Solar air conditioning on show at Brisbane’s Clean Energy Event
Kingtec Solar to Showcase Solar Powerered Air Conditioner in Australia’s Clean Energy Week Event Visit http://kingtecsolar.com for further information Event runs July 24-26 at the Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre Australia Melbourne, Australia, July 9th, 2013: Kingtec Solar, a recognized leader in solar powered air condition technology, is pleased to announce its participation in events at the Clean Energy Week, Australia’s largest solar event. Following its exceptional success last year (2012) in Sydney, where over 2500 delegates from local and international organization participated; this year’s events take place at the Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre from July 24th to 26th. …….
Kingtec’s current PV solar air conditioner line-up includes:
K25FT – Solar Split Ductless
K25CJ – Solar Window Air Conditioner
K25DZ – Solar RV Roof Top AC
and have special significance for businesses and homeowners in areas hit by constant blackouts or rolling brownouts.
Kingtec Solar’s unique PV-powered air conditioners are designed with simplicity and economy in mind, and are built to run using free and abundant solar renewable energy. We deliver 100% zero energy consumption for up to 7 1/2 hours on as little as 1000 watts of solar panels for a 16000 BTU AC. These air conditioners feature tri-energy inputs from any combination of solar, grid or batteries and can run in three modes: Energy Saving, Off Grid, or Hybrid.
And while you get a durable renewable energy solution, you not only save the planet by reducing your personal CO2 footprint, but also save on energy bills. Our air conditioners will run 100% on solar with grid or batteries! ……
To learn more about Kingtec Solar and it’s solutions, visit us online at: http://kingtecsolar.com/
Australian anti nuclear walkers join in France’s anti nuclear walk
“We request that the French people and their government, demand that the reprocessed nuclear waste from Lucas Heights, remain in France until the Australian Government guarantees not to dump it on Aboriginal land and store it at Lucas Heights, where there is ample storage and can be safely monitored.”
France Walk Update July 10, 2013by Marcus Atkinson Australian and New Zealand activists from the Walkatjurra Walkabout visit France in support of the French Anti-nuclear movement.
La Marche Internationale 2013 (The International Walk 2013), is a 4 week walk through one of Europe’s most nuclear intensive regions – The Rhone valley in Frances South East. The Australian wakers have come to witness first hand the effects of the nuclear industry in France which Australia supplies uranium to.
Mitch an Aranda Woman from Alice Springs and the Co-chair of the Australian Nuclear Free Alliance (ANFA) joined the walk for the beginning and spoke at the press launch in Paris before the walk, which was organised by the largest anti nuclear group in France, Reseau Sortie du Nucleare. Mitch and Marcus Atkinson from the Anti Nuclear Alliance of Western Australia (ANAWA) spoke about the impacts of uranium mining and the pending nuclear waste dump at Muckaty in the Northern Territory, on Aboriginal communities and the radioactive racism of the industry. Continue reading
Australia’s 3 year clean energy investment plan
Australia to boost clean energy economy with new investment plan http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/795127.shtml#.Ud8Mtztwo6I Australian government-funded organization, the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), released its three-year investment plan on Wednesday, which will continue to “drive Australia towards a clean energy economy.” ARENA is a government-funded organization working with industry to improve the competitiveness of renewable energy technologies and increase the supply of renewable energy in Australia. This is the agency’s second General Funding Strategy and Investment Plan, covering the years 2013/14 to 2015/16.
One of the initiatives, which will start with a study, is exploring opportunities for hybrid plants where renewable energy can be cost competitive with fossil fuel generation. Adding renewable energy, such as solar thermal, to fossil fuel based energy production has the extra benefit of boosting generation capacity during times of high demand while producing less carbon pollution.
The Investment Plan also includes a focus on overcoming barriers to commercialisation of renewable energy, expanding research and development activities beyond solar technologies, etc.
“The Australian Renewable Energy Agency’s (ARENA) new Investment Plan builds on over half a billion AU dollars (almost $460 million) of existing funding opportunities already on the table to increase the supply and improve the competitiveness of renewable energy technologies in Australia, and outlines the potential for five new initiatives,” Resources and Energy Minister Gary Gray said.
Solar micro grids and off grid solar power – solutions for Australia
NRG looking at solar-based micro grids in Australia REneweconomy By Giles Parkinson on 10 July 2013 NRG Energy, the largest privately owned power generation company in the US, says it is looking at entering the Australian market with off-grid and micro-grid solutions that will be based around solar and storage……..
Todd Michaels, a senior director with NRG Solar, its newly created subsidiary says some of the company’s large industrial customers, with significant operations in Australia, are looking at solar-based micro grids to reduce costs in their operations.
“They are burning diesel fuel and they want NRG to come up with micro grid solution to address that,” Michaels told RenewEconomy in an interview at the InterSolar conference in San Francisco. “Solar PV will be a large component of that solution.” Continue reading
Australian Labor and Liberal against Aboriginal Land Rights being enshrined in the Constitution
As far as I can see, corporate Australia will get its way, as usual, with a pretty meaningless and toothless reference to Aborignals in the Australian Constitution
Major parties cool on ‘locking in’ land rights, ABC News 9 July 13 By Melanie Arnost The Federal Government and Opposition have both reacted coolly to a call from the Northern Land Council to have the Aboriginal Land Rights Act enshrined in the Australian constitution.
Land council chairman Wali Wunungmurra, speaking ahead of NAIDOC week’s celebrations of the Yirrkala bark petitions, said last week he wanted the act included in the constitution.
“(To) protect it from people watering it down, tearing it apart,” Mr Wunungmurra said…….The Yirrkala bark petitions were presented to Federal Parliament in 1963.
Mr Wunungmurra was one of 12 signatories to the petitions, which are credited with galvanising the land rights debate across Australia.http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-07-08/cool-reaction-to-calls-for-land-rights-act-to-be-put-in-constit/4805192
Recognition of the Aboriginal law system in Australia
In 1971 Justice Blackburn dismissed the Yolngu claim but importantly did acknowledge for the first time in an Australian higher court the existence of a system of Aboriginal law
The Yirrkala Bark Petitions. How an old typewriter helped change the course of Australian history, Crikey BOB GOSFORD | JUL 07, 2013 “………In a small display case in a dimly lit room in Australia’s Parliament House in Canberra – cheek by jowl with a facsimile of the Magna Carta and Australia’sConstitution – sit three panels of richly painted stringy-bark.
It is significant that these documents, all of which inform contemporary law in this country, can be found within metres of each other. The Magna Cartaand The Australian Constitution are fundamental elements of European law in this country. Few Australians know of the content, importance and continuing relevance of the Magna Carta and our Constitution and even fewer know, let alone realise the significance of, these three small pieces of bark, each with ancestral images wrapped around a sheet of yellowing paper with faint text.
The first two of these petitions were presented to the Commonwealth Parliament 50 years ago in August 1963 and represent the first documents received by that parliament that recognised the existence – but not the primacy – of Aboriginal law and claims to ownership of their ancestral lands.
The petitions were unsuccessful – the first was the subject of an extraordinary technical challenge by then Territories Minister Paul Hasluck – but that did not deter the Yolngu traditional owners, who in December 1968 issued writs in the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory against the Nabalco Corporation, which had secured a bauxite mining lease from the Federal Government. In that claim the Yolngu claimed unextinguished communal native title to their lands. Continue reading
A warning that some solar panels are inferior
Inferior Solar Panels Invade Australia Energy Matters 9 JULY, 2013: Inferior solar panels are being sold to unsuspecting Australians, with the cost in lost energy production calculated for the first time at $3,261* per household.
It is estimated 397,545 Australian homes have inferior ‘Tier 3’ solar panels installed, which are generally considered lower-grade due to the way they are manufactured. Three tiers of solar panel manufacturers were defined in an independent report by Pike Research in 20112.
Energy Matters’ Nick Brass explains why so many people have installed these ‘Tier 3’ solar systems.
“Unfortunately, people don’t realise they’ve purchased a second rate system. Unlike many consumer electronics that have brands famous for quality, the solar market in Australia is dominated by unknown brands – even though premium Tier 1 panels such as REC and Panasonic exist 3. Tier 2 panels can also be solid performers, but performance can vary wildly between the various brands2.” Continue reading
Edward Snowden reveals Australia’s role in USA’s spying web
Snowden reveals Australia’s links to US spy web Hume Weekly, By Philip Dorling July 8, 2013, United States intelligence leaker Edward Snowden has provided his first disclosure of Australian involvement in US global surveillance, identifying four facilities in the country that contribute to a key American intelligence collection program.
Classified US National Security Agency maps leaked by Mr Snowden and published by US journalist Glenn Greenwald in the Brazilian O Globo newspaper reveal the locations of dozens of US and allied signals intelligence 
collection sites that contribute to interception of telecommunications and internet traffic worldwide.
The US Australian Joint Defence Facility at Pine Gap near Alice Springs and three Australian Signals Directorate facilities: the Shoal Bay Receiving Station near Darwin, the Australian Defence Satellite Communications Facility at Geraldton and the naval communications station HMAS Harman outside Canberra are among contributors to the NSA’s collection program codenamed X-Keyscore.
The New Zealand Government Security Communications Bureau facility at Waihopai near Blenheim also contributes to the program.
X-Keyscore reportedly processes all signals before they are shunted off to various “production lines” that deal with specific issues and the exploitation of different data types for analysis – variously code-named Nucleon (voice), Pinwale (video), Mainway (call records) and Marina (internet records). US intelligence expert William Arkin describes X-Keyscore as a “national Intelligence collection mission system”. Continue reading
Radiation leak plans at Olympic Dam uranium mine – 15 years out of date
Olympic Dam mine radiation leak plan 15 years out of date news.com.au by: Miles Kemp The Advertiser July 07, 2013 THE radiation plans for Olympic Dam are more than 15 years out of date because of an administrative bungle, the Environment Protection Authority has revealed.The plans are needed because between 2003 and 2012, BHP-Billiton reported 31 radiation leaks at its Olympic Dam mine, totalling more than 3000 cubic metres of material, or the volume of a large hot-air balloon.
Responding to a Freedom of Information application that exposed the problem, the EPA could only find plans from 1997 and 1998 and has stated: “We acknowledge that an update is overdue and action is being taken to address this situation”. Greens MLC Mark Parnell said he sought a copy of the management plan to monitor how BHP-Billiton dealt with radiation leaks to protect workers and the environment.”Workers at Olympic Dam are at risk because the EPA and BHP-Billiton have failed to update their practices for over 15 years,” he said. “What sort of oversight is there by the EPA at Olympic Dam when the basic management plan required under the National Code is ridiculously out of date?”
The EPA searched its records for 10 months before responding that there was no up-to-date plan and it needed a new one. “All these plans should be available in the public realm and not have to be chased using FOI application,” Mr Parnell said.
He said there had been six triggers since 1998 that should have prompted an updated plan, including an expansion in the mine’s capacity.”Between 1998 and 2013, an extraordinary amount of change has occurred in the regulation of radioactive material, with increasing awareness of the risks to workers and the natural environment and advances in processing,” he said…….. http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/national-news/south-australia/olympic-dam-mine-radiation-leak-plan-15-years-out-of-date/story-fnii5yv4-1226675659296#ixzz2YU1PMjCI
Maurice Newman and fossil fuel front group stop New South Wales wind farm
Protests stop wind farm plan BY:HARRY EDWARDS The Australian July 08, 2013 A LARGE wind farm proposed for near Goulburn in NSW has been shelved after protests from local landholders including Maurice Newman, the former head of the Australian Securities Exchange who has been anointed to chair a new business advisory council if the Coalition wins this year’s federal election.
The planning application for the 100-turbine Golspie wind farm, lodged by renewable energy developer Wind Prospect CWP, lapsed last week, with the company citing “wind resource, land security and grid connection issues”.
Mr Newman, who opposes wind farms and has pledged to lobby against subsidies for them, argues that fluctuations in output from renewable energy sources have increased power costs for consumers by requiring the construction of expensive backup generators.
Mr Newman belongs to Landscape Guardians, a community lobby group that actively campaigns against all wind farms in the Upper Lachlan shire, where he owns land. In January Tony Abbott announced that Mr Newman — appointed by the Howard government to chair the ABC — was his choice to head a new business advisory council for a Coalition government……
Labor’s Renewable Energy Target aims to have 20 per cent of electricity generated from renewable sources by 2020. The Coalition intends to review the RET next year if it wins the election, and could rely on Mr Newman’s advice to scrap the target.
Climate Change Minister Mark Butler said the system was working. “Labor stands by our unprecedented investment in clean, renewable energy which is driving a transformation of the Australian economy with a 30 per cent increase in renewable energy generation in the last 12 months and a 7 per cent drop in carbon pollution in the national electricity market,” he said……. http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/climate/protests-stop-wind-farm-plan/story-e6frg6xf-1226675644019
Tasmanian government acting on UV radiation danger of solariums
Tasmania to outlaw use of solariums Examiner By Alex Druce July 7, 2013, WIDELY publicised cancer risks and strict operating laws have seen tanning beds almost phased out of Tasmania. And in 18 months, they will be outlawed completely.
Health Minister Michelle O’Byrne said Tasmania would join New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia in banning solariums from commercial use by December 2014.The move comes four years after the government slapped heavy restrictions on solarium owners, including bans for customers aged under 18, bans for people with very fair skin, and mandatory training for all operators. Continue reading
Uranium miner Paladin among many suspected Australian tax cheats
Advocacy group ActionAid claims poor countries are losing more than $130 billion in tax revenues a year by giving generous tax breaks to big companies, including Australian miners. There are about 240 Australian mining companies with operations in Africa.
Perth-based uranium miner Paladin Energy, came under scrutiny for its tax arrangements in Malawi where it runs a mine in Karonga. A report by the group Norwegian Church Aid alleges there are discrepancies between Paladin’s reported tax and its tax paid. It also alleges other payments by Paladin in Malawi are lower than the company reports.
Paladin has subsidiaries registered in Mauritius and the British Virgin Islands, both tax havens. Last year’s annual report showed the company accumulated losses that mean it will need to make profits totalling $208 million in Australia before paying any tax.
Tax man takes scalpel to energy and resources firms http://www.theage.com.au/national/tax-man-takes-scalpel-to-energy-and-resources-firms-20130705-2phat.html July 6, 2013 Georgia Wilkins The Tax Office will open 60 cases of suspected tax dodging by Australian and international companies amid global pressure to crack down on profit shifting.
The investigations will add to the 26 cases of offshore restructuring already under review by the government body.
Under scrutiny are companies that deliberately restructure their business to route profits through low-tax jurisdictions or tax havens to avoid paying higher taxes in Australia, often through the use of post box companies or marketing hubs that have little real substance. Continue reading
Like King Canute, Wyong Council behaves as if the sea level will not rise
Actually – that headline is not really fair to King Canute. The Canute story is that his courtiers believed that King Canute had god-like powers, and could stop the tide coming in. Canute, in order to educate them, went down to the beach, and ordered the tide not to come in. However, as he expected, the tide did come in, and he got wet.
And the Wyong mayor and councillors might get we one day.
Sea level rise recommendation rejected http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-07-05/sea-level-rise-recommendation-rejected/4802480, 6 July 13
A sea-level rise recommendation for building heights in Wyong has been rejected by the Tuggerah Lakes Estuary and Flood Plain Management Committee.
Wyong Council staff had recommended that an increase to floor level building heights of 400 millimetres was needed to allow for any future
sea level rises. Wyong Mayor Doug Eaton says the recommendation was rejected five votes to one.
“That recommendation of the committee now has to go to council to be either endorsed or changed by it my view it will almost certainly be
endorsed,” he said.
Uranium company cuts back its NT and Queensland operations as uranium price plummets
Deep Yellow slashes jobs, cuts pay, Minng.com, 5 July, 2013 Vicky Validakis Uranium exploration company Deep Yellow has cut jobs and reduced salaries by five per cent as it ramps up steps to reduce overhead costs, blaming the move on the weakness in the uranium sector.
The company announced board fees and executive salaries would be reduced by five per cent for at least six months, with salary scales to remain fixed at 2013 rates.
The company also said its Perth office had reduced staff to just three, comprising the managing director, financial controller and office manager.
Deep Yellow is said it is also planning to move to a smaller office by the end of the year.
The latest pay cuts follow a ten per cent reduction in base salary and fees and group-wide salary freezes in July 2012…… Deep Yellow’s chairman Mervyn Greene said the steps to reduce overheads costs was due to ongoing volatility in financial markets and a weakness in the uranium market…… In Australia the company owns the Napperby Uranium project in the Northern Territory as well as exploration tenements in Queensland. http://www.miningaustralia.com.au/news/deep-yellow-slashes-jobs-cuts-pay
A warning to Tanzania, (where an Australian company is to start mining uranium)
Health hazards posed by uranium mining IPP MEDIA 5th July 2013“…….. the developing countries in the process of starting mining uranium, must learn a lesson from the USA, the most powerful rich and technically advanced nation in the world, who for the sake of protecting its environmental pollution from the known post uranium mining hazardous health effects, to its citizen of today, tomorrow and future generation, admitted that enough was enough, and shut down most of uranium mining in their country.
The big lesson here for Tanzania with its Uranium deposit soon to be exploited is that; until now there is no proper way of destroying completely remains of uranium mining, and therefore it is difficult to control the effects of the mineral that will end thousands of years. Above all the cost of cleaning up the environment and avoidance of effects caused by remains of big uranium mines and management of radioactive waste will put a big strain on the already ailing country’s economy. Continue reading
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 