Solar Australia: 1.5 Million+ Solar Power Systems Installed
1.5 Million+ Solar Power Systems Installed In Australia http://www.energymatters.com.au/renewable-news/solar-pv-australia-em5278/ January 5, 2016Energy Matters More than 23.2 million solar panels are now installed in Australia – a module for every man, woman and child in the nation.
According to solar consultancy firm SunWiz, Australia registered its 1,500,000th solar power system on December 22, 2015. More than 4.65 gigawatts of sub-100kW capacity systems are generating clean electricity across the country and saving their owners a bundle on power rates.
SunWiz states Australia boasts the highest number of installations per capita in the world and the equivalent of 18% of Australian households own a PV system.
“Australia ranked 8th in the world for capacity installed in 2014, and is likely to be a top-10 country for installed capacity in 2015,” says SunWiz.
State-wise, while Queensland has the most solar power systems in the country ( 450,000+), South Australia has the highest proportion of households with PV installed (30%).
Solar PV is now contributing more than 2.5% of Australia’s electricity requirements. While that may not sound like a huge amount, it’s very valuable electricity as solar panels typically produce the most power during periods coincide with high demand. This reduces the need for added mains grid infrastructure and the incidence of higher cost generation from peaking power stations; the cost of which can exceed $13,000 per megawatt-hour ($13 a kilowatt hour).
For 2016, SunWiz predicts the residential solar market will slightly contract, the small and mediumcommercial solar sector will grow 10-20% and the large-scale commercial segment will also experience significant growth as companies become increasingly aware of how much can be saved on energy costs by going solar.
SunWiz doesn’t expect much in the way of utility scale projects being brought online in Australia this year.
“… the focus will be upon earlier stages of project development, with utility-scale project deployment starting in earnest in 2017 and growing from there.”
The utility scale sector went into limbo during the drawn-out battle over Australia’s Renewable Energy Target; instigated by now ex-Prime Minister, Tony Abbott. After dragging on for eighteen months, the issue was finally settled in June 2015; ensuring sunnier days ahead for the sector.
Rooftop solar power in Western Australia produces more electricity than the State’s biggest power turbine
Rooftop solar producing more energy than WA’s biggest turbine, ABC Radio AM 5 Jan 16 By Anthony Stewart Rooftop solar panels in the South-West Interconnected System (SWIS) in Western Australia are now producing as much energy as the state’s largest power turbine, according to research from Curtin University.
SWIS stretches from Kalbarri north of Perth to Ravensthorpe in the state’s south, taking in the Perth metropolitan area. Curtin University sustainability professor Peter Newman said 20 per cent of homes across the grid have rooftop solar panels installed.
“We are in the extraordinary position of saying that Perth [SWIS] now has rooftop solar as the largest supplier of electricity, it’s the biggest power station in WA,” he said.
“It’s nearly 500 megawatts and it’s growing rapidly, by 2020 we could have half of Perth’s [SWIS] households with rooftop solar.”……
Professor Newman said the state’s electricity utilities needed to rapidly adapt to the growth in solar.
“They didn’t predict it, they have all these contracts for coal and gas that go 20 or 30 years and they have even got an old power station out of mothballs, fixed it up, but never turned it on,” he said.
“Despite the boom times we actually reduced our power consumption during this period because people are just not needing it if you’ve got the PV’s [photovoltaic] on the roof.”
Energy utility Synergy has been contacted for comment.
Batteries to drive solar boom….. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-01-04/rooftop-solar-panels-bigger-than-biggest-turbine-wa/7066240
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
Wester Australia finally bans solarium tanning beds
Total eclipse for tanning beds, The West Australian, Cathy O’Leary December 31, 2015, Hundreds of young WA women are likely to avoid disfiguring and potentially deadly skin cancers because of a ban on tanning beds that starts tomorrow.
Regulations to ban commercial sun beds make WA the last State to outlaw the machines.
Cancer Council WA director of education and research Terry Slevin said the ban came 12 months after laws took effect in the rest of the country.
He said that before regulations started in Australia it was estimated that sun beds caused almost 3000 skin cancers a year, including 281 melanomas, and were responsible for 43 melanoma-related deaths.
A recent study predicted one in six melanomas in Australians aged 18 to 29 could be prevented if solarium operators were shut down.
Mr Slevin said the machines were mostly used by people under the age of 24, often young women.
They exposed skin to ultra-violet radiation five to six times more intense than the midday summer sun……https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/wa/a/30464028/total-eclipse-for-tanning-beds/
Queensland’s Oman Ama residents reject nuclear waste dump
Oman Ama residents reject proposal for nuclear waste disposal site http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/oman-ama-residents-reject-proposal-for-nuclear-waste-disposal-site-20160103-glyji8.html January 4, 2016 – Drew Creighton A group of residents of the tiny Darling Downs hamlet of Oman Ama has banded together in a bid to prevent Australia’s first permanent nuclear waste disposal facility from being built near their town.
Oman Ama was one of six sites shortlisted by the Federal Government and announced in November as a possible location for the facility.
The group has written to federal Resources Minister Josh Frydenberg ’emphatically’ rejecting the proposed nuclear waste dump.
The proposed site is roughly 90 kilometres from Warwick on Bennets Gully.
Friends of Oman Ama member and local doctor Dr Colin Owen said in a statement he was not convinced the proposal was risk free.”Mishaps have occurred in such facilities around the world, including at Lucas Heights in Sydney,” Dr Owen said.
The facility he referred to is the Lucas Heights reactor that produces nuclear medicine. Dr Owen is convinced there have been mishaps in the past 10 years at the reactor.
In 2010 a whistleblower alleged there had been a series of safety breaches at Lucas Heights.
Dr Owen said the proposed site was just a few kilometres north of Murray-Darling tributaries such as the Condamine. “The big concern is that if it leaks into there, the whole murray darling water way will be compromised,” he said.
Safety is not the only concern the residents have. Mental health nurse Susan Campbell had a list of worries including devaluation of land, risk to tourism initiatives and anxiety levels in locals.
Not all locals are against the proposal and one resident has offered their property as a potential site for the facility.
Another medical practitioner from Oman Ama, Dr Bob Morrish, is concerned with what has been called ‘obfuscation’ by the government. “The Government people have not been clear about the difference between storage and disposal, particularly in relation to the so called ‘interim’ storage of intermediate level radioactive waste,” Dr Morrish said. “They have refused to define ‘interim’ but suggested it could be as long as 30 years.”
The group is also pressuring the landholder to withdraw his application for the proposed site of the nuclear facility.
The other five sites on the shortlist are Sallys Flat in NSW, Hale in the Northern Territory and Cortlinye, Pinkawillinie and Barndioota in South Australia.
The government’s consultation process is expected to take until March, with a final shortlist of three sites announced later this year. A final determination of the site will not be announced until after this year’s federal election.
New Directive to Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) supports renewable energy investment
New clean energy investment mandate a shift from policy proposed by Abbott
Directive to CEFC to focus on innovative and emerging technologies will enhance support for windfarms and small-scale solar projects, Guardian, Shalailah Medhora, 24 Dec 15. The Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) has been directed to focus on innovative and emerging technologies, reversing a mandate by the former prime minister Tony Abbott that would have specifically blocked funding for windfarms and small-scale solar projects.
The mandate came into effect on Thursday, with a new clause outlining the shift in focus.
“As part of its investment activities in clean energy technologies, the corporation must include a focus on supporting emerging and innovative renewable technologies and energy efficiency, such as large-scale solar, storage associated with large- and small-scale solar, offshore wind technologies, and energy efficiency technologies for cities and the built environment,” the clause said. “ This will in turn increase the uptake of emerging technologies such as large-scale solar and energy efficiency.”
The investment mandate is not exclusive, meaning that established technologies can still be funded, and not retrospective, so projects that have already been funded will not be affected.
“The CEFC will therefore continue to pursue a diverse range of investment activities that are within the scope of the CEFC Act and this new investment mandate,” a statement by the body said.
“Together, the new investment mandate and the accompanying explanatory statement provide guidance on how the CEFC should approach investment in mature and established technologies, such as conventional onshore wind and conventional hydro,” it said. “It is the government’s expectation that, in many circumstances, projects involving mature technologies should be able to secure finance from commercial financing sources.”
The mandate is a shift from what Abbott proposed in July, when he said the body should no longer fund small-scale solar projects such as rooftop panels and wind technology…….
The CEFC chairwoman, Jillian Broadbent, wrote to the environment minister, Greg Hunt, and the finance minister, Mathias Cormann, welcoming the new mandate. She said it was an “appropriate approach that allows the CEFC to support the Australian government policy priorities while still allowing a measure of investment flexibility”. …….http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/dec/24/new-clean-energy-investment-mandate-a-shift-from-policy-proposed-by-abbott
Coal giant Adani in a financial pickle
Adani’s finances go from bad to worse, Independent Australia Lachlan Barker 3 January 2016, Federal and State Governments continue to approve it but the Adani Carmichael project will never eventuate unless an investor with “a financial death wish” can be found, writes Lachlan Barker.
IN OCTOBER 2015, the new Minister for Resources, Energy and Northern Australia,Josh Frydenberg, made a death knellpronouncement on Adani’s Carmichael Coal Mine and Rail Project, indicating that the rail line to the Galilee Basin to serve the mine:
“… wouldn’t be a priority project.”
He added that Adani’s project was:
“… a commercial operation and it needs to stand on its own two feet.”
This makes it pretty clear that the federal government have, at last, recognised that this Adani coal mine has not a chance in hell of making a red cent and federal funding through the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility (named by opponents as the ”Dirty Energy Finance Corporation”) will not be provided.
Additionally, the banks have indicated that they will not touch this project and the one bank that Adani has constantly pointed to as a source of finance, the State Bank of India (SBI), has not actually said “yes” to the project. The SBI has simply received an application from Adani for financing.
Currently, the SBI are reviewing Adani’s application – as they do with any application – and will, presumably, announce their decision soon.
So, with no banks and now without the Australian Government, Adani were left with the solitary hope that the Queensland Government might come to the “white elephant” party.
If that was indeed their main source of hope, they must have been chagrined when, over the Christmas break, a tiny story appeared on the SBS website, headlined, ‘Adani must fund mine: Qld premier’.
The link takes us to a brief story reprinted here:
Queensland’s government has warned Indian mining giant Adani it must finance the controversial Carmichael coal mine on its own.
The federal government on Tuesday approved the expansion of Abbot Point port, which is intended to service the proposed Carmichael mine, prompting Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk to sternly tell Adani not to expect any financial assistance from the state.
“There will be no taxpayers’ money going towards this project,” she said.
At the time of writing, the only entity on the planet prepared to fund the Carmichael mine project – rated as a A$16 billion project (US$11 billion) – is Adani itself.
IEEFA tells us that Adani has already borrowed A$3 billion for the initial investment in the mine and now need to raise the remaining A$13-14 billion (US$9-10 billion). That being the case, the mine looks as likely to be built as environment minister Greg Hunt’s chances of getting an invitation to the Greenpeace Christmas party — for Adani’s financial situation has got worse………https://independentaustralia.net/article-display/adanis-finances-go-from-bad-to-worse,8539
Maralinga nuclear toxicity continues
Mr Kerin and the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Robert Tickner, told the cabinet that the Commonwealth would plead the Statute of Limitations if any Aboriginal initiated a common law 
action against Canberra.
Further, the ministers stipulated that if Yami Lester, a Yankunytjatjara man blinded by a “black mist from the south in the 1950s”, rejected the offer and proceeded with his common law action the Commonwealth should also plead the Statute of Limitations.
In a coda, Bob Hawke [at left] told journalists attending a National Archives briefing on the cabinet papers last month that Australia should take the world’s nuclear waste as a way to raise new revenue as an alternative to raising the GST or reducing expenditure.
Cabinet papers: Fallout continues from British atomic tests http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/cabinet-papers-fallout-continues-from-british-atomic-tests-20151217-glqlmg.html January 1, 2016 Damien Murphy The cabinet papers reveal how ignorant various Australian governments had remained about contamination at the British atomic test sites in Maralinga in South Australia.
They also erroneously believed that British clean-up operations were effective in removing plutonium contamination. Continue reading
Sorry history of the inadequate clean-up of radioactive Maralinga nuclear bomb test site
“By ploughing soil at Taranaki without first removing contaminated fragments the British failed to achieve a significant reduction in radiological hazard and made the situation more difficult to remedy,”
Under a 1956 agreement, the UK accepted responsibility for cleaning up the site. In a subsequent agreement in 1968, Australia released the UK from that responsibility.
Clean-up work finally started in 1996 and continued to 2000, with the worst-affected area now deemed safe to visit but not for permanent occupancy, including by traditional owners the Maralinga-Tjarutja people who officially got their land back only in 2009.
Aust demands UK pay up for nuclear mess http://www.9news.com.au/national/2016/01/01/00/09/aust-demands-uk-pay-up-for-nuclear-mess In 1990, [Prime Minister] Bob Hawke faced one of his more challenging missions, demanding British PM Margaret Thatcher pay to clean up the God-awful mess left behind when her predecessors let off A-bombs in the outback. Continue reading
South Australian towns could become nuclear terrorism targets
Nuclear a terrorist risk, Whyalla News Dec. 28, 2015, Local towns such as Whyalla could be made terror targets if South Australia does become part of the nuclear fuel cycle.
This risk was outlined as part of a Nuclear Royal Commission public session held at the Whyalla public library in front of a small group of locals earlier this month.
Regional engagement officer Jon Bok said that an increased threat of terrorism was one of the several risks the commission were taking into account.
“At the moment we are looking into several issues, with terrorism being one of them,” Mr Bok said.
Mr Bok declined to comment on what counter-measures could be taken to prevent a terrorist attack…… http://www.whyallanewsonline.com.au/story/3617682/nuclear-a-terrorist-risk/
Australian government in deal with Ukraine’s troubled nuclear industry
Ukraine to sign agreement on nuclear energy with Australia in 2016 http://en.interfax.com.ua/news/general/314722.html 29 Dec 15 Ukraine plans in 2016 to sign an agreement with Australia on cooperation in the field of using nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, Director of the Department of Strategic Planning and European Integration at the Energy and Coal Industry Ministry of Ukraine Mykhailo Bno-Airiian has said.
“One of the main tasks for 2016 is the signing of an agreement between the government of Ukraine and Australia on cooperation in the field of using nuclear energy for peaceful purposes,” he said at a briefing in Kyiv.
According to the department, the agreement has been agreed with the Australian government and is currently undergoing national procedures for its signature and ratification.
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
Australia leads the world in home rooftop solar
Australia’s Small-Scale Rooftop Solar Installations Hit 4.59 GW In 2015 http://cleantechnica.com/2015/12/29/australias-small-scale-rooftop-solar-installations-hit-4-59-gw-in-2015/ by Glenn Meyers Propelling a global boost in renewable energy, Australia’s Clean Energy Regulator has reported small-scale rooftop solar totaled 4.59 GW in 2015. As reported by pv-magazine, data released by the Clean Energy Regulator shows 119,000 new small-scale PV installations have taken place in 2015. While not as sizable as 2014, this number distinguishes Australia with the highest portion of residential buildings with rooftop PV globally.
The Australia small-scale rooftop solar numbers also show the nation has maintained its world lead the world in deployment of rooftop solar. Counting a December 1 calculation, Australia has reached 1.49 million small-scale PV installations. This total is based on data released by this country’s Clean Energy Regulator.
The Clean Energy Regulator was established on 2 April 2012 as an independent statutory authority by the Clean Energy Regulator Act 2011, and operates as part of the Environment portfolio.
Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) estimates the nation will have another 300 MW of large-scale PV by the end of 2015. “Renewable energy is essential to Australia’s future economic growth and prosperity in a carbon-constrained world and to helping lower Australia’s carbon emissions. The transformation of Australia’s energy sector will require around $100 billion in investment in the renewables sector over the period to 2050.”
The CEFC Act has provided that a minimum of 50% of the CEFC portfolio be invested in renewable energy technologies, related enabling technologies and hybrid technologies that integrate renewable energy technologies by 1 July 2018.
CEFC reports on Australian solar potential
The CEFC has stated, “With the highest average solar radiation per square metre of any country in the world, and substantial cost reductions in solar technology over recent years, there is significant future opportunity for growth in deployment of solar technologies in Australia.”
CEFC has invested in both large and small-scale solar projects using solar photovoltaics. It reports the demand for solar financing continues to be strong, with solar projects valued over $3 billion.
The clean energy report shows a solid foundation for small-scale solar is in place.
Record low price for wind energy achieved in ACT deal with South Australia
Record price for renewable energy achieved in new wind farm deal, ACT Government says http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-12-21/record-price-for-renewale-energy-achieved-in-new-wind-farm-deal/7045414
A record low in pricing for renewable energy has been set as part of a deal to buy power from a South Australian wind farm, the ACT Environment Minister says.
The French-developed Hornsdale wind farm has been selected to supply power to the ACT, at a cost of $77 per megawatt hour.
Located just north of Jamestown in South Australia, the wind farm will eventually power 56,000 Canberra houses, providing 13 per cent of the ACT’s projected electricity demand by 2020. Continue reading
Queensland’s Fraser Coast Region could bloom with solar farm, says Councillor
Solar Farm ‘Common Sense’ For Queensland’s Fraser Coast December 30, 2015 Energy Matters “There are many issues on the Fraser Coast Region; none of which are more important than rising energy prices,” says Cr. Loft; who also points to issues with unreliable delivery of electricity.
The councillor states the construction of a solar farm within the region’s boundaries could provide savings for Council of around 15%, freeing up hundreds of thousands of dollars in working capital that could be redirected to other community needs.
In addition to savings, creating jobs and a more robust electricity supply, Cr. Loft says benefits for the region would include “the ability to portray the Fraser Coast Council as an environmentally friendly and green community, compatible with our magnificent natural environment.”
The Fraser Coast sits within the Great Sandy Biosphere, which is part of a world network of Biosphere Reserves.
The proposed feasibility study would include profiling the electricity consumption of Council and major consumers of electricity in the Shire; determining total Shire electricity consumption, potential locations for the facility and the most appropriate technology, e.g. solar panels, CPV or solar thermal + storage.
Cr. Loft believes now is a good time for a major solar power project……..
The Fraser Coast Council incorporates Fraser Island – the world’s largest sand island – and towns including Maryborough, Burrum Heads, Hervey Bay and Brooweena.
Queensland is Australia’s leading state in terms of total solar capacity and it also has the highest number of small scale solar power systems – more than 460,000 installations. http://www.energymatters.com.au/renewable-news/fraser-coast-solar-em5271/
1 This month.
Australians deserve the truth
about
AUKUS – https://aukuspublicinquiry.com/
Australians deserve the truth
about AUKUS
PETITION – To: Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and the Australian Labor Government
of the week – Australians for War Powers Reform (AWPR)
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity
Antinuclear 