Leeton, New South Wales: plan for multimillion dollar solar farm
proposed for Wumbulgul http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-01-07/wumbulgul-solar/7072604 A $90m solar farm is proposed near Leeton in the New South Wales Riverina, to help power a new rail freight hub in the region. Photon Energy has been in discussions with Leeton Shire Council since 2012 about a solar development.
It’s now asked the state government to consider a proposal for a 100 megawatt plant, with the ability to double that output, next to the recently opened Western Riverina Intermodal Freight Terminal at Wumbulgul.
Documentation lodged with the Planning Department states the solar farm would be on a 140 hectare site on the Griffith Road and would take around a year to build.
Photon estimates the farm would have a life of around 30 years, after which infrastructure could be updated or the site rehabilitated.
The application says feedback from initial discussions in August is positive and a community consultation plan will be developed.
The Department is now preparing its requirements for the solar project.
Enova – Australia’s first community-owned renewable energy retailer
“what we do is we buy from the national energy market and sell to you; it comes through the grid. “In order for you to have renewable energy, we enter into agreements to purchase green power from accredited renewable energy providers, so that whenever we are selling you energy we are offsetting that with green energy certificates.”
Ms Crook said Enova also hoped to increasingly buy from local renewable energy generators.
“What we hope to be doing is facilitating the development of community-scale renewable generation,”
Australia’s first community-owned renewable energy retailer Enova to open its doors in Byron Bay http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-01-05/australia-first-community-owned-energy-retailer-enova/7068420 ABC North Coast, 5 Jan 16 By Samantha Turnbull Australia’s first community-owned renewable energy retailer, Enova, is about to open its doors in northern New South Wales after raising $3.8 million from 1,090 investors.
Seventy-five per cent of the voting shares are held on the NSW north coast, but chair Alison Crook said the company had attracted investors from every state and territory in Australia. Continue reading
Broken Hill has Southern hemisphere’s largest solar energy project
The industry is looking for assurance that Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is more climate-friendly than his predecessor, Tony Abbott, who said coal was “good for humanity.”
How Broken Hill became a solar power trailblazer, SMH December 22, 2015 James Paton Broken Hill spawned the world’s largest mining company and generated more than $75 billion in wealth. Now as its minerals ebb, Australia’s longest-lived mining city is looking to tap a more abundant resource.
On the sun-baked edge of the outback city, 700 miles west of Sydney, a solar farm the size of London’s Hyde Park shimmers like an oasis – its panels sending enough electricity to the national grid to power 17,000 homes a year.
Combined with a sister plant, the AGL Energy and First Solar project is the largest of its type in the southern hemisphere. Clean energy advocates are counting on the 140-hectare development to make Broken Hill, which at one time boasted the world’s most successful silver mine, a trailblazer once again. Continue reading
Solar thermal plant at Forbes, New South Wales,has great potential
“This sort of technology will put massive amounts of money into regional Australia if it takes off “.
“It could be very significant here in Australia but also, there are significant overseas opportunities for Vast where Australia could earn export dollars.”
Developer of $20 million Australian-first solar thermal pilot plant predicts sunny future under Turnbull ABC Central West By Melanie Pearce 23 Dec 15 After hours of steady rain, there is not a ray of sunshine in sight and the mud is thick on the ground at the $20 million Jemalong pilot solar thermal plant near Forbes in central west New South Wales.
But in a way, the fact it is overcast helps to explain the importance of this technology, which enables both capture and storage of energy from the sun, according to James Fisher, chief technology officer of Vast Solar.
The engineer, who formerly worked in the fossil fuel industry and said he never thought renewables could compete with coal, now has a much sunnier outlook on the subject.
Technology behind solar thermal power plant
The Australian company has developed what it hopes will be a low-cost, high-efficiency Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) generation technology.
The Jemalong pilot plant will be ready for commissioning in mid-January and is designed to prove the technology works. Continue reading
Lithgow concerned about transport of radioactive trash
Calls for clarity over nuclear waste transportation plans http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-12-15/lithgow-councillor-concerned-about-nuclear-dump-proposal/7027780
The Federal Government is being urged to provide more details about the planned route for a proposed nuclear waste dump in the central west. The government is considering housing the waste at Sallys Flat near Bathurst and federal MP John Cobb has said regional roads would be upgraded to support heavy vehicle movements.
But Lithgow City Councillor Wayne McAndrew says it is highly likely the material will be transported through Lithgow to get to the site.
He said residents had raised concerns about the potential health impacts if a truck was involved in an accident.
“It’s not just a matter of the roads, it’s the icy conditions during winter coming down the Mount Victoria pass,” Councillor McAndrew said.
“That’s still a long way off from being resolved, the Victoria pass in relation to new roadworks, so it’s not just an issue of the roads it’s an issue of our long winter months and some of the dangers that poses for us.”
Sallys Flat near Hill End is one of the six sites shortlisted by the Federal Government.
Councillor McAndrew says there is little information about the planned route for transporting the waste.
New wind farms to go ahead as Turnbull removes barrier to Clean Energy investment
End of Tony Abbott’s war on wind farms gives green light to Capital Region projects, Canberra Times, December 13, 2015 Clare Sibthorpe Canberra Times reporter Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s decision to lift Tony Abbott’s controversial ban on government investment in wind power has been embraced by the Australian Capital Region farming community.
On Sunday, Fairfax Media revealed Environment Minister Greg Hunt has issued the Clean Energy Finance Corporation with new orders that negate the Abbott government’s June decree, which prohibited the $10 billion green bank from investing in new wind power projects.
The move gives the Clean Energy Finance Corporation the green light to fund many wind farms in the Southern Tablelands – one of Australia’s fastest growing wind investment regions – enabling them to progress from planning to construction.
Crookwell farmer and NSW regional organiser for the Australian Wind Alliance, Charlie Prell, said wind farms now able to access funding include Collector, Rye Park, Yass Valley, Bango, Rugby, Crookwell two and three, Capital two, and Boco two.
“All of these wind farms will contribute massively to the local economy, not only during construction, but over the life of the wind farms,” Mr Prell said.
“It’s giving farmers in these regions a passive income stream with making our operations more sustainable, financially and environmentally, and giving local businesses the opportunity to participate in construction activities.”
Under the new mandate, the corporation will be allowed to invest in any wind projects provided they involve “emerging and innovative” technology, although it does encourage it to “focus on offshore wind technologies”.
Mr Prell said the wind farms already operating in this area have contributed significantly to small business, particularly in Goulburn, Bungendore, Taralga and Crookwel……..http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/end-of-tony-abbotts-war-on-wind-farms-gives-green-light-to-capital-region-projects-20151213-glmer9.html
Hill End community not satisfied with MP John Cobb’s attitude to nuclear waste dump proposal
MP’s apology fails to pacify residents, Western Advocate By LOUISE EDDY Dec. 11, 2015 When members of the Hill End community gathered in the Royal Hall on Wednesday morning they wanted only one thing – for Member for Calare John Cobb to ask what he could do to help.
This was the third meeting the community has held to discuss Sallys Flat being short-listed for a national nuclear waste dump, and the first the federal member has been able to attend.
Community spokesperson Robyn Rayner said around 100 people attended the meeting, many of them new faces. Mr Cobb had earlier drawn the community’s anger when he dismissed their concerns about the safety of the proposed facility.
Ms Rayner said Mr Cobb apologised to the meeting for the way the matter had been handled, and for not being in contact with the community prior to Wednesday’s meeting.
“We appreciate the fact that he did turn up, but he treated us with utter contempt,” she said. “At no time did he say ‘What can I do to help you’,” she said…….
Yesterday Mr Cobb said he would help by conveying to the minister the fact that the community don’t want the waste dump.
However, despite assurances Sallys Flat won’t be further shortlisted if the community opposes the nuclear waste dump, Mr Cobb said the matter cannot end here and now. “They do want to finish this now, but the minister has set that consultation period because those who do want to consult privately with the minister should have that right,” Mr Cobb said. He said it was a good meeting.
“But I think people had made their minds up they didn’t want it,” he said.
“There are some communities in Australia who will think – here’s an opportunity. You are not often offered the chance to get $10 million. But it’s their choice. I don’t live there,” he said. Mr Cobb said he would be visiting the Lucas Heights reactor shortly to take a look.“It’s 14 years since I’ve been there. I’m sure there is no danger but I want to go back and reassure myself,” he said.
Ms Rayner said there were concerns Mr Cobb was not taking the matter seriously enough. http://www.westernadvocate.com.au/story/3552229/mps-apology-fails-to-pacify-residents/?cs=115#disqus_thread
Sydney’s Lord Mayor Clover Moor in Paris: upbeat about city’s climate change action
Paris UN climate conference 2015: Clover Moore tells government to get out of the way http://www.canberratimes.com.au/environment/un-climate-conference/paris-un-climate-conference–clover-moore-says-government-hindering-her-carbon-neutral-efforts-20151203-glf653.html December 8, 2015 Peter Hannam Environment Editor, The Sydney Morning Herald In Paris, the local city government is presenting a grim view of the possible impacts of global warming. It is offering visitors to the climate conference apocalyptic visions of a Venice or New York largely under water, and Stonehenge surrounded by an English desert.
Sydney lord mayor Clover Moore adopts a more optimistic view. In the French capital for a number of events held on alongside the climate summit, she has a positive story to tell, noting her city’s operations are already carbon neutral and deep emissions cuts are under way as business and green groups get on with it.
The city’s top commercial landlords have cut 45 per cent of their carbon dioxide emissions since 2006, saving $30 million a year, she said on the sidelines of the Paris . A surge in developments – almost $4 billion in 2014 rising to $7 billion this year – means a focus on efficiency in new buildings will also avoid future costs for energy, water and waste.
“The actions cities are taking across the world are making an incredible difference,” Cr Moore told Fairfax Media, noting 75 per cent of Australians and more than half the world’s people live in cities.
The performance and potential of the world’s major cities has been a theme of the Paris climate summit through a series of urban events – Ms Moore attended or spoke at five – highlighting the contribution that cities can make to meeting the conference’s wider goal of keeping global warming to less than 2 degrees of pre-industrial levels.
A report released at the conference found that cities – already home to more than 50 per cent of the world’s population – alone had the potential to cut global greenhouse gases by about 6 per cent by 2030 – or 3.7 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide – and more than double that by 2050.
For Sydney, the goal is to cut emissions 70 per cent on 2006 levels by 2030. Although well on the way to that goal, the city’s progress is being hampered by Canberra on the planning front, Cr Moore said. Continue reading
Upper Hunter Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Trust under scrutiny over funds to mining industry
Mining funds reserved for Indigenous groups allegedly funnelled back to industry, ABC News 7 Dec 15 By state political reporter Brigid GlanvilleA New South Wales Government body is under scrutiny amid claims it failed to distribute trust money to local Indigenous projects in the Upper Hunter and instead gave it to a mining industry body.
Key points:
- Trust set up so that mining companies pay $50k for each new development
- Funds to go to Aboriginal groups with connection to Upper Hunter
- $300k given to ARG, a company endorsed by chief mining lobby group
- Aboriginal Land Council chief says ARG has little affiliation with Indigenous communities Continue reading
Increasing popularity of community solar energy projects in Australia
Small is beautiful: the community solar projects taking on big energy, Guardian, Annie Kane, 8 Dec 15 A brewery, a bowling club and a library join forces with a new type of energy supplier to save money and become more sustainable
What do Sydney’s Young Henrys brewery, Shoalhaven Heads’ Bowling and Recreation Club, and Bendigo library have in common? They’re all hosts to some of Australia’s first solar power projects funded and run by local people in community energy groups.
Projects like these are becoming increasingly popular in Australia. The Coalition for Community Energy (C4CE) 2015 national community energy strategy states that there were 19 community energy groups operating in early 2015, with a further 59 projects in development. Continue reading
Nuclear waste arrival from France drives concerns about NSW dump site
At the weekend twenty five tonnes of nuclear waste arrived at Port Kembla from France on a ship blacklisted by US authorities. Greens NSW Senator Lee Rhiannon says the delivery is worrying news, particularly for residents at Hill End, near Bathurst, an area shortlisted by the federal government as a dumping site for nuclear waste.
‘Yesterday twenty five tonnes of nuclear waste, classified as ‘high-level’ by French authorities, arrived on our shores at Port Kembla,’ Senator Rhiannon said.
‘To add insult to injury, the government has chosen a rust bucket flag of convenience ship blacklisted by US authorities to deliver the waste, adding a whole host of threats to our environment, economy and local jobs.
‘The BBC Shanghai has been blacklisted by US authorities after failing to pass inspections, so why was it judged good enough to transport nuclear waste from France to Australia?
‘The transport of this dangerous waste increases the likelihood of an accident. Hundreds of police were involved in in transporting the waste to Lucas Heights, a southern Sydney suburb, in the dead of the night.
‘This delivery will elevate concerns of the Hill End community that any nuclear dump in Australia will not just be for ‘low level’ waste.
‘The Greens accept that storing this waste at Lucas Heights is the ‘least worst’ option.
‘Nuclear waste is a threat to surrounding communities and the environment for thousands of years.
‘This is further reminder that the Lucas Heights reactor should be closed.
“The pharmaceuticals developed from medical isotopes can be produced with particle accelerators. When total costs are considered it is not as expensive as a nuclear reactor and much, much safer,’ Senator Rhiannon said.
Elaborate secret operation transports deadly nuclear wastes through Sydney
Nuclear convoy: 25 tonnes of deadly waste closes Sydney roads December 7, 2015
Ian Walker The Daily Telegraph POLICE outnumbered Greenpeace activists 100 to one as tonnes of nuclear waste returned from France was driven in a kilometre-long convoy to the Lucas Heights Reactor early yesterday morning.
A forged steel container strong enough to withstand the impact of a jet strike carried the 25 tonnes of radioactive waste on the back of a semi-trailer to the reactor in south Sydney about 2am.
The waste was sent to France in the 1990s for reprocessing to be made safe for long-term storage in Australia, something that is not able to be done here……..Every conceivable threat to the precious cargo’s slow journey from Port Kembla to Sydney was covered in an elaborate operation throughout the night. http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/nuclear-convoy-25-tonnes-of-deadly-waste-closes-sydney-roads/story-fni0cx12-1227635720100
Lucas Height’s nuclear reactor’s returning wastes arrive by ship at Port Kembla
Controversial nuclear waste shipment arrives in Port Kembla http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/controversial-nuclear-waste-shipment-arrives-in-port-kembla-20151205-glged7.html Twenty five tonnes of nuclear waste will be transported to Sydney’s Lucas Heights after it arrived in NSW on Saturday.
The bulk carrier BBC Shanghai was greeted at Port Kembla, near Wollongong, by a heavy police presence including the riot squad, mounted officers and divers.
Police boats and jet skis accompanied it into the harbour as Greenpeace protesters followed behind. On shore about a dozen protesters unfurled a banner that read “don’t waste Australia”. “We are very concerned our place, our region, is being used to do other people’s dirty work,” South Coast Labour Council secretary Arthur Rorris said.
Arriving from France, the ship entered the harbour just before 1pm. The waste was expected to take around eight hours to unload before it was to be transported in in a six-metre-long and three-metre-wide steel cell along the Princes Highway under police guard to Lucas Heights in Sydney’s south.
Police in Port Kembla worked with the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANTSO) to coordinate the arrival. ANTSO in a statement said the waste would be held in Sydney while the Federal government searches for a permanent site to dump nuclear waste.
A shortlist of six sites was released in November, including Sallys Flat near Bathurst in New South Wales and three sites in South Australia.
The waste is what remains of shipments sent to France for reprocessing in the 1990s when eight shipments in total were sent there, as well as to the United Kingdom and the United States.
The waste sent to the US will remain there, but shipments sent to the UK will return within five years. In its statement ANTSO said the nuclear waste had “enabled generations of potentially life-saving nuclear medicine production”.
Illawarra unions will unload Lucas Heights returning nuclear wastes, but oppose international waste imports
Illawarra unions will join Port Kembla protests as ANSTO’s nuclear waste arrives on Saturday http://www.illawarramercury.com.au/story/3535216/well-unload-our-waste-but-no-one-elses-mua/?cs=300 Ben Langford, 3 Dec 15 Illawarra unions have made it clear their members will work to unload the shipment of Australian nuclear waste coming home from France, but will not handle any other nations’ shipments that governments may decide to accept.The cargo ship BBC Shanghai is due to arrive in Port Kembla on Saturday morning with about 10 tonnes of waste which had been reprocessed in France.
The dock workers union, the Maritime Union of Australia, said its members would unload the shipment of reprocessed waste without incident.
But MUA southern NSW branch secretary Garry Keane said that was because it was Australia’s waste, and they would not accept waste shipments from another country.
“Our members do not support the nuclear industry,” he said. “There is no totally safe way to transport or store waste which remains a danger and threatens communities for thousands of years.
“Understandably no one else wants our nuclear waste – that is why it is coming back to Lucas Heights and we want to send a clear message that we don’t accept anyone else’s nuclear waste.”
South Coast Labor Council secretary Arthur Rorris said the precautions being taken showed the risks. “I don’t remember this level of police operation being required for the last imported shipment of solar panels,” he said. “The fact that we have this operation tells us that this is very dangerous, and we now have it confirmed that we have plutonium in the waste.”
“We reluctantly accept that we have a responsibility to accept our own waste,” the ACF’s Dave Sweeney said.
“But we comprehensively draw the line against any sniff of international waste.”
Greenpeace, the MUA, SCLS and other anti-nuclear groups will protest at Port Kembla harbour when the shipment arrives.
ANSTO says the shipment is “intermediate-level” waste in accordance with international standards but Greenpeace said the French classification system, which names the shipment as “high-level” waste, is more appropriate.
The Federal Government is spending $30 million to repatriate the waste.
A major police operation is planned for the weekend, with an exclusion zone around the harbour from 5am to 3pm Saturday, and police guarding the shipment as it is trucked through Wollongong to Lucas Heights, likely early on Sunday.
Aboriginals boycott Climate March – alert organisers to distance unwanted pro nuclear lobbyistys
Climate March Organisers Distance Event From Nuclear Group After Aboriginal Activists Boycott, New Matilda, By Max Chalmers on November 30, 2015 Organisers responsible for the Sydney leg of the massive international climate change marches that took place over the weekend have distanced the event from a pro-nuclear group after Aboriginal representatives pulled out the night before the protest.
Members of the Redfern Aboriginal Tent Embassy and representatives of the #SOSBlakAustralia movement issued a statement on Saturday night rescinding their support for the event, citing concerns about the presence of pro-nuclear groups and the lack of consultation and time allotted for speakers.
Aunty Jenny Munro, from the Redfern Tent Embassy, had been billed as a speaker but did not appear at the Sunday event.
Uncle Ken Canning, also a member of the Embassy, told New Matilda concerns had been caused by the lack of speaking time offered to Munro, the location of the Aboriginal groups in the march, and the organising committee’s failure to denounce nuclear energy and uranium mining.
“Where the uranium rich places are, it’s where Aboriginal people live,” Canning said. “We get removed from the lands for them to mine, then get removed from the lands for them to dump the waste – we get a double whammy.”
In response, the People’s Climate March organising committed eventually distanced the event form nuclear groups in a statement posted on Facebook.
“While we don’t agree with or in any way endorse their position, we could not actively stop the pro-nuclear group from attending the rally because it’s not within our power to stop anyone attending. We also felt that to make a public statement about the involvement of Nuclear for Climate in the lead up to the march would give this this group more public exposure and attention – and we didn’t want their voices to draw attention away from the other groups and messages in the march.”……
On the other side of the Domain – which was drenched in sunlight, as if to make a point – was Natalie Wasley, coordinator of the Beyond Nuclear Initiative. ….
“Nuclear is unsafe and unnecessary, it can never meet the demand we need for rapid transition for our energy needs,” Wasley said. “It could never come online in time, it’s far too expensive, it’s dangerous, and it’s dirty.”
She said people could not be prevented from attending open community rallies but that the People’s Climate March had presented itself as progressive movement interested in just transitions for the environment and workers, and that nuclear energy did not tick those boxes….https://newmatilda.com/2015/11/30/climate-march-organisers-distance-event-from-nuclear-group-after-aboriginal-activists-boycott/
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