Adelaide schoolchidren becoming skilled in solar and wind technologies
Students full of renewable energy Adelaide Now, Clare Peddie May 16, 2012 SCHOOL students are learning about renewable energy through Australia’s first mini wind turbine trial at West Beach. The State Government, with the West Beach Trust, is testing four different turbines for 12 months. The power output is compared to a 6kW solar system nearby, with all the data displayed online.
Yester- day the Royal Institution of Australia launched a Wind Technology Education Package, with funding from the West Beach branch of Bendigo Bank, to help students in Years 7-10 get in on the act. The package covers practical applications, optimal locations and uses of wind turbines. Students from West Beach Primary School and Henley High School were the first to use the package, conducting hands-on activities at the site of the mini wind turbine trial. Students built and tested a model wind turbine and learned what designs worked best….
http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/students-full-of-renewable-energy/story-e6frea83-1226358260038
In reality, Western Australia’s Solar Feed In Tariff is an economic boon
Western Australia’s Solar Feed In Tariff Ramifications Exaggerated http://www.energymatters.com.au/index.php?main_page=news_article&article_id=3211, 17 May 12, Professor Ray Wills of the Sustainable Energy Association of Australia (SEA) has challenged the notion that spending more on renewables is somehow a bad thing and brought the situation regarding Western Australia’s solar feed in tariff into perspective.
Professor Wills points out while the media circus has focused on the “blowout” in Western Australia’s scheme; there has been no analysis of the benefits. “Energy Minister Peter Collier rightly points out that 76,000 WA homes now have solar panels on their roofs as “a terrific outcome”,’ says Professor Wills, who says the uptake hasn’t been confined to the wealthy, but spurred on by average households in Western Australia now slashing their electricity bills.
“We are yet to calculate the savings that this program has bought – savings that will amount to fewer upgrades to poles and wires, has in the vast majority of cases delivered improved electricity quality and reliability, and will avoid the need for investment in new fossil-fuel based generation.” Continue reading
The best nuclear waste action: Lucas Heights interim storage plus Independent Inquiry
The government’s newly-announced “Sydney solution” is not ideal but, if coupled with an independent inquiry, it is sensible.
Interim storage at Lucas Heights could be the spur for a genuine and credible independent inquiry into how best to manage our radioactive waste.
Proactive debate could cool radioactive waste http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/opinion/proactive-debate-could-cool-radioactive-waste/story-e6frezz0-1226355138854 Ian Lowe The Daily Telegraph May 15, 2012 ALL nuclear activities generate radioactive waste. As a younger man I worked on the physical problems of nuclear fuel and for more than 40 years I have watched the technical problems of waste management and deepening community concern.
Australia generates radioactive waste. If you include the massive amounts of radioactive tailings produced by uranium mining, the volume is staggering. The proposed Roxby Downs expansion will, if it goes ahead, create a vast toxic legacy and pollute a huge area.
If you ignore uranium mining, the volume of radioactive waste is more modest but the threat posed by the material is not. It remains hazardous to people and the environment for thousands of years.
Recently the federal government announced some of Australia’s long-lived radioactive waste currently being treated in Europe would return to Australia in a few years. Continue reading
Western Australia’s inadequate laws on uranium tailings
WA’s uranium tailings laws fall short: independent review, SMH, May 14, 2012 Western Australia needs to completely revise its ageing laws governing the storage of uranium tailings and update its regulations to allow greater transparency of the uranium approvals process, an independent review into the state’s uranium regulations has found.
The review comes as Toro Energy braces for final approvals to mine uranium in the Northern Goldfields, after the WA Government removed the state’s ban on uranium mining in 2009. The Uranium Advisory Group led by University of Western Australia and CSIRO researchers, made nine recommendations to the Department of Mines and Petroleum targeted at ensuring more transparent and safer guidelines for the fledgling industry in a report…….
http://www.watoday.com.au/wa-news/was-uranium-tailings-laws-fall-short-independent-review-20120514-1ymqu.html#ixzz1v5miLFpI
Australia does a poor job, (no job?) of monitoring radiation levels
Less Than 1% Of Base Stations In Australia Have Been Radiation Tested LOGAN BOOKERGIZMODO AU MAY16, 2012 For something that has been a massive source of concern for general public for decades, it doesn’t appear the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA), responsible for “protecting the health and safety of people … from the harmful effects of ionising and non-ionising radiation”, is in much of a hurry to allay anyone’s fears…..
The Australian reported the news earlier this week and managed to get a follow-up from ARPANSA yesterday , which said it’s organising a “panel of experts” to help it review the body of new information on mobile radiation published in the last 10 or so years.
The Australian’s beef seems to be with the fact that Australia’s limits, while in line with those of the European Union, are much, much more generous than those of Russia, Switzerland and Belgium. …. http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2012/05/less-than-one-percent-of-base-stations-in-australia-have-been-radiation-tested/
Carbon Capture and Storage- a tax-payer funded fantasy
the collapse of CCS projects overseas and in Australia shows the technology is commercially unviable
Greenpeace rejects carbon capture funding, ABC News, By Gus Goswell May 16, 2012 Environment group Greenpeace says governments are wasting public money on carbon capture and storage (CCS) research.
Carbon capture and storage is the process through which emissions from power stations would be captured and then stored underground to reduce carbon pollution. The Victorian and federal governments have invested millions of
dollars into CCS research. Continue reading
Coal on the decline for new electricity generation,- renewables on the rise
Australia is not leading the charge on the adoption of clean energy, but it is certainly part of a global movement that will be seen in history as one of the great shifts in economic change.
Bloomberg found the data is clear here as well: in 2011 coal attracted just 17 per cent of value of completed electricity generation projects, gas attracted 36 per cent, and renewables 41 per cent (of this 41 per cent was wind and solar was 6 per cent).
King coal dethroned, CLIMATE SPECTATOR, Peter Newman & Ray Wills, 15 May 2012 “King coal still reigns” was the headline emblazoned across a full page article in The Weekend Australian on the 28-29 April 2012, by environment editor Graham Lloyd. The article’s subtitle was, “The world is in the grip of a fossil fuel boom that shows no sign of fading.”
Nothing could be further from the truth. The latest data on global investment in new power production shows the dramatic decline in fossil fuel investment, and an astonishing increase in renewables investment. Continue reading
French nuclear company AREVA moving into more uranium exploration in Australia
AREVA : Australia: a New Partnership Between AREVA and Mitsubishi Corporation in Mining Exploration 4 Traders, 05/15/2012 AREVA (Paris:AREVA) and Mitsubishi Corporation, through their respective subsidiaries Afmeco Mining and Exploration Pty Ltd (AFMEX) and Mitsubishi Development Pty Ltd (MDP), have decided to work together in a uranium exploration program in Australia.
Exploration will be conducted for several years across tens of thousands of square kilometers of Australia where little or no previous exploration has yet been undertaken….. http://www.4-traders.com/AREVA-8084917/news/AREVA-Australia-a-New-Partnership-Between-AREVA-and-Mitsubishi-Corporation-in-Mining-Exploration-14328584/
Conflict of interest as mining industry advises Australian Government on coal-seam gas
Coal-seam gas advisers’ links to mining industry exposed BY: NATASHA BITA The Australian May 14, 2012 MOST of the scientists advising the federal government on coal-seam gas pollution have financial links with the mining industry.
Four of the six members of the interim independent expert scientific committee on coal-seam gas and coalmining have a financial connection with mining companies, the Environment Department has revealed…… (subscribes only)
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/coal-seam-gas-advisers-links-to-mining-industry-exposed/story-fn59niix-1226354312451
Mega Uranium’s Ben Lomond project, dangers to water supply, and Bob Katter
Jim Green, 14 May 12, The Ben Lomond uranium (and molybdenum) deposit is located 50 kms west of Townsville. It is owned by Mega Uranium, which purchased it in 2005
As at May 2012, Mega Uranium was undertaking prefeasibility studies with a view to determining the project economics, the preferred mining and processing options and the key steps in mine development. The recently-elected Liberal National Party state government has thus far maintained previous government policy of banning uranium mining, but Mega Uranium is betting on a change of policy.
Far-right pro-uranium federal MP Bob Katter had this to say in Parliament on 1 November 2005:
“ there is a limit to the dangers we will accept. In the case of Ben Lomond, the company said that there had been no spill. The government agency—the forebears of what we now call the Environmental Protection Agency—also said that there had been no spill. That was for the first three or four weeks. When further evidence was disclosed, they said, firstly, that there had been a spill but the level of radiation was not dangerous and, secondly, that it had not reached the water system from which 210,000 people drank.
For the next two or three weeks they held out with that story. Further evidence was produced in which they admitted that it had been a dangerous level. Yes, it was about 10,000 times higher than what the health agencies in Australia regarded as an acceptable level. After six weeks, we got rid of lie number 2. I think it was at about week 8 or week 12 when, as a state member of parliament, I insisted upon going up to the site. Just before I went up to the site, the company admitted—remember, it was not just the company but also the agency set up by the government to protect us who were telling lies—that the spill had reached the creek which ran into the Burdekin River, which provided the drinking water for 210,000 people. We had been told three sets of lies over a period of three months.
So I say to the people of the Northern Territory: make sure that ordinary people have some sort of oversighting mechanism. Do not leave it up to the government or its officials. They will dance to the tune played by whatever piper is in charge money-wise or politically. They will not answer to the tune of protecting the people. That has been my experience.”
Vicious attacks on Julia Gillard, Australia’s first woman Prime Minister
Both sexes are to blame for misogynist vitriol against Gillard, WA Today Eve Mahlab, May 8, 2012 Vicious attacks against the PM say more about our society than about her.
RUBY Hamad is right when she claimed on this page that hatred of women exists in the West. Nowhere is this better exemplified than in the Australian witch hunt for Julia Gillard, the first woman who has dared to become Australia’s prime minister.
Hamad is also right when she writes that patriarchy (usually defined as a system of society in which men hold the power and women are largely excluded from it) isn’t just men oppressing women, but requires the participation of women. This explains why some of the Prime Minister’s severest critics are women……
She has negotiated a tax deal with the mining industry. Although controversial, her carbon tax may encourage investment in renewable energy sources, investment most Australians see as worthwhile. ...
It is high time that decent Australian men and women spoke out against the misogyny being demonstrated so viciously against our first woman prime minister.
: http://www.watoday.com.au/opinion/politics/both-sexes-are-to-blame-for-misogynist-vitriol-against-gillard-20120507-1y8zg.html#ixzz1usfmh1mg
Paul Howes’ fight against the environment
Green flak for Howes, The Mercury JARRAD BEVAN | May 13, 2012 THE Greens have dismissed comments by Australian Workers Union secretary Paul Howes that the state’s future depends on standing up to the environmental movement. They say it is “populist grandstanding” from an old-school unionist stuck in a last-century economic mindset.
Greens leader Nick McKim said Tasmania instead needed to smarten its economy by transitioning away from an over-reliance on market-exposed heavy industries and bulk commodity exports.
“It’s the attitude of people like Mr Howes that put Tasmania’s economy in the vulnerable position it’s now in, and he has the temerity to fly in from the mainland and give us a lecture on economics,” he said.
Mr Howes said Tasmania’s main political parties had lost the public-relations battle to the environmental movement…..
Liberal MP Matthew Groom backed Mr Howes, saying Tasmanians were sick of being treated as the “plaything” for environmental groups or the inner-city constituency of the Labor Party in Sydney and Melbourne.
“They are sick of a Government that panders to green groups….. http://www.themercury.com.au/article/2012/05/13/327741_tasmania-news.html
TASMANIA needs to stand up to the environmental movement for the sake of its future, a Labor Party powerbroker says. T he Mercury Tassie told to toughen up MATT SMITH | May 12, 2012 Paul Howes, secretary of the powerful Australian Workers Union, said the Government needed to resist the environmental movement … Mr Howes said Tasmania’s main political parties had lost the public relations battle to the Greens and the environmental movement.
High Court rules for Aboriginal land rights, against South Australian govt
In December, the South Australian Supreme Court found Ms Portolesi had denied landowners “procedural fairness” by ignoring for seven months a request for authority over land at Lake Torrens in the state’s mid-north. On the same day she responded to their request, she approved a mining company’s application to disturb a site of significance.
SA Labor’s land rights appeal rejected BY: SARAH MARTIN From: The Australian May 12, 2012 THE High Court has thrown out an appeal by the South Australian Labor government against Aboriginal landowners, deeming it not to be in the public interest. Continue reading
New ARENA appointments – but will they toe Ferguson’s anti renewable energy line?
First appointments to ARENA Board, Ecogeneration, 10 May 2012 The Federal Government has announced a number of appointments to the board of the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, set to begin operation on 1 July 2012.
Greg Bourne has been announced as acting chair of the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) Board, while Dr Brian Spalding and Drew Clarke have also been welcomed to the board. Mr Bourne brings to the board an extensive background in renewable energy development and project commercialisation, including as a former director of Carnegie Wave Energy and as Chief Executive of the World Wildlife Fund Australia.
Dr Spalding is a current Australian Energy Market Commissioner with more than 30 years’ experience in power system operations, and provides continuity from the board of the Australian Centre for Renewable Energy.
ARENA is a component of the Federal Government’s Clean Energy Future package, consolidating $3.2 billion in funding for renewable energy innovation….. http://ecogeneration.com.au/news/first_appointments_to_arena_board/069117/#
Most Australians will be better off under the carbon tax
Most shielded from carbon tax, say analysts Brisbane Times, May 11, 2012 – The federal government has “more than compensated” low and middle Australia for the carbon tax in this year’s budget, according to an academic body that last year found average households would be better off under the system. While large businesses rather than individuals would directly pay the carbon tax, the flow-on effect would see householders pay through the tax’s impact on petrol, gas and electricity prices.
Last October, the University of Canberra’s National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling found Australian households will be an average $2.50 per week better off under the federal government’s carbon package….. Last night, NATSEM principal researcher Ben Phillips said the additional announcements in Tuesday night’s federal budget made the package “very generous” for low income earners.
The “cash splash” included a $600 boost to family tax payments, a one-off school children cash bonus up to $820 and up to $210 for the unemployed, single parents and young people.
“Not only will they be covered for the carbon price, but they will be covered well in excess of that carbon price,” Mr Phillips said……
Commonwealth Bank economist James McIntyre said the CBA estimated about 80 per cent of Australian families were shielded from the impact of the carbon tax.
The crucial point was the tax cuts for people with a taxable income of $80,000, he said.
Mr McIntyre said in the 2009-10 tax year, 83 per cent of the population had taxable income below $80,000.
People earning between $30,000 and $65,000 will get a tax cut of $303 – equivalent to about $6 a week – and smaller tax deductions remain up to $80,000.
Mr McIntyre said that was why the government targeted that income level for tax cuts.
He said the federal government payments “over-compensated” many families and adequately compensated most.
“I think it over-compensates around 33 per cent of households, 40 per cent of households get about two-thirds of the compensation,” he said.
“And for the remaining households – above $80,000 – there is small compensation – but it covers around 15 to 20 per cent of the cost.”…. Details about payments to various recipients can be found in the fact sheets here.
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/most-shielded-from-carbon-tax-say-analysts-20120510-1yfbm.html#ixzz1ubqMRq8a
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