, hot winds blasted through the region at speeds in excess of 100km/h. In Kilmore East, just north of Melbourne, a critical failure in a 43-year-old power line caused bursts of 5000C plasma to arc out and ignite the tinder-dry vegetation in the gully below.

Fanned by such extreme winds, the fast-growing inferno would by the end of the day be responsible for the majority of the 173 lives lost in the dozens of fires that engulfed Victoria on Black Saturday, Australia’s worst bushfire disaster.

Several of the other blazes that day were started by felled power poles and other electrical issues. This was also the case for many other fires before and since, including Australia’s previous-worst bushfire tragedy, the 1983 Ash Wednesday fires, which claimed 75 lives.

Richard Turner, director of South Australian renewable energy powerhouse Zen Energy, has a plan to stop such a thing happening again.

The 51-year-old entrepreneur is on a mission to replace ageing statewide energy infrastructure with community microgrids of rooftop solar and increasingly affordable battery storage systems. Althoughthere are significant challenges in taking people off the grid, he sees areas hit by bushfires as the best place to start.

Turner argues statewide energy systems are inefficient at the best of times, but that in fire danger areas, the case for switching to localised solar-and-storage is particularly compelling in both a safety and economic sense.

“Fundamentally climate change is moving us towards more and more extreme summers and more bushfires,” he says.

“Utility companies have been hit with some huge class action suits over recent years over fires, and in response they are shutting down power lines [on bushfire risk days] earlier and for longer, leaving communities without power for significant periods.”

In 2014 Black Saturday bushfire victims secured an Australian-record $494.7m payout from power distributor SP AusNet asset managers Utility Services Group and the Department of Sustainability and Environment, and regulators are keen to avoid a repeat.

Climate change is moving us towards more and more extreme summers and more bushfires

Richard Turner

Turner notes that turning off the power during the sweltering heat of bushfire risk days isn’t just uncomfortable for those affected, but potentially dangerous given people often rely on electricity to power the devices that alert them to bushfire danger and the water pumps used to defend their home.

Up against the companies invested in preserving the status quo in the energy network as well as next-generation competitors in the battery-storage area such as American giant Tesla – which has just entered the Australian market – Zen Energy is busily presenting its case around the country.

Turner says his company has been in productive talks with Victorian energy minister Lily D’Ambrosio over the prospect of subsidising Zen Energy systems capable of running as a localised backup for periods when the grid needs to be switched off…….http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2016/feb/08/solar-microgrids-and-batteries-could-prevent-another-black-saturday-bushfire