Tasmanina farm introduces Indian renewable energy technology
India’s renewable energy technology inspires Tasmanian tomato business ABC Rural By Laurissa Smith, 17 July 15 A tomato farm in Tasmania’s north-west is turning to India’s latest technology in renewable energy to reduce its power bills and improve yields.
The Brandsema’s at Turners Beach plan to install a biomass gasifier to power its greenhouses. The gasification system, built in India, turns agricultural or forest waste into energy and as a by-product, creates CO2 for plants.
Grower Marcus Brandsema recently travelled to India. He met with manufacturers and engineers to watch the biomass plants in action.
“What happens is the organic material goes into a gasifier,” he said. “It’s operating at a reasonably high temperature, around 800 degrees Celsius or thereabouts, in a reduced oxygen atmosphere.
“The organic material doesn’t actually burn, but it oxidises and gives off a gas which is useful to use downstream.
Once the gas is produced we can then use it to fire a boiler to create hot water, which is what we need, especially in Tassie’, to grow tomatoes
Marcus Brandsema, tomato grower
“They clean it and use it in an engine, which can drive a generator, or a pump, or alternatively the gas can be used as fuel source.”
Mr Brandsema is particularly attracted to the system’s ability to generate additional CO2 for the greenhouse to enhance photosynthesis.
“Once the gas is produced we can then use it to fire a boiler to create hot water, which is what we need, especially in Tassie’, to grow tomatoes,” he said.
“But the by-product of that is CO2, which would normally go up the flue as an emission, we could extract from the flue and introduce it into the greenhouse.”……..http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-07-17/renewable-energy-gassification-plant-1707/6627444
Nuclear lobby targets rural South Australia for an international radioactive trash dump
“Outback SA is a target for both International and National Nuclear Wastes”, Coober Pedy Regional Times, by David Noonan B.Sc., M.Env.St. Environment Campaigner 09 July 
2015 The Abbott government are short listing sites in SA for a National Nuclear Store as Premier Weatherill’s Nuclear Royal Commission investigates High Level International Nuclear Waste Storage in Outback SA.
Outback South Australia is again a target for Nuclear waste dumping despite the law in our State since 2000 prohibiting the import, transport, storage and disposal of any wastes derived from Nuclear reactors. Liberal Premier John Olsen passed the Nuclear Waste Storage Facility (Prohibition) Act 2000″ to protect the health, safety and welfare of the people of South Australia, and to protect the environment in which they live” by prohibiting a range of Nuclear wastes.
Political leadership by the Honourable John Olsen AO valued Outback SA more than the vested interests of Nuclear advocates who were trying to push Nuclear wastes on to our State. In the late 1990’s a company Pangea targeted both WA and SA for International Nuclear Wastes and Prime Minister John Howard targeted Arcoona Station for a National Nuclear Store for Spent Nuclear Fuel wastes from the Lucas Heights reactor in Sydney.
Today, both Prime Minister Tony Abbott and State Premier Jay Weatherill should respect and not seek to over-ride or over-turn long standing key legislation that protects the public interest in our State.
The Federal government are about to announce shortlisted sites in Outback SA and in WA for a National Nuclear Store for Spent Nuclear Fuel wastes from the Lucas Heights reactor in Sydney and a co-located National Repository to bury other radioactive wastes from across Australia.
The Lucas Heights reactor itself will be decommissioned and cut up and trucked across Australia to be dumped at this Repository site if it goes ahead in our State. Continue reading
Ill-considered, unconstructive and divisive Nuclear Royal Commission
To date, the Royal Commission has failed to credibly inform or engage the public on these key issues.
This International Nuclear waste agenda appears premised on interim but open ended storage as a pecuniary interest to irrevocably bring nuclear waste to SA without a capacity to dispose of it.
Further, this Commission is failing to address key nuclear waste siting issues and related transport routes and the question of which South Australian port is to be targeted to bring in nuclear wastes.
The Commission fails to address the fact that the north and west of SA is targeted for International Nuclear waste dumping and the country of traditional owners is at the forefront of this agenda.
Overview by David Noonan on the SA Premier’s Nuclear Royal Commission 05 July 2015
Dear Commissioner Kevin Scarce
Proposed Nuclear actions before this State Commission are National issues affecting the rights and interests of all Australians, are illegal actions under State and/or Federal law, and lack social license.
This overview presents over-arching reality tests and public interest questions for the Commission. Continue reading
South Australia’s Premier Jay Weatherill embraces nuclear lobby, in desperate bid to stay in power
Social Democracy and the nuclear fuel cycle Nick G. (I regret that I have lost the link to this article, and its source)
SA Premier Jay Weatherill’s Royal Commission into the Nuclear Fuel Cycle is a gift to the big mining and energy corporations.
It is also a sign of the desperation of a state Labor government facing growing state debt and the nation’s highest unemployment rate…….
Weatherill is typical of a Labor leader who identifies the immense problems besetting his state and who wants to be seen to be providing a solution so as to justify remaining in office. This is particularly so of Weatherill whose team failed to get a majority of the votes in the last election. The result was a hung parliament in which Labor had 23 seats, the Liberals 22 and with two independents, one of whom died shortly afterwards. The remaining independent went with Labor, the by-election for the now vacant seat of Fisher went to Labor by a handful of votes, and the government picked up one extra seat when the former Liberal leader Martin Hamilton-Smith defected and was given a Cabinet position. To say that there is no guarantee of a re-election next time around is an understatement.
Grasping at straws to “manage” capitalism
In the face of the collapse of the car industry in SA and the uncertainty around the shipbuilding and submarine contracts, Weatherill sought straws to grasp……..
Nuclear fool cycle
In between the Forrest Report and NPC address lies the Nuclear Fuel Cycle Royal Commission.
Although previously an opponent of the nuclear fuel cycle and a strong supporter of renewable energy (SA leads the nation in energy generation from wind and solar which together account for 39% of the state’s electricity generation), Weatherill has been lured by the pro-nuclear lobby with the twin carrots of income from the storage of Australian and international nuclear wastes, and release from carbon dependency through the allegedly “clean” nuclear alternative.
It appears not to matter that a nuclear waste dump is illegal under SA laws introduced and strengthened by former Premiers Olsen (Liberal, in 2000) and Rann (Labor, in 2003), nor that nuclear reactors, uranium enrichment and spent fuel reprocessing are illegal under Australian law and therefore outside SA’s jurisdiction.
What matters is that this Labor “Left faction” premier can paint himself as a business-, energy- and mining-friendly state premier prepared to rewrite policy on the nuclear fuel cycle via a supposedly independent and impartial Royal Commission.
Weatherill’s problem is that his choice of Royal Commissioner was derided from day one: Kevin Scarce is 
a retired Rear-Admiral and former State Governor, and current Chancellor of the University of Adelaide who in December 2014 suggested that South Australia consider developing nuclear industries to compensate for the downturn in manufacturing. He was addressing the SA Chamber of Mines and Energy at the time. When Scarce was appointed on February 9, 2015 to head the Royal Commission, he brazenly declared: “I come to this with no preconceived views”! ……..
(The author here failed to mention Kevin Scarce’s ownership of shares in uranium miner Rio Tinto)
Nuclear Royal Commission a promotional exercise for Nuclear Industry vested interests, targeting rural South Australia
BHP Billiton looked into uranium enrichment and so called ‘value adding’ and ‘fuel leasing’ and rejected these ideas, stating to the Federal government’s Switkowski Nuclear Review in 2006, that: “Enrichment has massive barriers to entry “ including access to technology and approvals under international protocols… We do not believe that conversion and enrichment would be commercially viable in Australia… Nor do we believe any government imposed requirement to lease fuel, as distinct from acquiring uranium would be acceptable to its major customers…
Community are being misled by claims these Nuclear actions are viable. The conduct of this Nuclear Commission risks a promotional exercise for Nuclear Industry vested interests and in effect targets Outback SA and custodian’s country for Nuclear waste dumping. This is an ill-considered and unconstructive Nuclear Commission into Nuclear actions that pose unique and unprecedented long term risks and present significant unacceptable impacts that run contrary to our public interest
“Outback SA is a target for both International and National Nuclear Wastes”by David Noonan B.Sc., Coober Pedy Regional Times, by David Noonan B.Sc., M.Env.St. Environment Campaigner 09 July 2015 “……..International Nuclear wastes were made illegal in WA (1999), SA (2000), NT (2004) and Qld (2007). The Parliament of Australia has prohibited nuclear power reactors, uranium enrichment and fuel fabrication, and Spent Nuclear Fuel reprocessing under multiple key legislative powers, in the: Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Act 1998 Section 10 Prohibition on certain nuclear installations; AND Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC) Section 140A No approval for certain nuclear installations.
Nuclear actions are “Matters of National Environmental Significance” under the EPBC Act. The ALP and Australian Greens are committed to retain these Decision powers at the Federal level. Further, the ALP National Platform presents policy commitments for the 2016 Federal election: “Labor remains strongly opposed to the importation and storage of nuclear waste in Australia that is sourced from overseas”.
International Nuclear wastes would involve a range of Federal powers and decisions that are outside of SA’s jurisdiction, including under the Customs Act, the EPBC Act, and Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Act.
To date, the Nuclear Commission that is supposed to be investigating risks and opportunities has itself failed to credibly inform or engage the public on key legal and public policy issues. Information Papers provide only passing reference to ‘prohibitions’ and meetings held at Universities and elsewhere fail to even mention the fact that our State laws prohibit an array of Nuclear wastes that the Nuclear Commission is considering.
The Premier’s Nuclear Commission is arguably an International Nuclear waste storage agenda. Continue reading
Challenge to Bill Shorten – the Climate Issue at the Labor National Conference
Labor conference is Shorten’s next test on climate policy The Conversation, Michelle Grattan Professorial Fellow at University of Canberra, July 15, 2015 The leak to the Daily Telegraph of an options paper on Labor’s carbon pricing policy has been a kick in the guts for Bill Shorten, who was portrayed in the newspaper’s pages not once but twice as a large zombie. It is, however, just an early stage of Shorten’s tough road on this issue………
Whatever the motive, the leak won’t stop Labor having a plan for an emissions trading scheme come the next election. Shorten committed the opposition to that a long time ago.
Labor’s leader has three formidable challenges once the immediate problem of the leak has passed.
Shorten has to see the climate issue managed through Labor’s national conference, held July 24-26 in Melbourne. Then the details of the opposition policy must be brought together. And finally, there will the job of selling it – to an electorate with bad memories of the former ALP government and in the face of a ferocious scare campaign by Tony Abbott.
The draft new ALP platform, to be considered by the national conference, sets out broadly the proposed approach on climate policy. Labor will “introduce an emissions trading scheme which imposes a legal limit on carbon pollution that lets business work out the cheapest and most effective way to operate within that cap”, it says.
It will “develop a comprehensive plan to progressively decarbonise Australia’s energy sector, particularly in electricity generation”.
A Labor government would support high-emitting industries to become more energy efficient; grow renewables; introduce national vehicle emissions standards modelled on successful overseas efforts; and consider the appropriateness of a climate change trigger in the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Act and a trigger to cover the national parks system.
A group within the party, the Labor Environment Action Network (LEAN), will try to toughen this platform.
Co-convenor Felicity Wade says an amendment will be moved to write in the post-2020 targets proposed by the Climate Change Authority (30% reduction in emissions by 2025 on 2000 levels; 40-60% by 2030). There will also be an amendment put up to commit Labor to having 50% of energy coming from renewables by 2030………
As one Labor man said bluntly on Wednesday: “If we can’t win the climate change debate we don’t deserve to be in government.” https://theconversation.com/labor-conference-is-shortens-next-test-on-climate-policy-44733
Australia losing its great wind power opportunity
Wind power: European renewable energy expert warns Australia risks missing out on cheaper and cleaner electricity, ABC Radio, 16 July 15 AM By Michael Edwards A European expert on renewable energy says Australia risks missing out on a huge opportunity for cheaper and cleaner electricity if it does not encourage investment in wind power.
Oliver Joy, from the European Wind Energy Association — the peak body guiding wind power projects across Europe — said a huge shift towards renewable energies were underway in the continent with wind power leading the charge.
He said Europe was on track to get half of its electricity from renewable sources such as wind power by 2050 and had big ambitions when it came to reducing its carbon footprint.
The eurozone has committed to cutting greenhouse gas emissions by as much as 95 per cent by 2050 and says this can only be done with all of its electricity coming from renewable sources, with wind power providing the lion’s share.
The Federal Government has ordered the Clean Energy Finance Corporation not to invest in wind farms, with Prime Minister Tony Abbott saying he finds the giant turbines “visually awful……..
Wind ‘cheaper than fossil fuels’
According to the European Wind Energy Association, wind power is a cheaper way to produce electricity than fossil fuels.
Mr Joy said it also had long-term savings for taxpayers.
“Cheaper than nuclear and gas and almost on a par with coal — that’s purely based on generating electricity,” he said. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-07-15/euro-wind-power/6620936
South Australian government says wind and solar power are sources of jobs
Wind and solar a source of jobs in SA http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/wind-and-solar-a-source-of-jobs-in-sa/story-fni0xqi4-1227439666671
JULY 13, 2015 THE South Australian government says a commonwealth ban on supporting solar and wind energy scheme will make it harder to create jobs.
THE commonwealth has directed the Clean Energy Finance Corporation not to back any further wind energy projects as well as rooftop solar schemes.
But South Australian Treasurer Tom Koutsantonis says wind energy is a source of immediate and future jobs and putting barriers in the way of investment will make it more difficult to cut SA’s unemployment rate, which climbed to 8.2 per cent in June.
“South Australians are told by the commonwealth government that we are not allowed to build cars, we’re told we are not allowed to build submarines, now we are being told we shouldn’t build wind farms when we have investors ready to spend their money and create jobs now,” he said.
Climate Change Minister Ian Hunter will meet his interstate counterparts this week and says they will call on the federal government to end its ideological opposition to renewable energy.
“The message being sent to renewable energy investors by our federal government is `look elsewhere – don’t spend your money in Australia and don’t create jobs here’,” he said.
Yeelirrie uranium project suspended, but will it later ship uranium through Esperance?
Will uranium be shipped through Esperance?, Australian Mining 14 July, 2015 Ben Hagemann With the uranium industry gaining momentum in WA, Canadian miner Cameco has suggested Esperance as an export hub for products.
Cameco’s Yeeleerie project, billed as the largest in WA, is located near Wiluna some distance from Port Adelaide and Darwin, the only two ports in Australia approved for shipping uranium.
While the Yeeleerie project has been slowed to wait for commodity price recovery in the post-Fukushima uranium market, Cameco Australia managing director Brian Reilly said all options for shipping would be considered………
So far two uranium mines have been approved in WA since the 2008 lifting of the ban on uranium mining: Cameco’s Kintyre Project in the Pilbara, and Toro Energy’s Wiluna Project.
Toro Energy has already outlined plans to ship product through Port Adelaide, a 2700km journey by truck.
The issue of transporting radioactive rare earths materials came up in 2012 when Lynas Corporation rare earth shipping activities through the Port of Esperance were strenuously opposed by Greens member for Fremantle Adele Carles………http://www.miningaustralia.com.au/News/Will-uranium-be-shipped-through-Esperance
Troubled history of Australia’s Ranger uranium mine – ABC Radio
‘So to Mirarr, I guess what they see is very, very large disturbance, they see mountains of waste rock and low-grade ore, and sometimes that does affect their views of important sites like Djidbidjidbi or just the landscape.
‘It will never look the same again and the site will have to be monitored for decades to come after it is finished being rehabilitated so that we can make sure that it is actually in a stable chemical condition, the biodiversity is doing okay and the ecosystem is functional and so on.’
According to ERA figures, rehabilitation is expected to cost close to $500 million.
The long and controversial history of uranium mining in Australia, ABC Radio, Rear Vision, 14 July 2015 Keri Phillips Last month’s announcement that Energy Resources Australia will pull the plug on the Ranger uranium mine in the Northern Territory signals the end of one of the most controversial chapters in Australian mining history. Keri Phillips traces the history of uranium mining in Australia and Ranger’s role in it……. Continue reading
Concentrated Solar Power pre-feasibility study now being finalised at Port Augusta
The transition from fossil to renewable energy The Fifth Estate, Graham Davies, Engineers Australia | 13 July 2015“…………It is encouraging that Alinta, with financial support from ARENA and the SA Government, is currently finalising a pre-feasibility study into concentrated solar thermal power at Port Augusta – a project that has the full support of the community. At present the capex of CSP is too high for a company to meet what is required for shareholder returns, but costs will decrease as the technology develops further. If government were to contribute an amount equivalent to saved externalities (such as adverse health effects associated with continuing the coal power station) it is probable that the project would be economically viable now.
CSP is of particular value to a renewable grid, as it has the ability to efficiently store energy, be despatchable and provide synchronous generation and grid stability. These capabilities will circumvent the need for inflexible base load generators such as coal, CCGT and nuclear, with their many externalities. Port Augusta is an ideal location for CSP and presents a great opportunity for the future.
The closure of the Port Augusta Power Station may initially appear as bad news, but it may galvanise South Australia in becoming the iconic turning point for a new future – a future in which Australia again leads in solar development and export; where energy security is based on the sun and not the fossil reserves; where long-term thinking is built into economic analysis; and where prosperity is not measured by GDP but by net wealth and wellbeing.
Graham Davies is incoming chair of Engineers Australia’s Sustainable Engineering Society. http://www.thefifthestate.com.au/spinifex/the-transition-from-fossil-to-renewable-energy/75484
Tony Abbott now issuing rules to try to gut Australian Renewable Energy Agency
Second climate agency gets new rules http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/second-climate-agency-gets-new-rules/story-fni0xqi4-1227441744101 A SECOND climate-related agency has has been issued new instructions by the Abbott government.
THE Australian Renewable Energy Agency has been given a five-point priority list – including more large-scale solar projects and thermal energy – to replace a broader scope of projects that it supports.
The change comes in the wake of the Clean Energy Finance Corporation being directed to stop funding wind farms and rooftop solar projects.
Western Australia’s Barnett goverment moving Aborigines off their land to benefit miners
It is a trend that points to one thing — move indigenous people off their country so that the miners get a free hand and they can do as they will.
Michael Martinez: WA stance on indigenous Australia a worrying sign, MICHAEL MARTINEZ GEELONG ADVERTISER JULY 09, 2015 “…….. Mr Barnett and his pro-mining party members are trying to change the Aboriginal Heritage Act so that one bureaucrat can make a decision determining if a site is sacred or not.
There has already been a Supreme Court decision questioning the deregistering of a sacred site in Port Headland, and there are 22 other sites that the West Australian Government has removed during the past few years.
A government committee in Western Australia and the minister decided that the land and waters around parts of Port Hedland port should no longer be considered an Aboriginal sacred site because it had not been used for religious purposes.Justice Chaney said in his judgment: “I conclude that the committee did not give consideration to the question of whether or not the Marapikurrinya Yintha was a place of importance or special significance because the question did not arise for consideration in light of the conclusion that it was not a sacred site.” Continue reading
Poorer Western Australians will lose out from Abbott’s solar turnoff – Senator Scott Ludlam
WA Greens senator says Abbott solar turn-off will hit battlers hardest, WA Today July 13, 2015 Ray Sparvell Reporter WA battlers will be hardest hit by the Abbott government’s decision to wind back investment into home solar, according to Greens Senator Scott Ludlam.
He said the state’s solar-driven homes were now producing as much electricity as two conventional coal-fueled power stations.
And he believes it is too soon for the Abbott Government to pull the plug on investments into the solar industry. “Retirees, people on lower incomes and people in outer metro and rural areas of the state will be hardest hit by this.
The federal government has recently directed the Clean Energy Finance Corporation to exclude household and small scale solar from further investment funding. Senator Ludlam said the government still needed to support the solar industry.
Some 180,000 WA households have installed rooftop solars and Senator Ludlam said they were now generating the equivalent of two typical coal fire power stations. “Solar powered WA homes have increased 19 per cent in just one year – overwhelmingly in outer suburbs and households with lower incomes,” he said.
WA now has four postcodes in Australia’s top 20 solar suburbs including Mandurah at number two, North east Wanneroo at eight, Canning Vale/Willeton at 12 and Cockburn at 19.
Home owners benefit from trading in small scale technology certificates at the time of installation and feed-in tariffs (selling power back into the grid). “Householders are streaking ahead of the state and federal government as they use rooftop solar to dramatically reduce their power bills, but Tony Abbott’s crusade against renewable energy is set to have a devastating effect. Continue reading
Queensland’s Mt Emerald Wind Farm will go ahead despite Abbott government
Tableland wind farm pushes ahead without Federal support DANIEL BATEMAN THE CAIRNS POST JULY 14, 2015 CONSTRUCTION on a wind farm on the Tableland is still likely to go ahead without funding assistance from the Federal Government.
The developers behind the Mt Emerald Wind Farm are confident they will receive environmental approval from the Department of Environment, with a decision expected before the end of September.
It comes as the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) has been ordered to focus on new technologies instead of wind farms under a revised mandate drafted by the government.
The $380 million wind farm, to be built at Walkamin, will potentially generate enough electricity to power 75,000 homes. The development is a joint venture between Ratch Australia and local property developer Port Bajool. Ratch owns several wind farms around Australia, including the Windy Hill wind farm near Ravenshoe which has been operating for more than a decade.
Kennedy MP Bob Katter, whose electorate covers Walkamin, said in the right location, wind farms could successfully generate additional incomes for small communities and landholders…..
He said without the CEFC investing in development, Australia would “go backwards”. “If this happens, the only independent development bank in Australia will cease to exist,’’ he said. “No real development will take place. “What the government calls investment is foreign takeovers of Australia assets.
“The only people in Australia who think this is a good thing are this current LNP and the last ALP government.” http://www.cairnspost.com.au/news/cairns/tableland-wind-farm-pushes-ahead-without-federal-support/story-fnkxmm0j-1227440453735
1 This month.
20 September –National Day of Action in Melbourne on the International Day of Peace
Help Aunty Sue Protect Her Land and Sacred Sites From Destructive Rocket Testing.
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Australians deserve the truth
about
AUKUS – https://aukuspublicinquiry.com/
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 