Toshiba Projects Record Loss as Nuclear Unit Files for Bankruptcy, Bloomberg, by Dawn McCarty and Pavel Alpeyev March 29, 2017,
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Toshiba warns full year loss may widen to 1.01 trillion yen
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Japanese company trying to sell memory chips division
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Toshiba Corp. projected its annual loss could more than double to a record 1.01 trillion yen ($9.1 billion) as its U.S. nuclear unit Westinghouse Electricfiled for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
The collapse of Westinghouse, once the linchpin of Toshiba’s plans to diversify away from consumer electronics, caps a disastrous run for the Japanese conglomerate as project delays crippled earnings from the nuclear plant business. The company has now put its prized memory chip unit up for sale just as it was recovering from a profit-padding scandal that claimed the scalps of senior executives……
Toshiba listed as much as $10 billion debt for Westinghouse and another entity. The nuclear unit filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York and proposed to appoint Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP as legal adviser, AlixPartners LLP as financial adviser, and PJT Partners Inc. as investment banker, subject to court approval.Toshiba said last month it expected to write down 712.5 billion yen in its nuclear-power business, citing cost overruns and diminishing prospects for atomic-energy operations. The company has twice delayed its earnings report, with results for the December quarter now due on April 11.
“There were warning signs when Toshiba delayed releasing financials earlier this year,” said Emmanuel Chua, senior associate at Herbert Smith Freehills in Singapore. “The big question mark is whether the restructuring plan and process presents real opportunities for a turnaround, or whether it is simply an exercise of ‘kicking the can down the road.”’Shares of Toshiba have slumped 23 percent this year after advancing 13 percent in 2016. The loss forecast was announced after the close of trading on Wednesday.
Expectations that the company may be too big to fail for the Japanese government, and the likelihood that it will get state support is bolstering its bonds. Toshiba’s 20 billion yen of December 2020 bonds were little changed at 88 percent of face value, according to data compiled by Bloomberg……
Scana and Southern could end up facing billions of dollars in additional costs, according to Morgan Stanley. Scana faces as much as $5.2 billion in higher costs that could drag its shares down 5 percent, analysts at the bank including Stephen Byrd said in a March 22 research note, while cost overruns for utility owner Southern could reach $3.3 billion……https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-03-29/toshiba-s-u-s-nuclear-unit-westinghouse-files-for-bankruptcy
March 31, 2017
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Call to expand Indigenous rangers program http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-03-30/indigenous-rangers-boosting-habitat-and-species-preservation/8401662 by national Indigenous affairs correspondent Bridget Brennan, 30 Mar 17, Indigenous rangers are helping to prevent habitat loss and species decline across an area 10 times the size of Tasmania, a new report says.
The Country Needs People alliance — which represents dozens of ranger groups across the country — said it should be an incentive for the Federal Government to commit to extending funding for Indigenous Protected Areas.
The report found multiple examples of ranger groups, in each state and territory, controlling fires and destroying feral animals and weeds. The Prime Minister’s Indigenous Affairs adviser, Chris Sarra, said he supported a call to expand ranger numbers.
In the report, Dr Sarra said rangers were succeeding because supporting their work encouraged self-determination and connection to country.
“That success is built on the strength of our connection to culture and country,” he said.
Country Needs People also called on the Government to set an ambitious target to employ an extra 4,200 Indigenous rangers by 2022.
The chief executive of the Olkola Aboriginal Corporation, Debbie Symonds, said her group had just four rangers covering 860,000 hectares on Cape York in Queensland.
“To be able to employ even another four rangers would be an amazing leap for us,” Ms Symonds said.
Funding for 800 rangers has been given a lifeline by the Federal Government until 2020, but funding to operate the 75 Indigenous Protected Areas they work on runs out in the middle of next year. Ms Symonds said on a recent “bush blitz”, Olkola Land Managers had recorded new skinks, bats, moths, spiders and birds in their area.
She said with “limited resources”, the rangers were also working to conserve the tiny population of the golden-shouldered parrot, a totem for the Olkola people.
“It was on the brink of extinction and we’re slowly bringing it back from extinction,” she said.
March 31, 2017
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aboriginal issues, AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL |
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Westinghouse Files for Bankruptcy, in Blow to Nuclear Power, NYT By DIANE CARDWELL and JONATHAN SOBLEMARCH 29, 2017, Westinghouse Electric Company, which helped drive the development of
nuclear energy and the electric grid itself, filed for bankruptcy protection on Wednesday, casting a shadow over the global nuclear industry.
March 31, 2017
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The Whole World Is Watching as Trump Trashes U.S. Climate Policy http://www.ecowatch.com/trump-trashes-climate-policy-2334750567.html Amid questions over whether the executive order would end U.S. involvement in the Paris agreement—and with no firm indication from the White House about staying in the agreement—top European Union climate official Miguel Arias Cañete expressed “regret” over Trump’s policies Tuesday, promising that the European Union “will stand by Paris, we will defend Paris and we will implement Paris.”
China showed it would continue to cement its global leadership on climate, as officials reaffirmed to press the country was still committed to the Paris agreement and adding “China’s resolve, aims and policy moves in dealing with climate change will not change.”
Former United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change leader Christiana Figueres expressed confidence in the agreement’s durability, telling Fusion in an interview that the economic benefits of a global clean energy transition make the agreement “unstoppable.”
“It’s important to understand that no single country, no matter how large or small, can cancel the Paris Climate Agreement,” explained Figueres. “The Paris Agreement is a multilateral agreement that has gone into force, and any country has the right to exit the agreement, or in fact to exit the Convention, but that doesn’t mean that the multilateral structure is actually canceled.”
March 31, 2017
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Australia will not dump Paris climate deal if Trump does: Frydenberg, AFR, by Laura Tingle,30 Mar 17 Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg has rejected suggestions from some Coalition MPs that Australia will need to review its participation in the Paris agreement on climate change following Donald Trump’s new executive order on the environment
The chair of the government’s backbench committee on environment and energy, Craig Kelly, repeated on Wednesday his earlier predictions that the Paris climate deal was “cactus” if the US President followed through with his threat to withdraw from the treaty.
President Trump signed a new “energy independence” executive order on Tuesday to undo a range of regulatory measures to combat climate change by his predecessor Barack Obama, including eliminating the clean power plan, which sets limits on the amount of greenhouse gases that power plants emit.
Mr Trump said his plan would launch “a new energy revolution” that will put “miners back to work”.
While the executive order does not withdraw the US from the Paris agreement, the possibility remains open amid reports the Trump administration has yet to decide whether it intends to withdraw from the international climate change deal
Mr Kelly told Guardian Australia on Wednesday that he was aware of the new executive order, and if President Trump went the extra step and withdrew from the Paris agreement: “I think we have to review it.”……..
Asked whether a majority of his Coalition colleagues would be in favour of quitting the Paris deal in the event Mr Trump pulled out, Mr Kelly argued “it would be a close-run thing”….. http://www.afr.com/news/politics/australia-will-not-d
March 31, 2017
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AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, climate change - global warming, politics |
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Renewables roadshow: how Canberra took lead in renewable energy race In the latest in our series on Australian green energy projects, we find out how the ACT is transitioning to 100% renewable energy, aided by the country’s largest community-owned solar farm
• How the ‘nonna effect’ got Darebin’s pensioners signing up to solar
• How Daylesford’s windfarm took back the power, Guardian, Michael Slezak, 30 Mar 17, As Australia remains mired in a broken debate about the supposed dangers of renewable energy, some states and territories are ignoring the controversy and steaming ahead.
While Australia is far from the renewable capital of the world, the Australian Capital Territory may soon be among the world’s top renewable energy regions. And as it transitions, the ACT is demonstrating the benefits of the renewables boom to the rest of the country. Continue reading →
March 31, 2017
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Hazelwood exits, taking with it myth of cheap fossil fuels, REneweconomy By Giles Parkinson on 30 March 2017 The giant Hazelwood brown coal generator shut down the last of its 8 units at 4pm yesterday, the latest and the most powerful symbol of the vast and rapid change in our energy system.
Conservatives and the fossil fuel lobby might have wanted to describe the closure of the western world’s most polluting power plant as a futile act, given the attempts by the Trump government to jump back into last century’s technology and ignore climate science.
But just one day after Hazelwood closed, a new $1 billion solar PV and battery storage plant was being unveiled for South Australia, with its proponents insisting that construction would begin later this year.
Indeed, solar projects are popping up everywhere. Concannon, the former head of Hazelwood – once a staunch critic of Australia’s renewable energy target – has switched camps, heading up a large-scale solar company and plans 300MW of solar, possibly with storage, in South Australia.
He’s not the only one, with Lyon Solar’s announcement and Zen Energy and others, including Adani and DPP Energy, all planning major solar projects in South Australia.
In Queensland, the push to solar is even more rapid. One major energy user, Sun Metals, is building its own 116MW solar plant because the cost of electricity in a grid almost entirely dependent on coal and gas is too expensive.
Meanwhile, the incumbents have got other things to think about, particularly SAPN’s prediction that the cost to households and business of solar and storage will be around 15c/kWh within a few years.
Think about what that means. That is cheaper than just the transport cost of delivering electricity down the poles and wires.
Few in the industry doubt that we are shifting rapidly to a faster, cleaner, smarter and cheaper energy system. The imponderable is that no one knows what the business model looks like.
Networks are convinced that they will remain essential, because someone has to connect the homes, business, and communities. But they, too, are worried that things will move so fast that consumers – having been badly treated by utilities in the past decade – will simply take matters into their own hands.
If SAPN’s forecast are right, they will have an overwhelming economic incentive to do so. To deal with that, it is hard to see how networks will avoid any other action than to write off the value of their networks so they can compete.
The outlook for traditional gentailers, is more bleak. The cosy oligopoly that dominated supply, and accounted for virtually all demand, is starting to unravel……..
The Finkel Review will not, as the conservatives hope, recommend the sort of fantasy dance back into the last century that Donald Trump is trying to achieve in the US. Already, the conservatives sense this and are beginning to attack.
“What would he know,” they say, “he’s only an electrical engineer and the chief scientist.”
And the tribal politics won’t help either. The Greens appear to be the only ones who “get” what is happening, and don’t have vested interests in business and unions to protect. The final report into the Senate inquiry into the retirement of coal-fired power stations split three ways. Only the Greens seemed to understand the need for an orderly transition.
Indeed, denial is the last refuge of the incumbents and the ideologues. Technology marches on, and because it is so readily available to consumers, so will they. This is not about ideology any more. It is about simple economics. The rest is just detail, and politics. http://reneweconomy.com.au/hazelwood-exits-taking-myth-cheap-fossil-fuels-15425/
March 31, 2017
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climate change - global warming, Victoria |
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Native American uranium miners and the Trump budget, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists Robert Alvarez, 30 Mar 17 “…….The hazards of uranium mining have been known for centuries. As early as 1556, dust in the Ore Mountain (Erzgebirge) mines bordering Germany and what is now the Czech Republic was reported to have “corrosive qualities… it eats away the lungs and implants consumption in the body…” By 1879, researchers found that 75 percent of the miners in the Ore Mountains had died from lung cancer. By 1932, the Ore Mountain miners were receiving compensation for their cancers from the German government. Uranium mining was convincingly linked to lung cancer by dozens of epidemiological and animal studies by the late 1930s.
In 1942, Wilhelm C. Hueper, the founding director of the environmental cancer section of the National Cancer Institute, brought the European studies to light in the United States—concluding that radon gas was responsible for half of the deaths of European miners after 10 to 20 years of exposure. By this time, uranium had become a key element for the making of the first atomic weapons. Hueper’s superiors blocked him from further publication and discussion in this area; they told him that dissemination of such information was “not in the public interest.”
In fact, withholding information about workplace hazards was deeply embedded in the bureaucratic culture of the early nuclear weapons program. In 1994, the Energy Department made a previously secret document, written in the late 1940s, public. It crystallized the long-held rationale for keeping nuclear workers in the dark: “We can see the possibility of a shattering effect on the morale of the employees if they become aware that there was substantial reason to question the standards of safety under which they are working. In the hands of labor unions, the results of this study would add substance to demands for extra-hazardous pay.”
Kee Begay worked in the mines for 29 years and was dying of lung cancer when I first met him. “The mines were poor and not fit for human beings,” he told me. Begay also lost a son to cancer. “He was one of many children that used to play on the uranium piles during those years. We had a lot of uranium piles near our homes—just about 50 or 100 feet away or so. Can you imagine? Kids go out and play on those piles.”
In 1957, the US Public Health Service reported that the average radiation lung dose to Indian miners was 21 times higher than was allowed in the Atomic Energy Commission’s nuclear weapons plants. In 1962, the Public Health Service revealed that radon exposure in the mines was statistically linked to lung cancer among US miners—at a rate comparable to what Heuper had warned about 20 years earlier.
Lung disease associated with radon exposure was “totally avoidable,” former chief health scientist for the AEC Merrill Eisenbud said in 1979. “The Atomic Energy Commission … is uniquely responsible for the death of many men who developed lung cancer as a result of the failure of the mine operators, who must also bear the blame, because they too had the information, and the Government should not have had to club them into ventilating their mines.”…….http://thebulletin.org/native-american-uranium-miners-and-trump-budget10657?platform=hootsuite
March 31, 2017
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Lyon Group announces $1b battery and solar farm for South Australia’s Riverland, ABC News, By political reporter Nick Harmsen, 30 Mar 17 A $1 billion battery and solar farm will be built at Morgan in South Australia’s Riverland by year’s end in a project the proponents describe as “the world’s biggest”.
The builder, Lyon Group, has already proposed a smaller solar farm and battery storage facility, named Kingfisher, in the state’s north.
Lyon partner David Green said the project was 100 per cent equity financed and construction would begin within months, employing 270 workers.
“Riverland Solar Storage’s 330-megawatt solar generation and 100-megawatt battery storage system will be Australia’s biggest solar farm with 3.4 million solar panels and will also include 1.1 million batteries,” he said.
Mr Green said land had already been secured and grid connection was already well advanced.
Work on Lyon’s 120 megawatt Kingfisher project is slated to begin in September next year……
Lyon to bid for SA battery tender
The Lyon Group has already signalled its intention to bid for a SA Government tender to build a battery storage system with 100-megawatt output. The tender arrangement would give the Government the right to tap the battery storage at times of peak demand, but allow the project owner to sell energy and stability into the market at other times.
An expressions of interest process closes on Friday.
Other companies, including Carnegie, Zen Energy and Tesla, have all suggested they could be interested in bidding…….http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-03-30/new-solar-project-announced-for-sa-riverland/8400952
March 31, 2017
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Beyond Uranium Campaign Launched on 29 March https://www.facebook.com/events/724810351028103/ This is the start of a Canberra group to resist Uranium mining and nuclear waste dumps.
Information about whats going on in Australias nuclear industries.
Brainstorming what we can do about it.
Speakers : Some words from Caroline Le Couteur: Greens representative in the ACT Legislative Assembly.
-Jillian Marsh: A member of the Adnyamathanha group, Traditional Owners of the northern Flinders Ranges in South Australiawhere a radioactive waste dump has been proposed. She is closely aligned with the interests of people at the local level who feel strongly about the impacts of mining and development on Traditional land.
Jillian is an Indigenous Researcher at the ANU focusing on Indigenous site protection, Cultural Heritage Management and Native Title negotiations, Australian languages, Aboriginal Higher Education and Research ethics, Minerals and Energy Resources Management.
March 31, 2017
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Hazelwood’s closure shows industry and government must plan ahead for climate change https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2017/mar/29/hazelwoods-closure-shows-companies-and-governments-must-plan-ahead-for-climate-change
More coal generators will close as Australia shifts to renewable energy, so there must be more plans in place to smooth the transition, Guardian, Nicholas Aberle, 29 Mar 17,
When Hazelwood stops generating electricity this week, it will be the first Australian power station to close, at least in part, because of climate change. Hazelwood’s owner, French energy giant Engie, has said it is “making climate a priority” and has committed to retiring its most outdated coal plants worldwide.
Hazelwood’s closure will bring the total to nine coal power stations in Australia that have retired in the last five years – including the Port Augusta power stations in South Australia, the Munmorah and Wallerawang power stations in New South Wales and the smaller Energy Brix and Anglesea power stations in Victoria. It’s a clear indication the global industrial transition from coal to renewable energy across the world has reached our shores.
Like all such transitions, this one will involve a big upheaval for the affected workers, but never before has an industrial transition had so much else at stake. Never before has the end of one industry been so essential to the wellbeing of the rest of society. Continue reading →
March 31, 2017
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The real reason our power companies block battery systems, http://www.theage.com.au/business/the-real-reason-our-power-companies-block-battery-systems-20170329-gv8ybe.html, Brian Robins, 29 Mar 17, If you’re wondering why battery storage is still on the fringe of the energy debate in Australia, and why power prices are high, just ask Dr Tony Marxsen, the head of the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO).
He made it plain earlier this week the big power companies have invested hundreds of millions of dollars on quick start power stations, so-called “gas peakers” and they aren’t going to be giving up their sway over the market any time soon: they want to make sure they get a return on their money.
Richard Turner, the founder of Zen Energy, a renewable energy outfit, asked Marxsen on Tuesday when the electricity market would shorten to five minutes from the present 30 minutes the settlement period. Sound technical? Sure, but that change would see a rapid rollout of battery storage with the potential to bring down power prices.
At the heart of the electricity market is a 30-minute settlement period. Power generators bid to supply electricity in five-minute blocks but the price they receive is averaged out over 30 minutes. Pressure is building for change, but the power generators don’t want to budge since the status quo gives the coal and gas generators a return over a longer period, while batteries which can be turned on, and off, quickly, are penalised.
“The fundamental challenge is it will affect adversely the business model of investors in gas peaking plants,” AEMO’s Marxsen said of any change. “They’ve entered into contracts based on existing arrangements therefore there is the need for transition.
“A five-minute [interval] is the long term future of Australian energy but it is a matter of transition – in a matter of years.”
The trouble is Australia’s thermal power generators are a powerful oligopoly and have been lobbying hard to keep storage out and to prevent the market operator from changing the rules. The overseer of the energy market, the Australian Energy Market Commission has just extended for the second time, now until mid-year, a review into the vexed issue.
“Transition can be painful,” Grattan Institute’s energy program head Tony Wood said of the roadblocks to changing the competitive landscape. “The losers will shout louder than the winners will.”
But the way Zen Energy’s Turner sees it the lack of access to the electricity market is forcing some states, like South Australia, to put $150 million on the table to back battery storage. He expects Victoria to follow suit with the closure this week of the giant Hazelwood power station.
“Governments are putting money on the table … to substitute for what should be available on the grid,” he said. “The rules have to change quickly.”
“Last Wednesday in Adelaide, we had four 30-minute periods when in the first five minutes the wholesale electricity price hit $14,000 a megawatt hour. When those events happen, the big generators power up to meet that demand. Even if the price is negative in the final few minutes of that 30-minute window, the generators receive the average price for that 30 -minute period of, say, $2500.
“Is that market manipulation? Maybe, but they get away with it. If there was five-minute pricing, the battery would come in, grab that demand and eliminate that pricing event. Batteries just help make the system more stable rather than wait for generators to fire up and get going. Even after averaging the price out over 30 minutes they’re making a ridiculous amount of money, protecting their investment – and preventing the introduction of new technology.”
Chaired by Ross Garnaut, who headed up the federal government’s climate change review, Zen has teamed up with Santos to use gas as a back-up for renewables. It is also working up plans for solar farms as it evolves towards becoming a power utility.
“What people don’t understand about renewables is the need for diversity of sources. You can’t just have wind,” he says. You also need solar for when the wind doesn’t blow and batteries to help smooth the energy flows to meet demand.”
So removing the half-hour average settlement rule and allowing payment in five-minute blocks would tilt the playing field towards batteries, which store output from wind and solar systems, and save energy users money.
The road blocks slowing the penetration of renewables in the energy sector comes as the Commonwealth Bank has raised $650 million through an issue of five-year green bonds, carrying an interest rate of 3.25 per cent on the fixed rate portion of the raising and 2.715 per cent on the floating rate portion of the raising. The funds are to be invested in renewable energy and low carbon assets.
March 31, 2017
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Norfolk Island has “too much” solar, now it wants storage,REneweconomy, By Giles Parkinson on 30 March 2017 Norfolk Island, the former penal colony and now tourist destination located nearly 1,500km off the east coast of Australia, is calling for proposals for energy storage to maximise its use of solar PV, minimise a growing “solar debt,” and cut its crippling electricity costs.
The island, with a population of around 1750, and a floating tourist population of 300-600 people, has one of the highest penetrations of rooftop PV, with 1.4MW of solar that produces more than its daytime demand.
This is despite the fact that the Norfolk Island regional council actually brought the installation of solar PV to a halt in 2013 with a moratorium designed to stop the “ad hoc” installations, and because it had no other means of controlling and managing the output.
Now, things have changed.
The cash-strapped administration wants to try and store the excess output of solar so it can reduce its reliance on diesel, cut its hefty electricity charge of 62c/kWh (unlike other islands, like King Island, it gets no subsidies), address the growing bank of “grid credits” given to those who produce excess power from their PV and perhaps allow more people who don’t have solar PV to add it to their rooftops.
Back in 1997, the council bought the last of its six second hand 1MW diesel generators, partly on the assumption that demand would grow. Instead it has fallen around 20 per cent, and it only ever uses two of the units at most, and outside peak times it uses only one.
The council says the oversupply of solar is occurring each day “at all times of the year and not only in summer” when the sun is out.
Because the diesel generator needs to operate at a minimum 30 per cent capacity, excess solar output is shed via a 400kW load bank. Excess solar did not get a cash tariff, but grid credits that are now amassing into a considerable continent liability.
“The fuel savings from less usage of diesel in the daytime have not been matched by actual savings as, effectively, those PV consumers (generating more than they or their fellow consumers are using during daylight hours) are resulting in the need for Norfolk Island Electricity (NIE) to shed the excess in daylight whilst then burning diesel at night time to supply both PV and non-PV connected households at no/limited cost to the PV consumer.”
So, now it is is looking for battery storage as part of a wholesale review of its pricing structures, and as the administration comes under pressure from households that have not been allowed to install solar PV, but can clearly see it as a cheaper option than the current grid prices…….http://reneweconomy.com.au/norfolk-island-much-solar-now-wants-storage-58159/
March 31, 2017
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Queensland, storage |
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Antinuclear 