21 July More REneweconomy news
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Queensland energy minister stands down amid email investigationA blow to the state-based renewable energy and climate effort as Queensland energy minister Mark Bailey is sidelined by allegations of corruption.
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Hazelwood gone today – Liddell gone tomorrow. Are we ready?Early action on transmission should be at the top of the new Energy Security Board’s agenda if we are to connect enough wind and solar and hydro to replace retiring coal generators.EnergyAustralia signs PPA for 150MW Neoen solar farm in NSWEnergyAustralia has agreed to buy 100MW of output from planned Neoen solar farm in NSW – its 5th renewables PPA in seven months.Rooftop solar shock for consumers, installers as rebate price falls by one-thirdPrice of rooftop solar to jump 10%, and catch many installers unawares, due to sudden fall in price of rebate certificates after record amounts of new solar in past 6 months.
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Former Wallaby player and European energy veteran joins Wirsol Energy Pty LtdWIRSOL Energy, part of the WIRCON Group, has appointed Bill Calcraft as non-executive director of its Australian operations, to focus on expanding WIRSOL Energy’s relationships in Australia, bringing a wealth of experience in the European energy sector to WIRSOL Energy’s thriving business.
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GreenSync awarded CEC innovation awardGreenSync has won the 2017 Clean Energy Council Innovation Award in conjunction with AusNet Services and Power Tech for their work on the Mini Grid project in Mooroolbark, Victoria.
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Photon Energy mandates Pottinger as financial advisors for Australian project pipelineGlobal solar power solutions provider Photon Energy NV has mandated financial and strategic advisory firm Pottinger Co Pty Limited, to advise on a capital raising for a solar PV project pipeline with a total generation capacity of over 1 GW in Australia.
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Transgrid: 100% renewables is feasible and affordableNetwork operator Transgrid says 100 per cent renewable energy is both feasible and affordable, and says only incremental increases in renewable energy will not achieve potential falls in the cost of electricity.
21 July REneweconomy news
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Lawyer Steven Skala named new chair of Clean Energy Finance CorpLawyer and ABC director Steven Skala named chair of $10 billion CEFC, three women appointed to board.
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Australia becomes 35th member of International Solar AllianceLaunched in Paris during the COP21 summit, the International Solar Alliance, spearheaded by India and France, has this week welcomed Australia to the fold.
Quiet shipment of uranium from Australia to India – non signatory to Non-Proliferation Treaty
Australia quietly makes first uranium shipment to India three years after supply agreement, ABC Radio The World Today By South Asia correspondent James Bennett, 18 Jul 17 Three years after signing a civilian nuclear supply treaty, the Federal Government confirmed overnight the first shipment of Australian uranium has left for India.
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop provided little detail about the inaugural sale, saying only that it was subject to commercial negotiations.
The supply deal with India, signed in 2014, is the first of its kind Australia has made with a country not party to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty…….
Details of inaugural shipment unclear
It is not clear how big the shipment is, where it departed from, or where in India it might be heading.
Indian officials were unable to immediately provide comment, while the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said only that the details were subject to commercial negotiation.
Parliament only passed the final legislation enabling sales last December, following years of debate about supplying uranium to a country with a strategic nuclear weapons program and that refuses to sign the non-proliferation treaty.
Parliamentary hearings to ratify the supply treaty in 2014 heard the International Atomic Energy Agency still had concerns about India’s safeguards.
Ongoing tensions between India and its neighbour Pakistan, which also has not signed the non-proliferation treaty, have raised the spectre of armed confrontation in the past……..http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-07-19/australia-quietly-makes-first-uranium-shipment-to-india/8722108
As ERA’s Ranger Uranium mine lease to expire, town of Jabiru’s future is not clear
Kakadu National Park: Jabiru residents in limbo as governments, mining company contemplate town’s future, ABC, By Sara Everingham, 18 July 17, If the Northern Territory’s mining town of Jabiru near Kakadu National Park is to stay afloat, decisions will need to be made soon to avoid the loss of essential services, infrastructure and people, a report commissioned by Energy Resources of Australia has warned.
ERA, which operates the Ranger Uranium mine, is planning for the expiry of its lease agreements in 2021.
The company is required to return the town of Jabiru, which is also a service hub for the national park, to its pre-development state, removing housing and critical infrastructure, including power and water services.
Jabiru, which has a population of about 1,100, was built in 1982 as a mining residential and service hub, and the majority of its residents, whether they work at the mine or not, live in the town.
Even if there’s a consensus that Jabiru should continue to exist, it’s not clear what services would remain, particularly if there’s a sharp population decline once ERA departs………
The NT and Federal Governments have been in talks with traditional owners, the Northern Land Council, and ERA about a plan for the future of the town, but have not yet reached an agreement.
Traditional owners have also been in talks with the Commonwealth about a new township lease over Jabiru.
In the absence of any final agreements, ERA was planning for the closure of the town in four years’ time…….
ERA’s lease on the Ranger Uranium Mine expires in 2021, and the rehabilitation of the Ranger Mine has to be completed by 2026.
ERA had proposed prolonging the life of the Ranger mine by developing the underground 3 Deeps project, but in 2015 that plan lost the support of traditional owners and Rio Tinto, the majority shareholder of ERA.
The Mirrar traditional owners “absolutely” want to see the town continue and have been intensely lobbying the Federal Government since 2003, said Justin O’Brien, CEO of the Gundjeihmi Aboriginal Corporation.
“If you want security of tenure, if you want to avoid the bulldozers and the base case scenario that’s still the only option on the table, sadly, you negotiate very speedily the township lease that the traditional owners have put on the table, which we’ve commenced negotiating with the Australian Government,” he said. “If the Government engages quickly in the next several months with traditional owners then yes, it’s got a great future in terms of tourism and service provision. It’s a really positiveplace.” http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-07-18/jabiru-residents-in-limbo-as-uranium-mining-draws-to-a-close/8718432
19 July MORE REneweconomy news
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COAG: Can democracy weed out climate deniers?Turnbull’s recent use of the word “delusional” reminds us that climate denial is still alive and kicking in mainstream Australian politics.Australian coal, gas miners seek renewable energy projectsAustralian oil, gas and coal mining body, NERA, issues call for cleantech, renewable energy partnerships, says timing is “spot on” for collaboration.Base-cost renewables: When wind and solar finally kill coalBNEF says building new solar plants will be cheaper than shovelling coal into existing coal generators within 15 years. This will trigger a complete re-make of the energy system, and a share of wind and solar far beyond that contemplated by the Finkel Review.Frydenberg says Zibelman “doing really great job” at AEMOFrydenberg defends AEMO chief Audrey Zibelman from attacks by conservative commentators.
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Greens Senator for SA visits battery storage facility in Southern CaliforniaAustralian Greens Senator for South Australia Sarah Hanson-Young has called on Malcolm Turnbull to intervene to end the delay in fixing energy market rules, including the 5-minute rule, to allow battery storage to compete fairly.
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Leaders’ pledge to galvanise renewable energy leaders to champion gender diversityBetter gender diversity across the renewable energy industry requires leaders from both genders to step up and drive change, the Clean Energy Council said in launching its Women in Renewables Leaders’ Pledge today.
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Business slowly wakes up to reality that renewables are cheapARENA report shows less than half Australian businesses have tapped renewables. But there’s no doubt the idea is starting to catch on.
19 July REneweconomy news
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Coal has lost the energy war, so why are we still fighting?The political fight for coal power in Australia is already lost. Meanwhile, we are missing all the clean energy opportunities that have fallen into our lap.LO3 unveils ‘game-changing’ solar sharing microgrid in South AustraliaUS-based energy sharing company LO3 partners with Yates Electrical to build 6MW solar microgrid in SA Riverland region.Turnbull’s coal delusions as COAG “changes course” on energyIf COAG did change the course of energy in Australia, it is not immediately obvious, given Turnbull’s coal delusion comments. Much will depend on how Finkel recommendations are put in place, and the storage equation and the make-up of the energy security board are critical.Know your NEM: Generator Reliability Option might be dumb ideaThe COAG endorsement of the Finkel Review (apart from the CET) won’t mean much in the short term, but the generator reliability option might be a dumb idea. Meantime, smart companies are showing how to save costs with solar and storage.National Electricity Market has served its purpose – it’s time to move onThe NEM has failed. Its very narrow economic objective was to provide low prices, reliable and safe energy, and to act in the long term interests of consumers. It hasn’t.
18 July REneweconomy news
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GE: Some Australia regions to be 100% renewable in 5-10 yearsGE says parts of Australia will soon get all electricity from renewables, at least for a few days a year, as utility business models disrupted.
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AGL’s Vesey: Clean Energy Target should recognise Paris climate agreementAGL adds pressure to Turnbull government, saying CET needs to be adopted, and needs to reflect Paris climate targets.
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Australia’s $10 billion renewable energy boom: But then what?A $10 billion clean energy investment boom in 2017 could quickly fade without longer term policies. Labor tries to wedge Turnbull on climate policy, just as it did in 2009, while the Greens also say they would look at a Clean Energy Target.
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Clean-tech stocks outperform general market again, as smart investors buy inIt is no surprise that, regardless of the fickleness of environmental politics, smart investors are buying into the businesses that are redefining how we live.
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NSW launches home battery guide, as race to “plug hole” threatens industryNew South Wales issues set of home battery storage guidelines, as industry warns against “jumping to an endgame” on safety.
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Peer-to-peer electric vehicle charging network launched in SydneySydney start-up Everty launches P2P platform allowing electric vehicle owners to rent out their parking space, and home charger, to others.
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Barnaby’s warning: Biggest threat to renewables is lights out in SydneyDeputy PM says Sydney blackout could be end of road for renewables, although NSW Coalition minister earlier praised role of wind and solar in preventing blackout.
Australia: Climate change (to which nuclear power is irrelevant) – theme for August 2017
Of course the Great Barrier Reef is important, to Australia, and globally. It is a World Heritage site, and a unique and wonderful ecosystem. It’s just that I get a bit sick of everyone talking about its economic value – as though business is the only thing that matters to Australians.
Even more, I question the emphasis on the GBR, in context where nobody seems to be talking about the appalling impacts of climate change that are already happening, and will increase, in African and Asian nations.
Climate change is a global tragedy, for humans and other species. We are now in an era, (the Anthropocene) in which global action is imperative – quite the wrong time to put up the barriers, and say “our nation first”
Even if we do think “Australia first” – we’d better realise that WE might need some international help, as Australia is predicted to be hit particularly hard by climate change. Some of these impacts: increasing heat waves, some regions drier, bushfires, changed and damaged ecosystems, sea level rise, increased severity of floods. All this has effects on agriculture, infrastructure, human health, and society, with the most disadvantaged communities suffering the most.
The effects of climate change elsewhere will impact Australia – sea level rise, especially affecting Pacific islands, environmental refugees, food shortages, environmental disasters, social instability, and increasing need for humanitarian aid. Australia is an island, yes, but can no longer function as though the rest of the world doesn’t matter.
Climate change is THE ISSUE right now, although the nuclear issue remains critical too – especially this month, when we remember Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The nuclear industry’s claims to fix climate change are farcical, and deserve to be ignored; the only relevance nuclear has is that its proponents are holding back REAL answers to global warming.
Queensland Liberal National Party refuses to pull out of Paris Climate Accord
LNP members vote down call to pull out of Paris Climate Accord at Queensland convention, ABC News By Chris O’Brien, 16 July, Queensland Liberal National Party members have steered away from a potentially divisive move against Australia’s global climate position, while the party leader also vowed not to be distracted by federal squabbles in the lead up to the next election.
The party’s annual convention voted down a motion calling on the Commonwealth to pull out of the Paris Climate Accord, after two former presidents warned against undermining the Prime Minister.
“This motion is really about just putting the knife into the Federal Government,” immediate past president Bruce McIver said.
“They’ve agreed on it on our behalf, and I think if we don’t believe we should vote this down today, we are doing them an injustice.”………http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-07-16/lnp-members-vote-down-call-to-pull-out-of-paris-climate-accord/8713210
Climate denialism rules the Liberal Party – and is bringing about a split within it
More than half of federal Liberal MPs ‘don’t trust’ climate science: think tank http://www.afr.com/news/policy/climate/more-than-half-of-federal-liberal-mps-dont-trust-climate-science-think-tank-20170714-gxb7r2 The majority of federal Liberal MPs are not convinced the science behind climate change is settled and support reductions in emissions of greenhouse gases for political reasons, according to an prominent conservative think tank.John Roskam, the executive director of the Melbourne-based Institute of Public Affairs, said he hadn’t conducted a formal count but found most Liberal politicians shared his doubts about what many experts say is the greatest global threat to mankind.
“More than 50 per cent are solid sceptics and more than 50 per cent feel they need to be seen to do something,” he said in an interview. “The science is not settled.”
The overwhelming majority of climate change scientists accept the atmosphere is warming and humans are responsible. The burning of fossil fuels contributed to an increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide from 280 parts per million before 1800 to 396 parts per million in 2013, according to the Australian Academy of Science. Continue reading
Australian States and Federal Govt approve 49 Finkel recommendations, but split on Clean Energy Target
COAG splits over clean energy target, but 49 Finkel ideas approved http://reneweconomy.com.au/coag-splits-over-clean-energy-target-but-49-finkel-ideas-approved-97105/ By Giles Parkinson on 14 July 2017
Four Labor states and governments have formalised their push to purse their own clean energy target mechanism, officially breaking away from the federal government after the Coalition refused to endorse the Finkel Review’s recommendation on the issue.
The COAG energy council meeting in Brisbane endorsed 49 of the 50 recommendations from the Finkel Review, and endorsed the decision to get rid of the “limited merits review” that affects network spending. However, the federal government said it could not commit to a clean energy target.
South Australia, Victoria and Queensland, along with the ACT, said they would ask the Australian Energy market Commission to study how a CET might be implemented by the states saying “they can’t wait any longer”.
It is not clear how long this will take, and how quickly legislation can be introduced, or if it can survive state-based partisan politics given that both the South Australia and Queensland Labor governments are facing elections in the next 12 months.
These same states this week all committed to zero net emissions by 2050, in a ceremony marking the visit of former vice-president and climate campaigner Al Gore.
“It is incredibly frustrating that despite the overwhelming community support for a market mechanism, the Federal Government is still resisting committing to all 50 Finkel recommendations,” South Australia energy minister Tom Koutsantonis said in a statement.
“Opposition from the coal lobby and the right wing of his party is preventing the Prime Minister from acting in the interests of all Australians.”
The federal Coalition has been riven by divisions over the proposed CET, with conservative commentators unanimously condemning the idea, and the rump of Far Right Coalition MPs also voicing their opposition.
Federal energy minister Josh Frydenberg said COAG had agreed a “significant set of reforms …. to ensure a more affordable and reliable energy system.”
The recommendations include the creation of an Energy Security Board. Each jurisdiction will send through a name; and the next few weeks the states will agree on a chair and deputy chair. The other members will be the heads of the three main energy industry regulators, rule-makers and operators.
The disgraceful state of Australia’s politics and media on clean energy
It is an absurd situation we find ourselves in. The public support for these new technologies is overwhelming, as it is in business (apart from those seeking to protect stranded assets), and among most politicians – even many in the Liberal Party, as NSW energy minister Don Harwin revealed late last month.
Yet here we are: Short-term policies; a patchwork of rules on energy efficiency; the worst building stock in the world; the most inefficient and polluting cars; and the world’s most expensive and dirty grid, soaring emissions, and rising temperatures.
And two years after obtaining power, prime minister Malcolm Turnbull is still defending policies he once describes as “bullshit,” too afraid to call out the nonsense spread by those keeping him in power.
How did Australia get this stupid about clean energy? http://reneweconomy.com.au/australia-get-stupid-clean-energy-99268/, By Giles Parkinson on 14 July 2017, Just when you thought that the public debate around clean energy in Australia could not possibly get any worse, any dumber, or any further divorced from reality, it did.
Conservatives have been railing against renewables and carbon pricing for at least a decade. So ingrained has it become in our national psyche that it is like a State of Origin contest between energy sources and their fans. “Queenslander”, shout the league fans. “Fossil fuels” screech the incumbents.
But it plumbed further depths this week. And it got really stupid and really nasty. Conservatives in the government and the media rebooted their attacks on wind and solar energy, and extended it to battery storage and vehicle emission standards, with the Murdoch media dubbing the latter as a “carbon tax on cars.”
Craig Kelly, the chair of Coalition’s energy policy committee, said renewable energy “would kill people”, a claim happily repeated by columnist Andrew Bolt.
Worse, the conservatives started attacking individuals. The verbal assault on chief scientist Alan Finkel was launched way back in February when it was clear he would not toe the fossil fuel line. And even after delivering what many consider a “soft option”, the conservatives rekindled their attack. Continue reading
Renewable energy news 17 July
This government needs to get its head around renewables
Peter FitzSimons
http://www.smh.com.au/comment/smh-letters/peter-fitzsimons-government-needs-to-get-its-head-around-renewable-energy-20170714-gxbn81.html
Queensland
Bonanza tipped from clean power plan
Mark Bailey
QUEENSLAND has seen a clean energy boom, with unprecedented levels of renewable energy investment. And it’s about to pay off.
http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/opinion/opinion-bonanza-tipped-from-clean-power-plan/news-story/8685e735a2b5b906661eda311889d395
Western Australia
Energy-saving hobbit house in WA’s South West
A man from the small West Australian town of Quindalup lives in a home covered by almost 1,000 tonnes of dirt and is proud to refer to himself as a modern-day hobbit.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-07-15/quindalup-man-builds-hobbit-house-to-save-on-energy/8711758
What a loss! – Scott Ludlam – politicians of integrity are few and far between
On a technicality – an Australian politician, of both integrity and intelligence , has had to resign. As far as I can see, there is no Australian parliamentarian who has the understanding of nuclear/climate issues, combined with the intelligence and ability to advocate for the public good, except for Senator Scott Ludlam.
I watched his Senate interviews, and marvelled at his ever courteous, but ever persistent and probing, questioning of bureaucrats who tried, unsuccessfully, to cover up the hypocrisies that surround Australian politics on nuclear issues.
Sometimes, people can achieve much outside of parliament, as well as inside. We will have to wait to see what Scott Ludlam will do from now on. Anyway, we wish him well, while much regretting his departure from politics.
And Ludlam has a sense of humour too. Where are we now going to get those sly amusements in the drab world of Australian politics?
Senator Ludlam welcomes Tony Abbott to WA
Sudden resignation of Greens Senator Scott Ludlam
Greens shock: Scott Ludlam resigns over NZ citizenship https://www.crikey.com.au/2017/07/14/greens-shock-ludlam-resigns-over-citizenship/, In a shock announcement, the Greens’ Scott Ludlam has resigned after learning he remained a NZ citizen, Bernard Keane, Politics Editor West Australian Greens senator Scott Ludlam has resigned from the Senate effective immediately after revealing he had recently learnt he remained a New Zealand citizen despite being naturalised as an Australian citizen as a child.
1 This month.
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of the week – Australians for War Powers Reform (AWPR)
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