Australian rooftop solar system providing power at all times
under the current government’s lack of incentives, rooftop solar is not economically attractive … until now.”
urban consumers wanted access to the grid to ensure they had power at all times.
“This achieves that for people – it’s a system which guarantees power supply from a predominantly solar source,”
What solar crisis?, Daily Examiner, 3 Oct 2011 A CLARENCE Valley solar power innovation promises to dramatically reduce household power costs and is offering hope to an industry sector which has had the rug pulled from under it.
In a first for Australia, Northern Rivers Renewable Energy (NRRE) has developed a system that automatically manages a home’s solar and grid power to the advantage of the home owner.
In a nutshell, the household’s entire electricity needs are stored in batteries which are, for the most part, recharged by solar power.
Now – and here’s the innovation – if enough solar energy is not produced, due to persistent rain for example, the system then recharges the batteries from grid power using a combination of off-peak and peak electricity. Continue reading
IAE predicts solar energy boom – will Australia miss out?
….. the IEA will produce a study that predicts more than half the world’s energy needs, and most of its electricity needs, will come from solar energy sources by 2060. The question that Australia needs to ask itself, as it signs yet another multibillion-dollar contract to develop LNG resources, is how it is placed to benefit from a solar future that will dominate future energy sources in the same way as coal and oil has in the past….
Ferguson, like the IEA, has mostly been interested in protecting the supply of fossil fuels for export or use at home, …
Will Australia miss the global solar boom? Crikey.com, 29 Sept 11, by Giles Parkinson of Climate Spectator “……In the past couple of years, however, the IEA has focused more on different scenarios for the world’s future energy needs — both in terms of energy security and in reducing emissions. In doing so, it has emerged as one of the world’s most bullish proponents of renewable energy, in particular solar.Federal
Resources and Energy Minister Martin Ferguson next month will have the honour of chairing the biennial meeting of 36 energy ministers hosted by the International Energy Agency. The topic will be the world’s energy future, and the contents are likely to be surprising — so much so that Ferguson may have cause to consider if Australia is well prepared for the energy revolution ahead.Since its establishment in the 1970s, after the oil price shock, the IEA’s principal mandate has been around the protection of oil supplies, and its forecasts for the world’s long-term energy mix were viewed — particularly by those pushing renewables — with some suspicion. Continue reading
Carbon tax plan helped attract world’s largest solar maker to Australia
World’s largest solar maker opens office in Australia Radio Australia September 17, 2011 The world’s largest maker of solar panels says Australia’s carbon tax is one of the factors that has attracted it to the country.
The US-based First Solar opened its doors in Australia this month, planning to be a major supplier of solar panels for large-scale power projects. The company says costs of panels are coming down quickly but government incentives will be necessary for another five years….. SNOWDON: If the forecasts are right, solar energy will deliver half the world’s electricity production within fifty years. Australia’s target is 20 per cent renewable energy by 2020, a policy that encouraged the world’s biggest solar panel maker to open a sales and engineering office in Sydney a week ago. And the carbon tax while not essential, helped….
Government incentives he says will be necessary for another five years, after which the industry should be established…..
Solar energy lacks national plan, Australian govt slow to help
The Australian solar industry is battling to ensure that government support for large-scale development holds up, following a string of setbacks for a rooftop solar sector that has seen subsidies withdrawn or reduced across the nation…..
Australia needs national plan for large solar, says industry, Recharge 13 Sept 11, Australia risks missing its potential in large-scale solar without a stable policy and planning regime to underpin a steady pipeline of projects, the country’s renewables industry association has warned.
Launching its Large-scale Solar Policy Roadmap, Australia’s Clean Energy Council (CEC) calls on the country’s policy-makers to capitalise on the interest the federal government’s A$1.5bn ($1.6bn) Solar Flagships programme has generated among international investors. Continue reading
As solar energy costs fall, Australia needs to act fast developing solar expertise
the potential role of solar is quite impressive. It could be a trillion dollar market or more within a decade or two, and the world’s biggest energy technology companies are jostling for position. As Mark Twidell, from the Australian Solar Institute points out, solar is the only technology where costs are falling rapidly – most others are static or rising…..
Australian solar thinks big, Climate Spectator,Giles Parkinson, 9 Sept 11, More than 100 aspiring developers of large-scale solar plants will join financiers, policy makers and NGOs in Melbourne for yet another solar summit today – anxious to learn how they can stop meeting like this and actually go out and build stuff. Continue reading
Costs of solar energy in Australia dropping, competitive with coal
Australia, Solar Costs Actually Compete with Coal Calfinder (USA) 9 Sept 11, Solar energy. Solar panels. Solar affordability. We’ve talked about it a lot. And for good reason—solar energy is emerging more and more into the social consciousness as a great alternative for coal and other exhaustible energy. Places all around the world are finding that the cost of solar energy is dropping. Especially in Australia.
Solar power generated by photovoltaic cells has created such a drop in cost for solar energy in Australia that the energy source has become incredibly cheap. In fact, these cells produce power for as little money as coal-derived electricity.
To find out how much solar costs in your area, click here.
Such a drop in cost, says the Australian Photovoltaic Association, has allowed solar to finally rival coal. The idea is called grid parity, where the government itself has begun to rethink pricing models and availability of solar paneling.
That’s saying a lot. But these solar panels are doing a lot. Across the country, governments are abandoning the concept of paying people for the power that their solar cells generate.
Despite the controversial feed-in tariffs, blamed largely for the country’s rapid rise in electricity costs, solar panels are generating electricity so cheaply that the solar source has become competitive with coal—even without subsidies, according to Photovoltaic Association spokeswoman Dr. Muriel Watt…. http://solar.calfinder.com/blog/news/australia-solar-costs/comment-page-
Queensland’s solar tariff helps create $3.5 billion in new investment
Queensland’s tariff, which pays 45c per kWh, had helped thousands to access clean power…“[Queensland will avoid] going down the path of other states in collapsing their schemes and causing such dislocation amongst a somewhat new and still vulnerable part of the economy.”….Current policies to promote renewable energy in Queensland would create $3.5 billion in new investment and 3500 new jobs.
Solar cuts are ‘foolish’: Roberston – Narooma News, GRAHAM READFEARN, 06 Sep, 2011 Queensland Energy Minister Stephen Robertson has accused other state governments of being “foolish and shortsighted” for cutting payments to promote solar energy.Mr Robertson told the Ecogen renewable energy conference in Brisbane yesterday that recent decisions in Victoria and New South Wales to cut back payments for homeowners with solar power would damage the industry. Continue reading
Victoria’s Professor Maria Forsyth’s research team – developing solar storage
Can we store solar energy for when the sun doesn’t shine?, The Age, 30 Aug 11, A question for Professor Maria Forsyth”….one of Australia’s top researchers with an Australian Research Council Laureate Fellowship, Professor Forsyth and her research team are developing battery technologies and materials so industries can capture green energy and store it, too….
“..we’re looking at it more from a point of view of stationary applications — so any small industry that can generate its own power on-site, and has storage capacity and capability, doesn’t have to rely on the grid….
How soon could these materials be available?
I have a desire to see the first generation of these devices available within three years. In five to 10 years, we should be getting towards the high-quality end of these devices. But it does require industry involvement — worldwide, and especially in Australia.
Silex, a supposedly solar company deeply involved in the nuclear industry
progress hinges on a world-leading uranium processing method called laser enrichment.
The technology has been acquired by a heavy-hitting US consortium of nuclear companies, Global Laser Enrichment, which has completed a testing program.
(repeating this item, lest we forget Australia’s involvement – C.M.)
Heavy weather for nation’s solitary solar-panel maker, The Australian, TIM BOREHAM , July 18, 2011 AS the head of Australia’s only solar-panel maker, Silex Systems’ Michael Goldsworthy sticks to script and welcomes the pending carbon tax and accompanying billion-dollar renewable subsidy programs that will benefit companies such as Silex….. Continue reading
Nuclear energy a dead cat, as solar will take over
Is nuclear an option? It is difficult to see how the nuclear power industry will cope with falling solar prices and increased perceptions of risk following the Fukushima accident. Solar and wind power will soon put the nuclear power construction industry out of business.
Solar energy is vast, ubiquitous and indefinitely sustainable. There will never be a major solar accident, there’s minimal waste disposal issues, and we will never go to war over solar energy.
Solar will force coal and nuclear out of the energy business The Conversation, by Andrew Blakers, 18 August 2011, A solar energy revolution is brewing that will put the coal and nuclear industries out of business. Solar is already reaching price parity with coal in many parts of Australia. In contrast to coal and nuclear, solar is fully sustainable and safe. Solar is now an established industry that is growing very rapidly. Continue reading
Australia’s soldiers going solar
Super slim solar cell a success, The Age, Ben Cubby August 12, 2011 ‘A typical solar cell is about 0.2 millimetres thick, which is 200 micrometres thinner than a human hair or a sheet of paper, will soon be used by Australian soldiers on patrol in Afghanistan as a portable power source. The solar cells, invented by researchers at the Australian National University, can be used to cover helmets, tents or clothing and recharge electronic gear such as night vision goggles.
They also have extensive potential in civilian applications, including recharging phones and computers, because a square metre of lightweight solar panel can generate 140 watts of power and yet be rolled up into a ball afterwards. ‘A typical solar cell is about 0.2 millimetres thick, which is 200 micrometres – that’s too thick to bend, it would shatter,” the project’s chief investigator, Andrew Blakers, said. ”But these cells are about 45 microns thick, so they are flexible and also about the same efficiency as commercial solar cells. By comparison, really fine quality merino wool is about 18 microns thick.” In practice, many square metres of panel could be unfurled from a box about the same size as a wine cask http://www.theage.com.au/national/super-slim-solar-cell-a-success-20110811-1iot3.html
Sydney-siders go solar
Solar use in Sydney soars, SYDNEY, Aug. 8 (UPI) –– Beset by rising consumer energy prices, consumers in Sydney, Australia’s most populous city, are looking to solar energy. In 2010 the city introduced a solar bonus scheme, which was very popular in Sydney’s more prosperous suburbs, with more than 14 percent of homes installing rooftop solar panels, compared with a New South Wales statewide average of about 3 percent…..
the number of private dwellings with solar panels had increased from 2,000 18 months ago to 46,000 after the former New South Wales Labor government introduced a solar bonus rebate scheme.
That plan allowed for a 60-cents-per-kilowatt-hour feed-in tariff for consumers utilizing solar panels, The Sydney Morning Herald reported….
Bowing to increasing public interest in the issue, Ausgrid has begun publishing details of solar panel installations and other data on its Web site to allow councils, consumers and other interested parties to evaluate patterns of electricity usage…http://www.upi.com/Business_News/Energy-Resources/2011/08/08/Solar-use-in-Sydney-soars/UPI-88871312819223/?spt=hs&or=er
Victorian solar cell initiative
AUSTRALIA TO MANUFACTURE SOLAR CELLS WITH NEW PRINTING MACHINE, FEN, By Annie Dang on 1 August 2011 Producing solar cells with zero-emissions electricity will provide new manufacturing opportunities for local industries.
Australian solar researchers and industry have partnered to develop innovative ways of generating zero-emissions electricity using a printing machine to produce solar cells.
The $7.2 million project will see the development of a possible alternative solar cell technology compared with more conventional photovoltaic systems. It is expected that the products will provide Australia industries the opportunity to commercialise and produce the cells competitively. The Federal Government will contribute a $1.7 million grant through the Australian Solar Institute with the Victorian Government providing funding of equal amount.
Launched in Melbourne yesterday, Minister for Resources and Energy, Martin Ferguson AM MP said the project was aimed at developing efficient solar cells using organic materials and conventional printing methods.
The project will see researchers at the University of Melbourne, the CSIRO Future Manufacturing Flagship, and Monash University collaborate with industry partners BlueScope Steel, Innovia Films and Robert Bosch to take commercialese their printing machine innovation…. http://www.myfen.com.au/news/australia-to-manufacture-solar-cells-with-new-prin
Too much success for household solar power in Western Australia
WA solar rebate scheme too popular to continue, SMH, Courtney Trenwith, August 1, 2011, The WA government has axed one of the most successful household environmental programs – the solar panel rebate scheme – precisely because it was too popular.
No new applications will be accepted from today. More than 65,000 household solar panels have been installed since the scheme started in 2009…WA solar rebate scheme too popular to continue
Future for decentralised solar power in Australia
”grid parity” – when unsubsidised solar energy becomes cost-competitive with power from the electricity grid – is getting devilishly close as the cost of photovoltaics (PV) falls…..
”If you can spend $500 and get $700 to $800 back, there won’t be a person in Australia that would ignore that,” Newman says. ”The PV [photovoltaic] retailers will be all over them, and the smart energy retailers will of course step into the game.” It might not be the cheapest form of abatement available to the economy but it’s money in the bank for the punter.
Future lies in power to (and from) the people, Sydney Morning Herald,Paddy Manning, July 30, 2011 It’s hard to tell whether the glass is half full or half empty for Australia’s solar industry right now…….. Continue reading
1 This month
of the week – Disrupting War & Militarism in Oceania. Active solidarity. Radical practice.
Antinuclear 