Antinuclear

Australian news, and some related international items

Solar panels set for Victorian prisons

VICTORIA’S prisons are going green, with solar panels set to be rolled out in a bid to reduce inmates’ carbon footprint. (subscribers only)
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/solar-panels-to-be-rolled-out-in-victorian-prisons/news-story/8ddb91fee999ca2642264e259c151176

March 11, 2017 Posted by | solar, Victoria | Leave a comment

Queensland coal town “rebranding” as a solar town

solar-_photovoltaic_cells-tallCoal mining town Collinsville vies to become Australia’s solar capital, ABC By Ben Millington, 5 Mar 17, While many of Australia’s mining regions have been hit hard by the resources sector downturn, solar is providing rays of hope for the small town of Collinsville in north Queensland.

Three hours south of Townsville, Collinsville has a proud, long history of coal mining, boasting it had the last working pit ponies in Australia — up until 1990.

But this coal-fired town is poised for a rebrand. Solar companies are vying to take advantage of the region’s 300 days a year of perfect sunshine.

In August, the Australian Renewable Energy Agency announced it would provide $9.5 million to both Edify Energy’s 70MW Whitsunday Solar Farm and RATCH Australia Corporation’s 43MW Collinsville Solar Project.

Edify Energy director John Cole said, given the potential size and scale of projects in the region, Collinsville could be the solar capital of Australia.

“It’s a very good place for solar because of the radiation levels in north Queensland,” he said. “For example, our site in Collinsville will produce double the amount of power than a project in the UK, and about 5 to 10 per cent more than in New South Wales or Victoria.”

Plan to pump energy into Queensland grid Another advantage in Collinsville is a decommissioned power station that sits on its outskirts.  Both projects plan to utilise the infrastructure to pump energy straight into the Queensland grid.

Edify Energy plans to start the construction of phase one this year.A nine-month build time is expected and 200 jobs will be offered to a town in desperate need of them.Local councillor Peter Ramage said the last four years had been devastating for the community…….http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-03-05/collinsville-coal-mining-town-moves-to-solar-capital-north-qld/8023384

March 6, 2017 Posted by | Queensland, solar | Leave a comment

Solar farms to benefit farmers in Geelong, Ballarat and Bendigo areas

solar-panels-and-moneySolar farms: ‘Farming sun, instead of wheat’  http://www.weeklytimesnow.com.au/news/national/solar-farms-farming-sun-instead-of-wheat/news-story/339cad050ebf0e75d5eb373eeed8d160 KATH SULLIVAN, The Weekly Times March 2, 2017

THREE solar farms with the ability to generate enough electricity to power Geelong, Ballarat and Bendigo will be built in northwest Victoria this year.

A $500 million investment by Australian-owned Overland Sun Farming and ­London-based Island Green Power will see construction at Wemen, Iraak and Yatpool.

Two hundred jobs are expected to be created in the construction phase, which will begin in the second quarter.

Each solar farm is expected to begin producing energy from January 1 next year.

Overland chief executive Brett Thomas said he had worked with landholders and local government for three years to develop the plans.

He said each farm would cover up to 300ha, with farmers paid for use of the land — typically wheat and grazing country — for up to 30 years. “It provides a strong off-farm income for farmers,” Mr Thomas said, likening the project to primary production.“We’re farming sun, instead of wheat,” he said.

Mr Thomas described the technology as “relatively simple, the same as roof tops” however solar panels would use mechanical trackers to move east to west and follow the sun.

Mildura Development Corporation chair Jenny Grigg described the project as “massive” for the region.“It’s a great regional development opportunity,” Ms Grigg said.She said she expected that up to $30 million would be spent in the local economy during the construction phase of the farms.

March 3, 2017 Posted by | business, solar, Victoria | Leave a comment

Victorian government more than doubles solar-feed-in tariff

Parkinson-Report-Victoria solar feed-in tariff more than doubles to 11.3c/kWh, REneweconomy,By  on 28 February 2017 More than 130,000 solar households in Victoria will benefit from a steep increase in their solar feed-in tariff in 2017/18, and will receive a minimum 11.3c/kWh for their exports back to the grid, up from 5c/kWh currently.

The hefty increase announced by the Essential Services Commission on Tuesday is the result of a big rise in wholesale prices, and the Victoria Labor government’s instruction to include an implicit carbon price, network benefits and environmental benefits into the tariff. Continue reading

March 1, 2017 Posted by | solar, Victoria | Leave a comment

Study finds that 100 per cent ‘off the shelf’ renewable energy network is affordable

Australia-solar-plug100 per cent renewable energy network affordable, secure and ‘off the shelf’: study, ABC News, AM By Caroline Winter, 27 Feb 17, Australia can build an affordable and secure electricity network with 100 per cent renewable energy, using existing technologies, according to research by the Australian National University (ANU).

So how would it work?

The study details plans for a zero-emissions grid which would rely on wind and solar technology, supported by pumped hydro storage.

It could be set up with inexpensive, currently available, “off the shelf” products and eliminate the need for coal and gas-fired power……

Professor Andrew Blakers from the ANU said wind and solar can be that replacement, with the support of off-river pumped hydro, where reservoirs at different altitudes can be used to store and generate power……..http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-02-27/100-per-cent-renewable-network-possible/8306482

March 1, 2017 Posted by | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, solar | Leave a comment

Plan for solar panels accessible to flat dwellers

Startup Allume lets solar panels be ‘shared’ by strata dwellers,  AFR  by Michael Bailey, 1 Mar 17  Providing solar power to apartments is an expensive and onerous problem which a Melbourne startup claims to have cracked.

Allume, a 2016 graduate of the Melbourne Accelerator Program, is patenting a 50 centimetre by 25 centimetre box its founders say. will allow solar power to be distributed and billed to individual apartments, without the expense of changing the building’s existing metering infrastructure.

Apartment residents wanting solar power have to date had two options, according to Allume co-founder Cameron Knox.

They could band together to install an ’embedded network’, where one meter channels electricity to the whole apartment block. However this requires everybody in the block to agree to sign up, and involves a “regulatory overhead” that renders most installations unviable………

Individual apartment owners could also connect to their own panels but even if their neighbours agreed to grant them the roof space, Mr Knox said the upfront cost of wiring a single flat would exceed $3000 and likely lead to inefficient use of the panel, with a much longer ‘payback period’ than that enjoyed by owners of standalone houses.

Under Allume’s system, not every apartment owner has to sign up and an installation is usually viable with as little as six customers, Mr Knox said.

Allume’s box costs $490 upfront for every apartment whose connection is housed within, so $4900 if 10 units in a block sign up to get solar power. The startup then charges $4.99 per apartment per month for access to its billing application programming interface, which includes a direct debit service.

 In return residents get access to solar power for an average 16 cents per kilowatt hour, compared with the average retail power cost of 24 cents/kWh. The purchaser – whether it be the body corporate, or an external financier – is charged only the wholesale cost of the power and makes enough margin for the ‘payback period’ on Allume’s deal to range between six to eight years.

“Solar power purchase agreements typically last for 25 years, so that’s a lot of years of free revenue stream,” said Mr Knox.

Allume worked with the Australian Energy Regulator to get a ‘retail exemption licence’ allowing it to sell energy to landlords, who can then on-sell to tenants…… http://www.afr.com/leadership/entrepreneur/startup-allume-lets-solar-panels-be-shared-by-strata-dwellers-20170228-gun689#ixzz4a2ajEQB2

March 1, 2017 Posted by | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, solar | Leave a comment

World-first digital energy marketplace for rooftop solar launched by Australian consortium

text-community-energy

The consortium is launching two pilot projects in the ACT and on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula, each involving around 5,000 households. The projects are also being overseen by a reference group that includes the Australian Energy Market Operator, the Australian Energy Market Commission and Energy Consumers Australia.

Australian consortium launches world-first digital energy marketplace for rooftop solar https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2017/feb/23/australian-consortium-launches-world-first-digital-energy-marketplace-for-rooftop-solar

Pilot program will allow homeowners to tap into a network of ‘virtual’ power stations made up of smart grids of rooftop solar and batteries, Guardian, , 24 Feb 17, With that challenge in mind, in 2016, GreenSync got together with electricity network operators United Energy and ActewAGL, energy tech startup Reposit Power, and energy retailer Mojo under the auspices of the Australian Renewable Energy Agency’s A-Lab; an initiative that the Arena chief executive, Ivor Frischknecht, describes as an “innovation sandbox”. Arena contributed $450,000 towards the total project cost of $930,000.

What they came up with has yet to be done anywhere in the world: a network of “virtual” power stations made up smart grids of rooftop solar panels and batteries. Continue reading

February 24, 2017 Posted by | ACT, solar, Victoria | Leave a comment

Solar towers with storage beat coal on just about all fronts.

Parkinson-Report-Why new coal? Solar towers + storage beats it on all counts http://reneweconomy.com.au/why-new-coal-solar-towers-storage-beats-it-on-all-counts-16080/ By  on 21 February 2017

The US-based developers of the world’s leading solar tower and storage technologies has expressed surprise that Australia’s federal government is pursuing “new coal” plants, saying that solar towers with storage beats coal on just about all fronts.
solar-Seville

Tom Georgis, the head of international development for SolarReserve, says solar towers and storage can match and beat coal on capability – providing baseload and flexible generation – and match new coal on cost, and provide zero emissions output as a bonus.

“This is just not a direction that financial markets are heading in,” Georgis told RenewEconomy in an interview on Tuesday, during a visit to Australia, where the company is hoping to build a $700 million, 110MW solar tower and storage facility in Port Augusta, and in other states too.

“In our opinion it is almost backward looking,” Georgis said, adding that carbon capture and storage in electricity generation is unproven and not cost-effective, and coal generation needs to take account of the impact of mining, and of emissions.

The Australian energy industry, including fossil fuel generators, have reacted to the Coalition’s push for new coal plants with a mixture of surprise and disbelief, saying any such plant is “uninvestable”.

Bloomberg New Energy Finance has estimated costs at between $138/MWh and more than $200/MWh, and significantly higher with CCS. It and others say estimate emissions reductions are grossly over-estimated.

SolarReserve says its own technology costs are “well under ” coal, even without CCS. It has been coy about its costs in Australia, having never built a plant here before, although CEFC executive director Simon Brooker told a Senate inquiry this month that a cost of around $150/MWh was being talked about for a first of its kind plant. Costs would then fall quickly as others are built.

SolarReserve is believed to be participating in a South Australian government tender for 75 per cent of its electricity needs, competing mostly with new gas stations and existing mothballed ones. It has talked with both the CEFC and ARENA.

Interestingly, Engie, the owner of the mothballed Pelican Point gas station near Adelaide considered to be its biggest rival in the tender, reportedly told the same inquiry on Monday that running the generator would not be economic, even with a government contract, because of the cost and availability of gas.

This may have prompted S.A. energy minister Tom Koutsantonis to say some positive things about solar towers and storage last week. Both the federal Coalition and Labor have promised to help promote solar towers, but have done nothing since the election.

Georgis says SolarReserve has already beaten gas generators on price in a tender in Chile last year, and is confident it can beat new gas generation in Australia too. Its main issue lies in the length of a contract, which will be crucial in its ability to secure finance.

Georgis again underlined the capability of solar towers and storage, and its ability to provide baseload power, power on demand, bulk storage, and use its steam turbines to provide the ancillary services normally delivered by fossil fuel generation.

He says battery storage will make sense for short-period needs, and as a cheaper option to network upgrades and for accompanying solar in distributed generation, but battery storage could not deliver or compete on price for bulk storage.

Pumped hydro was also unlikely to provide a “baseload” option, and was reliant on arbitrage opportunities (pumping water up hill while prices were low, and generating power when prices were high) to make it economic. Solar towers, on the other hand, had zero fuel costs.

February 22, 2017 Posted by | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, solar | Leave a comment

Powershop electricity customers funding community renewable energy

solar-rooftopPowershop reveals cash for renewable projects from customers who paid more https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/feb/09/powershop-reveals-cash-for-renewable-projects-from-customers-who-paid-more

Energy retailer raised $100,000 from customers, which will be given out as grants to community-owned energy projects,  Guardian, , 9 Feb 17, Amid fresh attacks on renewable energy targets from the federal government and large energy retailer ERM Power, smaller electricity retailer Powershop has raised $100,000 from its customers to be given out as grants to 10 community-owned projects around the country.

Three months ago Powershop launched the Your Community Energy initiative, where they gave customers the opportunity to pay higher rates, which it said would then be distributed to renewable energy projects that were community-owned.

Powershop aimed to raise $20,000 by the end of 2016 but, as of February 2017, it had raised $100,000.

One project – rooftop solar on the Centre for Education and Research in Environmental Strategies (Ceres) centre in Melbourne – has already received $10,000 from the initiative and used that to complete their 15 KW solar installation.

A spokeswoman for Ceres, Judy Glick, said the installation would save the community group $2,000 each year and reduce their yearly emissions by almost 16 tonnes of CO2. “Ceres is on a mission to achieve zero emissions by 2025,” she said.

Five other projects were also announced as recipients of a share of the money. Continue reading

February 10, 2017 Posted by | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, solar, Victoria | Leave a comment

Solar power now taking off in a big way in Western Australia

map-WA-solarWest Australians embrace solar panels at record rate http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-01-31/solar-power-embraced-by-west-australians-at-record-rate/8227194 By Kathryn Diss WA households and businesses are installing solar panels at a record rate, with installations up 33 per cent last year, driven by rising power prices and the falling cost of the technology, new research has found.

The data, compiled by solar industry consultancy SunWiz, also revealed ten of the nation’s top 20 solar-adopting suburbs were in WA, with Wanneroo, Mandurah and Armadale leading the way.

Sunwiz managing director Warwick Johnston said two factors were driving the uptake in WA.

“We’re seeing solar prices have come down to levels they’ve never been before — prices in Perth are at their lowest compared to the eastern states — and we’re also seeing the electricity price rises really kicking in in Western Australia”, he said.

“In Perth electricity prices started climbing again and [are] expected to do so for a number of years, so I think that’s in people’s minds, in people’s consciousness when they’re thinking about solar power.

“Those factors are really making solar something people are interested in.”

The huge uptake in solar panels during 2016 provided a boon for solar installers across the state.

Solargain WA sales manager James Baverstock has been selling solar panels since 2008 but 2016 was his best year yet, with unprecedented sales during the last three months of the year.

“Towards the end of 2016 we saw record numbers — we were 80 per cent up compared to the same time during the previous year,” he said.

“The average size of the system has also gone up, we’ve seen that go up a kilowatt to a kilowatt and a half. That’s been a steady increase and [it has] certainly accelerated a little bit more recently.

Leading change

The research came as more than 40 interest groups joined forces in WA to call for action on climate change. Headed by doctors, farmers and church groups, the coalition wants the government to commit to an ambitious renewable energy target of 100 per cent by 2030.

General practitioner Richard Yin spoke on behalf of the coalition and said a shift towards renewable energy was essential.  “We understand the target is ambitious but it’s been modelled as being possible and it’s been modelled in such a way we believe it can achieved,” he said.

“Everything has a cost. To not proceed down this line has an effect on our climate, to not proceed has a health impact, the combustion from coal kills many thousands of people in Australia each year and the estimated cost is about $2.6 billion in terms of our health cost.” Former WA doctor and surgeon Kingsley Faulkner is also behind the movement.

He now chairs Doctors for the Environment and said climate change was having a big impact on public health.

“In medicine we have a real responsibility to not only treat individual patients but to be involved with public health matters, and climate change and other environmental challenges are amongst the biggest of those matters,” he said.

Increasing use of solar panels has come at a time when, according to the state’s economic watchdog, households are increasingly struggling to pay their power bills on time.

February 1, 2017 Posted by | solar, Western Australia | Leave a comment

Jobs booster for South Australia, as Snowy Hydro joins Equis to build Australia’s largest solar farm

map solar south-australiaJobs boost as Snowy Hydro and Equis to build $200m solar power plant near Tailem Bend, Daily Telegraph  David Nankervis, The Advertiser January 31, 2017 SOUTH AUSTRALIA’s largest solar farm — with capacity for battery storage back up — will be built at a cost of more than $200 million at Tailem Bend this year.

February 1, 2017 Posted by | solar, South Australia | Leave a comment

Melbourne trams to be powered by solar energy by end of 2018

text-relevantMelbourne tram network to use solar energy by end of 2018, Government says http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-01-19/melbourne-tram-network-to-use-solar-energy-by-end-of-2018/8194642 A new solar energy plant to be built in regional Victoria will run Melbourne’s entire tram network by the end of 2018, the State Government has said.

The Government said it would run a tender to build 75 megawatts of new solar farms — most likely in the state’s north-west — by the end of next year.

About half of the energy produced by the farms will offset the amount of electricity needed to run 401 trams on Melbourne’s network.

Energy Minister Lily D’Ambrosio said the plan was a world first.

“The world is moving to clean energy, we made a commitment as a Government, we continue to uphold that commitment to grow renewable energy,” she said.

“The world is moving to clean energy, we made a commitment as a Government, we continue to uphold that commitment to grow renewable energy,” she said.

But Ms D’Ambrosio would not say how much extra the solar energy would cost.

“We won’t be disclosing that figure,” she said.

“We know that [the] cost of solar plant is coming down every single day and we know that we will drive a very competitive process.”

The Government said the project would create 300 new jobs.

It last year approved a $650-million wind farm near Dundonnell, in south-west Victoria, the state’s largest.

January 20, 2017 Posted by | solar, Victoria | Leave a comment

Smarter, cheaper solar plants are halving Australian solar farm capital intensity

solar-panels-and-moneyAustralian solar farm capital intensity halves, due to smarter, cheaper plants, REneweconomy By  on 19 January 2017

The capital intensity per watt of the utility scale solar plants in the current development pipeline in Australia is about half that of those that are already operational.

The stark and rapid improvement in the economics of big solar in the country is due to global declines in component costs, but also importantly declining EPC (construction) costs and the deployment of yield-boosting technology like tracking.

With the pipeline of utility scale PV projects growing seemingly on a daily basis, Sustainable Energy Research Analytics (SERA) believes that solar’s increasing competitiveness is due to a large part to a more competitive and efficiency EPC landscape…….http://reneweconomy.com.au/australian-solar-farm-capital-intensity-halves-due-smarter-cheaper-plants-43781/

January 20, 2017 Posted by | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, solar | Leave a comment

Solar energy is racing ahead in Australia – large scale projects

text-relevantSolar closing cost gap with wind, conventional power, AFR,  Angela Australia-solar-plugMacdonald-Smith, 16 Jan 17  The latest batch of large-scale solar projects have revealed a “new cost paradigm” for the technology in Australia, although costs remain more than double the lowest-cost projects overseas, experts say.  Construction contracts awarded to Downer EDI for the Clare solar project and to RCR Tomlinson for the Sun Metals Solar project, both in Queensland, demonstrate a further decline in costs per unit of power produced that makes the projects markedly cheaper than the first utility-scale solar projects built here, said Gero Farruggio at Sustainable Energy Research Analytics (SERA).

“The costs are half of what the the capital intensity was of the ones that are on stream and were built over 2015 and 2016,” Mr Farruggio said. “It’s a huge step forward for the industry and for the future of solar in Australia.”

The progress on costs has been more rapid than expected, and large-scale solar projects are now becoming competitive with wind power and getting “very close” to wholesale electricity prices excluding large-scale generation certificates (LGCs), said SERA director Ben Willacy.

 “It really won’t be long before solar projects can compete in Australia without a subsidy and without necessarily relying on LGC revenue,” Mr Willacy said.

Mr Farruggio said that while the cost of solar panels was falling worldwide, increased competition among contractors was also helping improve the economics of local solar projects, with about 15 EPC [engineering, procurement and construction] contractors now fighting it out for work as opposed to just one a few years ago. Work has also slowed in other areas such as mining and energy, helping soften construction costs, while expertise in the area has grown.

Solar developer Fotowatio Renewable Ventures late last month awarded a $190 million construction and operations contract for the 100 megawatt Clare project near Ayr to Downer, after striking a deal last May to sell power from the plant to Origin Energy.

RCR Tomlinson said late December it won a contract worth more than $155 million from Korea Zinc’s Sun Metals subsidiary to build a 98.5MW solar project at a zinc operation in Townsville. RCR previously worked on AGL Energy’s Broken Hill solar farm.

A wave of further announcements on construction contracts is expected by the end of the month as the projects that were selected for funding under the Australian Renewable Energy Agency’s large-scale solar funding round move towards financial close. Those 12 projects, spread across Queensland, NSW and Western Australia, are expected to unlock almost $1 billion of commercial investment……..

The solar power projects will contribute to rising investment in clean energy in Australia thanks to the 2020 Renewable Energy Target. Investment in the sector surged 49 per cent last year to $US3.44 billion, bouncing back after two weak years thanks to renewed confidence in the large-scale RET, Bloomberg New Energy Finance said in a report on Friday.

 Last year’s increase in investment bucked the global trend, which showed a global slowing in the sector, and was driven by a rise in large-scale project financing which rose to $US1.98 billion, BNEF said. Still, investment in large-scale renewables projects will need to double if the 2020 target is to be met, the firm found. http://www.afr.com/business/energy/solar-energy/solar-closing-cost-gap-with-wind-conventional-power-20170113-gtqw91#ixzz4VsruyM8D

January 16, 2017 Posted by | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, solar | 2 Comments

Australian politics in 2017 – allout war over renewable energy?

text-relevantEarly skirmishes point to a war over renewable energy lasting well into 2017, The Age, Peter Hannam, 15 Jan 17   “……Trenches are now being dug for what looms as a political battle that will probably last through 2017. On one side lie the Turnbull government, fossil fuel suppliers and right-wing pundits, who say the priority has to be affordable and reliable power.
Turnbull destroys renewables 

logo Paris climate1On the other, Labor and the Greens and clean-energy backers who argue ageing coal-fired power stations need to prepare for an orderly if not accelerated exit to meet Australia’s commitments agreed in the Paris climate treaty.

Josh Frydenberg, environment and energy minister, ended holidays early on Thursday to rail against states for curbing unconventional gas exploration, which also feeds into higher Frydenberg, Josh climateelectricity prices. That’s especially true in SA where gas provides all the power that’s not from wind or the sun.

He took particular aim at Queensland, where the Labor government under map-solar-QueenslandAnnastacia Palaszczuk is aiming for a 50 per cent share of renewable by 2030, up from 4.4 per cent in 2015………

Frydenberg’s Labor counterpart, Mark Butler, though, says the Coalition’s energy policy was “being dictated by the hard right of the party with the likes of Tony Abbott and Cory Bernardi”.

“The culture-war element starts to blind people to pretty clear policy,” he says, noting three-quarters of Australia’s fleet of power stations were operating beyond the end of their design life and needed to be replaced.

“The Turnbull government leaves a policy vacuum at the federal level, the states will fill the void,” he says.

Federal Labor remains committed to a 50 per cent renewable share by 2030, he said, noting the Turnbull government has no target beyond 2020 nor is a target among the terms of reference for its 2017 climate policy review. NSW Labor shares the party’s national goal……

Abbott, as if on cue, weighed into the renewables debate on Saturday……

What is certain is that energy bills are on the rise – although the causes are highly debated…….

Bruce Mountain, an energy economist with CME Australia, says rising energy prices will prompt more people to add solar panels and also batteries as prices continue to tumble – much faster than regulators predict.

Tesla’s new 13.5-kilowatt-hour Powerwall 2, costing about $8800 before installation, already offers a lower battery price than AEMO had predicted for 2040, he says

An average household in Adelaide, where power prices have doubled in the past eight years to be among the highest in Australia, would now be better off with panels and storage.

While panels alone typically slash demand for electricity from the grid by a third, adding a battery will reduce grid purchases by about 95 per cent, he said.

‘Existential threat’

Dylan McConnell, a research fellow at the Melbourne Energy Institute, notes AEMO is predicting 15.5 gigawatts of coal-fired power plants  will be shut by 2030. That’s about half of such stations and equivalent to 10 Hazelwoods.

Importantly, AEMO is betting 12GW of new gas-fired power will come on stream “assuming no alternative technologies come to fruition”, Mr McConnell said.

However, the open-cycle gas plants that can provide peaking power to complement variable suppliers such as wind and solar farms “face an existential threat from batteries”, he said……..

Without clear signals, investors won’t have the confidence to invest the billions needed to bring new, more efficient capacity online.

RET challenges

Bloomberg New Energy Finance underscored the scale of the challenge even meeting the 2020 Renewable Energy Target of supplying 33,000 gigawatt-hours from clean energy annually from 2020.

Last year, investment in large scale renewables under the RET bounced back from a meagre $US10 million in 2014 and 2015 after the Abbott government’s review of the sector threw it into a panic. In 2016, it recovered to $US1.1 billion ($1.45 billion).

“However it is still well below the $US2.9 billion per annum now needed to satisfy the notional 20 per cent target by 2020,” Bloomberg said.

Greens energy spokesman Adam Bandt says the Coalition will be tempted to stir up fears of rising electricity prices “in the hope that they can repeat 2013”, when Tony Abbott swept to power in part because of the carbon tax issue.

“They’ll try to beat the electricity bill drums but the prices are going up on their watch,” he says……… http://www.theage.com.au/environment/climate-change/early-skirmishes-point-to-a-war-over-renewable-energy-lasting-well-into-2017-20170111-gtpsd9.html

January 15, 2017 Posted by | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, energy, politics, solar, storage | Leave a comment