Tasmania, with wind and hydro can be “energy battery” for Australia – says Turnbull
Turnbull says Tasmania wind, hydro can become “energy battery” for Australia, Reneweconomy, By Giles Parkinson on 20 April 2017 Prime minister Malcolm Turnbull has extended his vision of large-scale pumped hydro and storage to Tasmania, outlining plans to expand the island’s existing hydropower system, and possibly add 2,500MW in pumped hydro, and describing the possibility that the state could become the “renewable energy battery” for Australia. Continue reading
Enormous solar farm planned for Gympie area, Queensland
Queensland company lodges plan to build Australia’s biggest solar farm near Gympie, ABC News, By Bruce Atkinson, 19 Apr 17, A company proposing to build Australia’s largest solar farm near Gympie says the $2 billion facility will eventually supply about 15 per cent of south-east Queensland’s power needs.
Queensland company Solar Q has lodged a development application with the Gympie Council to build a solar farm and battery storage facility 30 kilometres north-west of the city.
The project will be built in stages, with initial approval being sought for a 350-megawatt facility, but within four years it is proposed to increase this to 800 megawatts or enough electricity to power about 315,000 homes.
Managing director Scott Armstrong said the finished facility would be the biggest in Australia but “the way the market is going is that there will be bigger projects that will come on”……..
When completed, around 3 million solar panels will provide power to the network on the 17-square-kilometre site. During peak consumption at night, the battery storage facility, which is powered by the grid, will ease the load on power stations……..
The proponents are not expecting any hurdles to approval from the Gympie Council or State Government agencies, Mr Armstrong said.
“Solar and battery storages are a static generation facility so it will produce minimal noise, it doesn’t emit, it doesn’t have particulates from chimney stacks, it doesn’t have ash dams, so we are not expecting any impediments with regards to getting approvals,” he said.
Once the approvals are in place Mr Armstrong expects the connection agreement with the transmission company will be finalised.
He said the project would be funded by private investors, including superannuation management funds.Work is expected to start by the end of the year…….http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-04-19/mega-solar-farm-planned-for-gympie-qld/8451774
Victoria’s Ararat Wind Farm now supplying power to Victoria and ACT
Ararat Wind Farm fully commissioned, supplying power to Victoria and ACT http://reneweconomy.com.au/ararat-wind-farm-fully-commissioned-supplying-power-to-victoria-and-act-51770/ By Sophie Vorrath on 19 April 2017 The recently completed 240MW Ararat Wind Farm in south-western Victoria is now operating at full capacity, feeding enough renewable energy into the grid to power 120,000 homes, 37,000 of them in Canberra.
The wind farm, which is operated and managed by Canberra-based company Windlab, was fully commissioned on Wednesday this week, after several years in the works. It first began sending power to the grid in Victoria in August 2016. This graph below, from the Energy and Climate College, shows how it has expanded production.
The project gained significance as the first wind farm to be contracted after the reinstatement of a bipartisan federal renewable energy target – that is, after the Coalition and Labor agreed to cut the RET to 33,000GWh from 41,000GWh).
In Ararat’s case, the go-ahead was buoyed by the signing of a power purchase agreement with the ACT government, which guaranteed the purchase of approximately 40 per cent of its annual output – a contract it is now delivering on.
“The ACT’s agreement with the Ararat Wind Farm provided certainty for investors and enabled construction to commence in late 2015,” ACT climate minister Shane Rattenbury said on Wednesday.
“This is good news for consumers as well as climate change mitigation, as the ACT government has locked-in a set price for the renewable electricity produced by 10 wind and solar projects, including Ararat, for the next 20 years.”
Rattenbury – whose predecessor, Simon Corbell, is widely regarded as the mastermind of the nation-leading renewables policy – said that the Capital was showing the federal government how to deliver on clean energy.
“If the generators make more money than the set price for the electricity they sell into the national electricity market, they pay the difference back to the ACT,” Rattenbury said.
Ararat Mayor, Paul Hooper, described the wind farm as a “really significant” project for the city, bringing $450 million of investment, 350 jobs at its construction peak, and more than $40 million into the local economy during construction, which lasted about 18 months.
“It was completed on time and to a very high standard,” Hooper said, adding that project developer RES Australia had been “…very, very good corporate citizens” throughout the development.
The great gas con: There are cheaper, cleaner alternatives
REnewec onomy, By Giles Parkinson on 20 April 2017 [excellent graphs etc]
In Canberra on Thursday, as yet another “gas summit” hosted by prime minister Malcolm Turnbull ended without a “fix” to soaring gas prices, the Energy Users Group was complaining that one industrial customer in Queensland was being hit with a new gas supply contract at the usurious price of $23/gigajoule.
Frankly, it beggars belief that Australian industry is even bothering to ask for cheaper gas prices, when there are obviously cheaper alternatives available – for both electricity and for industrial gas users.
An Australian Renewable Energy Agency report last year identified how biogas, geothermal and solar thermal alternatives could provide industrial heat at the equivalent of $5/gigajoule – less than one-quarter of the price being asked for gas now. Why aren’t they embracing these patently cheaper and cleaner alternatives?
Part of the answer is the ingrained fossil fuel mentality in Australia. For so long, the true cost of fossil fuels has been hidden by massive cross-subsidies – to electricity users in remote and regional areas, and to big industrial customers……..
Andrew Richards, from the Energy Users Association, says it is because of the complexity, and the fact that renewable options require up-front investments, rather than paying-as-you-go commodity fuels. But he thinks that business is slowly getting their mind around the alternatives and looking carefully at the technology options.
Some, like the South Australian greenhouse tomato grower Sundrop, are using solar thermal technologies, and the Clean Energy Finance Corporation has backed other businesses looking to exploit biogas as an alternative to natural gas.
And more technology options will be on their way: Those outlined by the ARENA report include:
- High temperature solar concentrator driven processes to convert biomass, water, gas or other fossil fuels into chemical feedstocks or new solar fuels.
- Electrolysis of water to produce hydrogen as a feedstock or fuel.
- High temperature solar thermal approaches to direct driving minerals processing and other thermal processes.
- New advanced biomass gasification systems.
- Innovative systems for purifying gas streams from gasifiers or digesters for use in sensitive direct combustion processes (ovens etc) or for injection to existing gas pipeline infrastructure.
- New advanced biomass production or collection systems.
- Targeted innovations to improve existing renewable energy technologies. http://reneweconomy.com.au/the-great-gas-con-there-are-cheaper-cleaner-alternatives-13767/
Carnegie raises $18m for Northam solar farm and micro-grids
By Giles Parkinson on 20 April 2017 Carnegie Clean Energy plans to accelerate its project pipeline of large scale solar farms and renewable-based micro-grids after securing $18 million in a new capital raising – three times more than its original target.
The listed Perth-based company says the money will be used to fund its equity share of the soon-to-be-built 10MW solar farm in Northam, in West Australia, as well as accelerating its other solar projects and renewable-focused micro-grids.
The company, which has recently transformed from a single-focused wave energy developer to encompass solar, storage and micro-grid technologies, had planned a $6 million capital raising, but expanded the process in response to “overwhelming” demand from shareholders……http://reneweconomy.com.au/carnegie-raises-18m-for-northam-solar-farm-and-micro-grids-19682/
Parliamentary Committee considering if Australia should be involved in making Generation IV nuclear reactors
The gift of the ‘GIF’: Generation IV International Forum, Independent Australia, 19 April 2017 The Turnbull Government has quietly signed Australia up to the GIF Framework Agreement for the development of Gen IV nuclear reactors and is currently conducting a Parliamentary Inquiry of which most of us are unaware, writes Noel Wauchope.
YOU HAVE probably never heard of the “GIF”.
I hadn’t, until just this week when by chance, I heard of the Parliament Inquiry into the Framework Agreement for International Collaboration on Research and Development of Generation IV Nuclear Energy Systems.
The Committee consists of nine Liberal MPs, six Labor and one Green.
That inquiry is being held now and the Committee calls, or more correctly, whispers, for submissions by 28 April 2017.
It is all about the GIF — Generation IV International Forum. The Australian Government signed up to this, in 2016, without any public discussion.
What is The Generation IV International Forum (GIF)?
An international collection of 14 countries: Argentina, Brazil, Canada, France, Japan, South Korea, South Africa, the UK and the USA (original charter members, 2005); Switzerland, Euratom, China, Russia and Australia (signed later).
The World Nuclear Association describes the collection as countries for whom:
‘ … nuclear energy is significant now and also seen as vital for the future’.
What is the 2005 Framework Agreement AKA “the charter”?
According to the World Nuclear Association the 2005 Framework Agreement:
‘ … formally commits them [signatories] to participate in the development of one or more Generation IV systems selected by GIF for further R&D.’
Australia signed the charter on 22 June 2016 represented by Dr Adi Patterson, COE of the Australia Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO). — pending this Joint Standing Committee on Treaties review. ANSTO is to be the implementing agent.
When the Australian Government quietly signed up to the GIF, it made no commitment to any particular action towards developing new nuclear reactors. Other countries – including Japan, Canada, France, South Korea – have committed to working on particular types of Generation IV reactors. Australia might be expected to not only fully sign up as a member of the charter but perhaps also to provide funding and resources to develop one or more types.
Australia’s signing of the GIF
Media reports indicate Australia made a bid, or approach, to join GIF. The active seeking out of such an agreement that is at odds with public opinion, at odds with the current government’s policy position on nuclear power and is inconsistent with Australian laws, which prohibit the use of this technology, is astounding…….
ANSTO makes a number of questionable assumptions about Australia joining in developing new nuclear reactors. For example, ANSTO claims that it would ‘further Australia’s non-proliferation and nuclear safety objectives’, and ‘further strengthen our claim as the most advanced nuclear country in SEAP’ and will position Australia to develop Generation IV reactors.
There are so many questions about — one hardly knows where to start:…….https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/the-gift-of-the-gif-generation-iv-international-forum,10215#.WPbL2mlNX7g.twitter
Adani coal mine just does not make economic sense
Coal glut, cheaper renewables, Adani makes no sense at all, MichaelWest.com.au April 19, 2017 As public angst over the prospective A$1 billion subsidy to coal magnate Guatam Adani hits fever pitch, a small company is modestly beavering away on another – more worthy – energy project in Far North Queensland.
Genex Power has turned the abandoned Kidston gold mine into a solar farm and pumped-hydro power storage project. Kidston will deliver 145MWh of renewable energy per year. This is enough to power 26,484 homes. In terms of reducing emissions, this is equivalent to taking 33,000 cars off Australian roads.
Like Adani, the Kidston project also got a leg-up from government. It won a grant of nearly A$9 million from ARENA, the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, and struck a deal with the state of Queensland to sell electricity for 20 years.
Unlike Adani’s Carmichael coal mine, however, the Kidston solar project has bankers and investors. Unlike Adani, whose labyrinthine corporate structure wends its way to the Cayman Islands, Genex is listed on the Australian Stock Exchange, has a market value of A$70 million and is owned by small investors. When it delivers its first power in the next three months, it’s likely to pay tax on its profits.
The furore over Adani has so far centred on the putative subsidy for the rail line to cart the coal from the Galilee Basin to the coast. There is no rail line without a mine, however, and so the bigger question is: who is going to tip in the A$10 billion in project finance to build the mine?
Adani’s bankers have long fled the scene – not just for environmental reasons, but because the business case for building this, the world’s biggest new thermal coal mine, is sketchy.
The global seaborne coal market is in structural decline. There is a glut. Thermal coal futures prices are well below the spot price – and even at present spot prices, this is hardly a viable financial proposition…….http://www.michaelwest.com.au/coal-glut-cheaper-renewables-adani-makes-no-sense-at-all/
Racial abuse at BHP mining site in Western Australia? Aboriginal woman takes legal action
Aboriginal woman launches legal action over alleged racial abuse at WA mining site, http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2017/04/17/aboriginal-woman-launches-legal-action-over-alleged-racial-abuse-wa-mining-site BHP Billiton is facing legal action over alleged racial abuse at one of its mine sites in Western Australia. By Ryan Emery 18 APR 2017 An Aboriginal woman has launched legal action against BHP Billiton after months of alleged racial abuse on a Western Australian mining site.New South Wales becoming a quiet achiever in renewable energy
For a start, the NSW Coalition government now has one thing that the federal government no longer has – a long-term target (2050) to achieve zero net emissions for the state, including its electricity grid.
More than that, while it does not have its own state-based renewable energy target, it has high ambitions of its own that put it on a par with what has been achieved in South Australia, and what is being sought in Victoria, Queensland, and in the territories.
The Climate Change Fund Strategic Plan – unveiled as part of the NSW 2050 zero emissions target last October – openly canvasses a scenario where the state doubles its level of renewable energy to more than 10,000MW.
NSW could be dark horse of Australia’s renewable energy boom, REneweconomy, By Giles Parkinson on 18 April 2017 Federal energy minister Josh Frydenberg must feel a little friendless when he gets together with his state counterparts at the regular COAG energy meetings and looks around the room.
For a start, there are four Labor and Greens energy ministers – ACT (100 per cent by 2020), Victoria (40 per cent by 2025), and Queensland and Northern Territory (each 50 per cent by 2030) – with specific renewable energy targets far beyond the federal government
Then there is the new Labor energy minister in Western Australia, Ken Wyatt, who is yet to declare his hand, but who is likely to scupper the state subsidy for electricity which disguises the high cost of its fossil fuels. Renewables, and particularly rooftop solar, are likely to be the solution.
The Coalition states are not likely to be much help either. Tasmania wants a new Basslink so it can build more wind farms and export “baseload” renewables into the Victorian grid.
That leaves, NSW, the only mainland state or territory with a Coalition government and energy minister. It should be a strong ally – especially given that a year ago it was branded the worst place in Australia to invest in renewable energy. But appearances can be deceiving. Continue reading
Bid for rare earths mining and processing in Australia
Is there any awareness in Australia of the dangers of toxic radioactive trash from rare earths mining and processing?
Next mining boom in Australia will be driven by tech metals for renewable energy and technologies ABC Rural By Babs McHugh, 17 Apr 17 The Australian mining industry is on the verge of a new mining boom based around so-called tech metals.
And as the race cranks up across the nation to find new deposits of rare earths and other metals, industry itself is calling for the development of a value-adding component……
The tech metals complex is made up of rare earths and other minerals and metals that are used in what is referred to as the new economy. They are essential to making high technology componentry such as mobile phones, solar cells and autonomous vehicles.They are also used to make the different kinds of batteries needed to store power from renewable sources, and new types of lightweight engines to replace traditional combustion engines……..
Rare earth hunters also want local value-adding industry There are 17 rare earth elements on the periodic table, falling into the heavy rare earths or light rare earths depending on their atomic weight.
Up until recently, all rare earths were mined and exported from China, which has had a stranglehold on the industry and its pricing. Given their global importance, the race is well and truly on to find more rare earth deposits, and Australia is a favoured hunting ground.
“They’re actually quite ubiquitous in the Earth’s crust,” Arafura Resources managing director Gavin Lockyer said.”Why they’re associated with the term rare is the fact that it’s rare to find them in an economically recoverable quantity.”
Australia the perfect place for processing Arafura Resources has done that with its Nolans Bore project 135 kilometres north-west of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory.The find is considered significant, featuring a 56-million-tonne deposit with a 40-year mine life. It is full of neodymium and praseodymium, which is used to make magnets, the bulk of which are now sourced from China.
“We really think there’s much more value-add to be had by doing downstream processing, and Australia is the perfect place to do that. “We’ve got an existing regulatory environment that covers things like water usage, environmental aspects, air pollutants, transport and disposal. “There’s already a well-established regime and bureaucracy in place to regulate that, and we think it’s better to do that at the mine site where it all happens, rather than trying to do it offshore and making it somebody else’s problem……http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-04-17/next-mining-boom-in-australia-is-tech-metals/8443172
Opposition in South Australia to $500 million solar and wind farm
Beetaloo Valley residents to fight against planned $500 million solar and wind farm by Neoen Erin Jones, Regional Reporter, The Advertiser April 17, 2017 SOUTHERN Flinders Ranges residents are vowing to stop a 50-turbine wind farm from ruining the landscape, fearing the project will be fast-tracked because of the state’s energy crisis.
Western Australia’s State-owned regional power provider Horizon encourages off-peak electricity use
Peak power users to pay more, The West.com.au ,
Households that guzzle power during periods of peak demand would be charged more for the right to be connected to the grid under a mobile phone-style payment trial aimed at slashing costs for consumers.
In a move that could pave the way for electricity pricing reform across WA, State-owned regional power provider Horizon has tested charging customers according to how much pressure they put on the grid during peak demand times.
During the four months to March 31, more than 400 residential and small business customers were put on to payments plans and given a monthly “allowance” of energy they could use between 1pm and 8pm.
Those homes that used the most power during the peak were charged a higher monthly fixed sum than customers that drew relatively little from the grid…….
Horizon Power managing director Frank Tudor said the trial was aimed at cutting pressure on the grid during peak times — and thereby avoiding the need for costly upgrades to its capacity — by giving customers more choice and control over their bills.
Mr Tudor noted that under the trial households that were able to shift their use to off-peak periods could become eligible for a cheaper fixed plan, while they would avoid “bill shocks” from one month to the next.
He said the pilot also highlighted the benefits of advanced meters, which showed how much each customer typically uses during the peak and enabled Horizon to target individual allowances.
“A mobile phone style of electricity plan would give customers more choice and control over their electricity bills,” he said.
“This pricing structure is also sophisticated enough to adapt to new technologies like solar PV and battery storage solutions and to apportion charges to customers fairly but, at the same time, is simple enough to be easily understood by users.”
According to Mr Tudor, 97 per cent of customers were willing to change their behaviour to take advantage of the incentives.
He also said mobile phone-style payment plans would help rather than hinder the uptake of technologies such as solar panels and batteries. https://thewest.com.au/news/wa/peak-power-users-to-pay-more-ng-b88448262z
Stop Australia signing up to develop new nuclear reactors -submissions by 28 April
Submissions received until 28 April by Parliamentary Committee
Right now a Parliamentary Committee is considering Australia’s further involvement in the ‘Charter’ or Framework Agreement for International Collaboration on Research and Development of Generation IV Nuclear Energy Systems. The Committee consists of 9 Liberal MPs, 6 Labor, and one Green.
Australia secretly signed the ‘Charter’ on 22 nd June 2016 – signed by 
Dr Adi Patterson COE of the Australia Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation. (pending this JSCOT review). ANSTO is to be the implementing agent.
The An international collection of 14 countries: Argentina, Brazil, Canada, France, Japan, South Korea, South Africa, the UK and the USA ( original charter members 2005) Switzerland, Euratom, China, Russia and Australia (signed later) . The World Nuclear Association describes the collection as countries for whom nuclear energy is significant now or seen as vital in the future.
When the Australian government quietly signed up to the GIF, it made no commitment to any particular action towards developing new nuclear reactors. Other countries, including Japan, Canada, France, South Korea, have committed to working on particular types ofGeneration IV reactors Australia might be expected to not only fully sign up as a member of the Charter, but perhaps also to provide funding and resources to develop one or more types.
Involvement of various countries in developing particular types of new nuclear reactor
New South Wales: Gladys Berejiklian government taking on a green tinge on energy and climate change
Energy policy: Gladys Berejiklian government might be greener than Mike Baird’s, SMH, 15 Apr 17 Kelsey Munro “….. Anthony Roberts, planning and housing minister in Gladys Berejiklian’s NSW government, which some believe is showing a far greener hue than the paralysed politics of climate change at federal level might lead anyone to expect.
Witness the Premier’s visit to the flood-stricken north coast earlier this month, where she said the flood was “a one in-40-year event, if not longer”, before adding, matter-of-factly, “Unfortunately, these freak weather incidents are going to increase.”
That is the language of a politician who takes mainstream climate science as an article of faith.
The government’s signals are particularly clear in energy policy, where the new Energy and Resources Minister Don Harwin is touting a statewide “boom in renewable energy projects”, mainly in large-scale solar. “Latest figures show our renewable energy sources already contribute 14 per cent to the NSW electricity energy mix,” he told Fairfax Media. “During the state’s heatwave on February 10 this year, at the time of peak demand, renewables provided 29 per cent of total energy generation.”
The government last week backed a Greens motion to support a technical change in the structure of the national energy market that would put batteries and other storage technologies on a level playing field with more established generators, with Mr Harwin saying in parliament he had already communicated that position to the Australian Energy Market Commission……..
According to the government’s modelling, 79 per cent of NSW greenhouse gas emissions come from fossil fuels………
One significant factor is that the economics have changed dramatically. It is now far cheaper to build large-scale solar or wind than new fossil fuel powered stations, Ms McKenzie said, pointing to the Council’s recent report which found electricity from new coal-power stations would cost $160 per megawatt hour, while solar farms are around $110 per megawatt hour and falling……
Nationally, Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions are rising steadily, after a carbon tax-driven dip between 2012 and 2014. http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/energy-policy-gladys-berejiklian-government-might-be-greener-than-mike-bairds-20170414-gvkyod.html
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